Introduction to Religions

Introduction to Religions is a short workshop session aimed to give participants basic awareness and understanding of the ten religions recognized under the Inter-Religious Organisation (Singapore). The ten religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and the Bahá'í Faith.

The workshop provides basic and on-the-surface information on the ten religions covering topics like the origin, scripture(s), symbols, moral and ethical teachings, do’s and don’t’s, festivals, and rites and rituals.

The workshop is organised by OnePeople.sg, in close partnership with the Inter-Religious Organisation (Singapore).

From the positive feedbacks given by the participants from the pilot who were eager to know more about each of the religions, this programme is now done in a 2 part series instead.

For the second session of this programme which was held on Saturday, 8th October 2011, the participants were lucky to have religious representative from Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism to give a short presentation on their respective religions.

The programme was well received with participation made up of representative from various religious institutions, the grassroots, educators as well as the general public who were interested to find out more about the religion presented.

The presentation was then followed by a short dialogue where the participants were given the opportunity to ask any related questions or doubts they may have on the religions which were presented.

From the positive feedback collated, participants stated that they learnt a lot from the course especially on religions which were not well known such Zoroastrianism and Jainism. They are now more aware of certain do, don’t and misconceptions of the various religions presented and will definitely encourage others to attend to be aware and know more of the religious landscape in Singapore.

The following are the religious representative/ speakers from the programme on Saturday, 8 Oct 2011:

Jainism
Mr. Ashvin Desai- Representative, Singapore Jain Religious Society
Council member, Inter-Religious Organisations Singapore

Sikhism
Mr. Harbans Singh- Council member, Inter-Religious Organisations Singapore

Buddhism
Mr. Shen Shi’an- Founder & Editor, TheDailyEnlightenment.com

Zoroastrianism
Mr. Russi M Ghadiali- Vice- President, The Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Singapore
Council Member, Inter-Religious Organisations Singapore

Hinduism
Dr. Ramasamy Karunanithy- Ex-President, Sri Ruthra Kaliamman Temple
Vice- Chairman, Telok Blangah IRCC