Religious Studies Final Exam true/false

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