| Western | Eastern |
|---|---|
| Christianity, Judaism, and Islam | Buddhism, Hinduism |
| Ultimate Reality: a personal God, the creator of all things. | Ultimate Reality: an absolute state of being. |
| Monotheism | Polytheism |
|---|---|
| monos = only one God | |
| • unique; absolute; personal being | |
| • ultimate ground of everything | poly = many gods |
| • in charge of different aspects | |
| Judaism/ Christianity/ Islam | Hinduism/ Mahayana/ Taoism/ Shintoism |
| majority | |
|---|---|
| Sacred Scripture’s testimony | |
| • Catholic: revealed religion | |
| • God reveals his oneness | Logical |
| • dualism of life: mixture of good and evil | |
| • many religion | |
| • God: omnipotent | |
| • polytheism → one god limit of another | |
| → imperfect/ not infinite → x God | • Monotheism: powerful/ obvious God |
| → unable to doubt → x evidence | |
| → can end evil and suffering |
→ reject mono and polytheism