Big Ideas

The Golden Rule, urging people to treat others as they wish to be treated, appears across nearly every major ethical tradition.

The Five Pillars of Islam set out core duties including faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage.

The Ten Commandments, central to Judaism and Christianity, are said to have been given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Dharma, the concept of duty and cosmic law, guides ethical conduct across Hindu and Buddhist tradition.

The Four Noble Truths, describing suffering and its end, form the foundation of Buddhist teaching.

Stoicism, emphasizing virtue and acceptance, was practiced by figures including Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Kant's categorical imperative judges an action's morality by whether its rule could apply to everyone universally.

Yin and yang describe complementary opposites in Chinese philosophy, shown in a circular interlocking symbol.

Original sin, a Christian doctrine of inherited sinfulness, is traced theologically to Adam and Eve's story.

Creation myths, found in nearly every culture, often describe a deity shaping order out of primal chaos.

Flood myths appear across cultures, notably in both the biblical Noah story and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Monotheism, belief in a single god, defines Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in contrast to polytheistic faiths.

Polytheism, belief in many gods, was common to most ancient civilizations before monotheistic faiths spread.

Pantheism holds that the divine and the universe are one, rejecting a god separate from nature.

The Trinity, a core Christian doctrine, describes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one God in three persons.

The Tao represents the natural order of the universe in Chinese philosophy and is said to defy full description in words.

Karma, central to Hindu and Buddhist thought, holds that actions produce consequences tied to the cycle of rebirth.

Reincarnation, the belief that the soul returns in a new body, shapes how several major religions view death.

Nirvana, the Buddhist state of liberation from suffering and rebirth, is considered the ultimate goal of practice.

The underworld, a realm of the dead imagined beneath the earth, appears across mythologies worldwide.

The soul, an immaterial essence distinct from the body, is central to nearly every tradition's view of death.

Belief in an afterlife appears in nearly every religion, though its imagined form varies widely.

The debate over fate versus free will runs through Greek tragedy and remains central to philosophy.

Utopia, describing an ideal society, was coined by Thomas More from Greek words meaning no place.

Existentialism, emphasizing self-created meaning, is associated with 20th-century thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre.

The social contract theory, developed by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, ties legitimate government to the people's consent.

Nihilism, holding that life lacks inherent meaning, is often associated with the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.