The Egyptian maidservant Hagar is the mother of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible, but the mother of Ishmael in the Quran.
False
An altar was literally a table for feeding the gods.
True
Both of the words Quran and Tanakh refer to the act of recitation.
False
The vedas may be divided into "sruti" that which is heard and "smirti" that which is remembered.
False (these are Hindu epics)
The purpose of the first church council in Jerusalem was to resolve whether Gentiles needed to conform to Jewish practices.
True
During the Hindu festival of Diwali, people often reverse roles of age and gender.
False
Islam follows a lunar calendar, which drifts forward by roughly eleven days each year.
False
The divine name "Allah" means "the God," having the same etymology as one of the words for God in the Hebrew Bible.
True
An amulet is worn to enhance one's fortune, whereas a talisman is protective to prevent harm.
False (these are switched)
The ethnic designation "Jew" was introduced when the Israelites returned from exile to their homeland in the Persian province of Yehud.
True
Festivals of the dead have been suggested as a ritualistic remembrance of the primordial deluge.
True
The "bindi" represents the so-called "third eye" and was a means of worshipping the intellect.
True
In the ancient world, the divine assembly or divine council was thought to handle major decisions among the gods.
True
According to Smith, Muhammad is "the Seal of the Prophets" because he is considered to be the last, the culmination, of all the prophets of God.
True
The garden of eden was constructed for people in order that they might dwell in paradise like the gods.
False
The difference between animism and pantheism is that under animism, everything shares the same spiritual essence.
False
The New Testament Gospels were originally written anonymously, with names being given to them later for identification purposes.
True
Ancient temples were patterned after the divine abode, a micro-scale version of the cosmos in which the deity moved.
True
The Quran permits compulsion in religion, but forbids the act of suicide.
False
Islam shares with Christianity the notion of "original sin" due to the Fall of Adam and Eve
False
The Arabic word for Islamic Law is "shariah
False
In the story of Solomon's wisdom, the women are identified as harlots in order to explain the king's intent to slay the child.
False
The Hindu tradition contains a plethora of creation accounts, including a very modern perspective that boldly asserts we cannot know what actually happened.
True
Child sacrifice is ignored in biblical law, although it was expressly forbidden by the prophets.
False
The goddess Kali and the lotus flower are analogues for the reality or world in which we live.
True
The narrative of the Torah provides the rationale for the inclusion of the laws, justifying God's claim to Israel's subservience as an obligatory debt of gratitude.
True
There is no traditional coming-of-age ritual placed in Islam.
True
The Hindu text "That Art Thou" teaches the reader through the eyes of a child that the atman, or soul, is one with Brahman, the Absolute.
True
The baptist denomination observes confirmation rather than infant baptism, because baptism requires a profession of faith.
False
According to Smith, Christianity's three most distinctive tenets are the resurrection, the atonement, and the Trinity.
False
The Islamic crescent and the Christian cross are two examples of presentational symbols.
False
Performance of bar/bat mitzvah is limited to Orthodox Judaism because it requires studying from both the biblical Torah and the Talmud.
False
The greek conception of the demiurge represents a more developed approach to cosmogony.
False
The Buddhist practice of sky burial involves vultures consuming the corpse.
True
The practice of praying four times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam.
False
The creation of the Japanese islands is told in the myth of Izanagi and Izanami.
True
The Hindu practice of "puja" often utilizes a physical object which serves as the focal point for establishing a spiritual conception to the divine.
True
The earliest split in Buddhism occurred when the Hinayana "small raft" group split off from the more traditional Theravada "big raft" group.
False
The Hebrew word Pesach is typically translated as passover, but may arguably relate better to guarding or protecting.
True
The major religious split in Islam between Sunni and Shia occurred at the time of Muhammad's death, over a dispute as to whom should be his rightful successor.
True