Life After School

Up to this point I am still unsure on my future as a student, I have no clue on what to study. The main problem is that I want to be so sure on what I want to study that I have no regrets afterwards and I don't have to change my major after I have studied for say 2 years. That would be a waste of time.

I have been researching on different careers but none seem the right one for me. When I visualize myself studying or working in any specific career, I feel awkward and it feels just not right. This issue of not having a plan and not knowing what to study doesn't let me think much farther than university and college. At the beginning of this year, my senior year, I was relaxed about all of this but now that time is running short I am really worried.

After deciding what to study and focusing on a career I plan to apply to a university in the USA most likely. I would do my major over there and afterwards I am probably going to Germany to do a Master's degree and then open up my chances to study further or get a job that I find adequate.

After working for some years I would like to open up my own business and apply my acquired knowledge during my studying period to manage it and gradually if possible expand it and grow, all of this of course has to be if the circumstances are right and if it is possible. It is really hard to plan ahead so long from now, you never know what chances an doors will open for you and which ones will be slammed in your face.

Hopefully everything goes right, that is what scares me the most the fact that I don't know what is going to happen in the future and the fact that I don't know if I 'm going to be successful.

What are the main Belief Systems?

As time passes, new belief systems surge from others, new types of religion are created and people are challenging their beliefs more and more. In this blog I will try to make an analysis on the following four main belief systems:

Christianity
Judaism
Buddhism
Islam

Years ago people had a tendency to be more religious as the world was more of a mystery to them than it is to us today. The ignorance as to say, created the need to find an answer. Different groups of people started believing in something supernatural, different deities. It was the only way they could understand how the sun moved across the sky, why it rained, and so on. As time went on answers to many of this amazing natural mysteries were discovered. A clear example is that native tribes in the Americas, the Egyptians, the Romans and the Greeks were all polytheists as they believed in a separate god for everything. Now a days, Polytheism is not part of almost any main belief system. The world has been changing and not only a religion is what drives most people, but any belief system. It that can be any actual set of precepts from which you live your daily life, those which govern your thoughts, words, and actions; the beliefs that make you who you are that drives you.

In the following blog posts I will identify the main belief systems and discuss about them as well as any counter-belief systems and reasons for this as a general influencing subject on life and the communities we live in.

The Relation between the three Abrahamic religions

Of the four main belief systems to be analyzed, three of them are Abrahamic religions. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. These three have some type of relation as they are all monotheistic and include Abraham in their history as well as Adam, Noah and Moses. These three religions have many similarities as well, partly because Christianity derived from Judaism and the fact that they all have some common aspects as they share the same roots.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are Monotheistic religions, meaning they believe in one supreme being. They all have a prophetic tradition, that includes figures called prophets but their interpretation of the prophetic role varies a bit from one another. They have Semitic origins mainly referred to the Jewish and Arab origins. Their bases are around a divine revelation rather than philosophical speculation like Buddhism. The three religions propose an ethical orientation referring to good and evil. They also have a linear history, eschatology, beginning with Creation and then God's work through history. The three religions follow a different yet similar holy book (Torah (Hebrew Bible)-Jews, Bible-Christians, Quran-Muslims) with religious writings, scriptures and prophecies but mostly what they call revelations. They also share the same basic eschatology that includes God redeeming the world and a resurrection of the righteous.

In my opinion, it is very important to understand these relationships as it helps us understand more about the reason for the many religions in existence today. We see that different religions are not always totally contradictory or different but in essence amazingly similar. This will also help us understand the main belief systems in a more profound way.

What are the main Belief Systems? - Christianity and Judaism

Christianity and Judaism are two belief systems that are closely related to each other due to the fact that both are Abrahamic religions. Most of all because Christianity has a Jewish origin and background. Not long after its appearance as a Jewish sect around the first century, Christianity became a separate religion convened by apostles. The main difference and consequently the reason for Christianity compared to Judaism is that of Jesus Christ's role. Christians believe that Jesus is God's son and messenger as well as the world's savior while in Judaism, Jesus is merely seen as the false Messiah and a false prophet. In Judaism, people believe in Unity, that is one substance and one entity, while Christians believe in the Holy Trinity, one substance but conveyed by three entities. Although there are these significant differences, both religions believe in the same ultimate reality that of Jehovah, or the God of Abraham. Actually the Christian's old testament is composed by the Jewish bible, but the new testament is insignificant to Jews and the root of Christianity's separation from Judaism. There are quite substantial differences, this division of opinion led to the creation of Christianity from Judaism, and since then the two have grown significantly and separately but still have a relatively close relationship.

About 2 billion people are Christians and only about 14 million people are Jewish that is of course of the world's population. Due to circumstances Christianity is now the largest religion while Judaism is the 12th largest. Christianity has grown and spread much more than Judaism and has become a true world power, people with faith are subject to the religion. This is one of the reasons why religion has been the cause of so many wars and conflict including the crusades, religious revolutions and conflicts or wars. We will discuss this later on in the blog.

In this blogspot I have only highlighted the main differences between Christianity and Judaism, not explained them thoroughly. If you want more details on specifically Christianity please click here and you will be guided from Christianity's principles to its history and much more.
If you would prefer to learn more about Judaism instead please click here and you will be sent to a crash course on Judaism.

What are the main Belief Systems? - Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic religion, it started on the seventh century and is based on Islam's holy book, the Qur'an written by Muhammad, the last prophet for the Islamic relgion, and his companions during a series of revelations from Allah to Muhammad himself. In Muslim eyes, Muhammad is only a restorer of an already existent monotheistic faith preached by Moses, Abraham, Jesus and other prophets.

Islam is currently the second largest religion with about 1 billion to 1.8 billion Islam believers.

Islam has two main branches, the Sunni and the Shi'a. Both are quite similar and require adherents to follow and observe the five pillars of Islam, which are practices essential for Sunni Islams and for the Shi'a there are eight rituals that overlap with these.

"He who submits to God" is the literal meaning of the word Muslim. They believe in Jesus as a mere prophet, and not as God's son. They see Judaism and Christianity as religions were the prophecies and revelations were distorted or misinterpreted by people during history and nothing else.


Islam is basically based on a few articles of faith. The main theological concept in Islam is Tawhid, the recognition that there is only one God. The Qur'an is the literal word of God, it is the central religious text by which Islam is denoted. In Islam the faith in angels is crucial, angels in Arabic translates to messenger; they convey the word of God and aid God in any way, that's their role. The belief in "the Day of Resurrection" is also vital for Islam, actually they believe that the judgment day is to come, and is accurately described in one of the Qur'an's passages. In the Islamic religion, life is predestined by God, God knows exactly what will happen and when.
This belief comes as part of the religion.

The Islamic religion has also grown significantly, it forms the belief system of many people and it is a very serious religion when speaking about norms and normal social, spiritual rules. A lot is expected by Muslims, as the religious laws are never to be broken. We will later go through conflicts and religious wars in which Islam was involved in, such as the Islamic civil war and the 1979 Iranian revolution.

What are the main belief systems? - Buddhism

Buddhism is a rather different religion, it's not like any of the religions we have gone through, for a start it is not an Abrahamic religion, it is a Dharmic religion meaning it has an Indian origin and it has a philosophical tendency rather than a blind faith one. (The word Dharma from where Dharmic comes from means natural law or reality.) Buddha himself believed in gods but he did not base his teachings on these but on the explanation of suffering and ways of attaining freedom from it. This is why it is said that Buddhism is non-theistic.

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion while Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are monotheistic. In Buddhism, there is no belief in a specific god, instead it is based more on trying to understand the ultimate truth. Buddhism started at around the fifth century BCE and it is based on teachings of Guatama Siddhattha also known as Buddha. He was son to a king and was born in Lumbini, Nepal; he was predestined by a wise man to be either a great king or a holy man depending if he ever got to see life outside his palace. At the age of 13, he realized he was unhappy with his life and had 4 visits outside his palace. This is when he came across the "four sights" and realized that life was not as he had seen it, there was a lot of suffering and poverty. He continued to live in his palace with a very troubled thought and intermittent depression. At the age of 29 he decided to leave his palace, wife and son in order to seek an end to suffering. For many years he meditated and tried different methods to end his depression and discover the ultimate truth. At the age of 35 after having meditated for 6 years, he sat down under a tree and decided to meditate until he was fully enlightened. Here he attained Bodhi or awakening and discovered the four noble truths thus the secret to complete internal peace and happiness. In order to get to Nirvana (the perfect peace of mind free from craving, anger and other afflictive states.) he taught the eight-fold noble path to enlightenment.

-Right understanding
-Right thoughts
-Right Speech
-Right conduct
-Right livelihood
-Right effort-Right mindfulness
-Right concentration

For more detail on the eight-fold path click here.

Buddhism as any other religion has developed many branches. Including two main branches Mahayana and Theravada. Buddhism is mostly concentrated in Asia although Buddhism is now followed in many other places as well. There are about 350 million followers situating Buddhism as the fourth largest religion behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.

What are the main Belief Systems? - Hinduism

After having discussed Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism; I thought it would be good to mention the third largest religion which happens to be another Dharmic religion: Hinduism.
Buddhism is to Hinduism as Christianity is to Judaism. They both derive from the other and are now completely separate religions within the same school as to say.

Hinduism is a religious tradition probably the oldest one that is currently active. It originated in the Indian subcontinent its name in Indian means "Eternal Law". Hinduism has about a billion followers but is an extremely diverse religion. Hinduism has five main themes by which it goes by.

Dharma (ethics and duties)
Samsara (Continuous cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth)
Karma (action and subsequent reaction)
Moksha (liberation from Samsara)
Yogas (Paths and practices)

Hindusim is generalized as henotheistic religion meaning believing in one god but accepting existence of others, but beliefs span from atheist to polytheist. The Hindu religion proposes that life has goals, four main ones.

1. kāma: Sensual pleasure and enjoyment
2. Artha: Material prosperity and success
3. Dharma: Correct action, in accordance with one's particular duty and scriptural laws
4. Moksha: Liberation from the cycle of samsara

Hinduism has many scriptures the main ones are Shruti and Smriti and have been passed on orally for many centuries before being written down. Hindusim is a very interesting religion and extremely extent, I have barely taken an overview of what Hinduism is.

For more detailed information about Hinduism please click here.