Humanities short answers

questions are arranged per week, some week had 2 assignments to be done, i would like you to choose any 6 out of 8 pdf assignments. it should be in simple english and doesnt have to be right answer , the professor just wants me to show that i read the book . the answers to the questions are in the book. the 6 assignments of class have to be done in 5-7 pages required book will be attached too.

Is "religion" passe'?
By Douglas Todd 08-29-2009 Vancouver Sun
'Many people are already aware of the difference between spirituality and religion. They realize that having a belief system -- a set of thoughts that you regard as the absolute truth -- does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those beliefs is." That's the influential opinion of one of the world's most famous living spiritual teachers. Vancouver-based Eckhart Tolle, promoted by Oprah Winfrey, has sold millions of copies of his books, including The Power of Now.
His repeated message is "religion" is bad (oppressive) and "spirituality" is good (liberating). As Tolle writes in his latest mega-seller, A New Earth: Awakening to Life's Purpose, religious people are convinced "unless you believe exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would have felt justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now." Tolle is promoting what is fast becoming conventional wisdom in the western world: "Religion" is institutional, almost always authoritarian. "Religion" is equated with the Crusades, terrorism and judgmental U.S. televangelists. "Religion"in the mind of Tolle -and those who read his books in more than 30 languages-, is rigid and divisive and absolutistic.
This same anti-religion message is being advanced by spiritual authors such as Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling Conversations with God, and a host of other New Age teachers. To them "religion" is "fundamentalism."
In contrast, Tolle prefers the term "spiritual," which he describes as "the transformation of consciousness" -- to a state of "awakening." In line with Tolle, many people in Canada, perhaps even most, now find it necessary to tell anyone who cares to listen: "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." The conviction that "religion" is essentially evil is now so pervasive in our culture that I am having even observant evangelical Christians, Jews and Muslims also tell me: "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual."
How did western society get to this point, where religion has become a dirty word? Much of it has to do with shifting definitions. What, after all, is "spiritual?" What is "religious?" Unless these important words are defined, people can spend a lot of time going round in conversational circles. Let's start with "religion."
The Oxford Dictionary defines "religion" as "the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, esp. a personal God or gods." Oxford adds that religion is "a particular system of faith and worship." Most interesting is that the Latin root of "religion" is "to bind together."

THINK WORLD RELIGIONS

Your God
is the one God: there is no god except Him, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy" (Haleem, trans., Sura 2: 163). If you remember no other words about Islam, it should be these. God's unity, God's uniqueness, God's mercy and judgment: these themes fortify Islam. As you read this chapter, also remember two more words: islam and imam. The first one doesn't just refer to the name of the religion; it means "submission" and has the same root as the Arabic word for "peace." The second word means "faith." Together, they refer to Islam's three crucial teachings:
1.    Realize that there is only one God who creates everything.
2.    Accept that Muhammad was God's last and greatest prophet.
3.    Live with complete submission and faith in God.
That wasn't so hard, was it? Yet, like all the traditions we have studied in THINK World Religions, Islam has taken this simple structure and developed rich practices to help human beings follow the three steps outlined here. In Chapters 13 and 14, we'll investigate how Muslims' views of God, people, and community
have developed and spread across much of the world. In addition, we'll focus on the ways that Muslims agree and disagree with the other "peoples of the Book": Christians and Jews.
Living together has proven to be a challenge for much of Jewish-Christian-Islamic history. I think back to Chapter 2, when we considered how much harder it was to get along with people similar to us than with people who had very different backgrounds. It seems like followers of the three great monotheistic religions should get along pretty well because they share many beliefs and practices. In fact, often they do get along—the end of the Ramadan fast brings out a good many non-Muslims to my university's dining hall, and no Christian or Jew seems to mind when the Muslim Students Association has Friday prayers in a college lounge. But say the following words to different people, and you'll probably get some heated responses: crusade, jihad, Taliban, Zion, Jerusalem. It's clear that similarity breeds interaction, but sometimes it highlights tensions as well.