The meaning of pluralism as it is used in this context and your thoughts about it (agree or

disagree and why?) In addition, include in your paper a brief account of the beginning of two

faith communities listed in the article.

According to the article, pluralism can be defined the state of being where every

individual in a religiously diverse society has the rights, freedoms, and safety to worship, or not,

according to their conscience. The article also breaks down what pluralism isn’t such as: it’s not

just tolerance, not diversity alone, not relativism, and not based on dialogue. Pluralism basically

allows freewill for everyone. With freewill any individual can worship as they please among

others that have different religions. Pluralism, allows the individual to have an understanding of

other religions not just tolerating it but having an understanding of other religions allows our

society to not be ignorant to the culture or religion. I agree with the project of pluralism because

we do have free will as individuals and obtaining and understanding of other religions will help

us understand our diverse society.

Buddhism, begin in 5th century BCE, a prince of India named Siddhartha Gautama. After

leaving his throne on a journey of mediation he gained much insight and became known as the

Buddha, meaning the “Enlightened One” or the “Awakened One." The Buddhism traditions are:

the Theravada tradition of South and Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand,

Cambodia, and Laos; and the Mahayana tradition of China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of the ancient Persian

prophet Zarathushtra. Zora is known as the Good Religion, that teaches basic moral dualism—a

conflict between good and evil in which human beings have both the freedom to choose and the

responsibility to bear the consequences of their choices according to the article.