Home  -  Back Issues  -  The Team  -  Contact Us
     Volume 4 Issue 51 | June 17, 2005 |


   Letters
   Voicebox
   Chintito
   Cover Story
   News Notes
   Reflections
   Musings
   Food For Thought
   Perceptions
   Time Out
   Endeavour
   In Retrospect
   Fiction
   Perspective
   Education
   Sci-tech
   Jokes
   Dhaka Diary
   Health
   Book Review
   Books
   New Flicks
   Trivia

   SWM Home


 

Trivia

How Much Do You Know About Religion?

1.The Copts are an often forgotten group of Christians. What country do they originally relate to?
*Ethiopia
*Lebanon
*Syria
*Egypt
2.Masada is the name of a mountain fortress in the Negev desert which was defended by 1,000 Jews against 15,000 Romans. Ultimately when they realised their situation became desperate, they preferred to slaughter each other rather than to fall into the hands of their enemy. What Jewish sect did most of them belong to?
*Ebionites
*Essenes
*Zealots
*Sadducees
3.In the representation of the Buddhist Wheel of Life , the Rooster symbolizes Passion, the Snake Hatred. What does the Pig represent?
*Stupidity
*Avarice
*Lechery
*Gluttony
4.In what part of the world did Mani (born 216 AD) originally develop his Manicheist theories?
*Syria
*China
*Persia
*India
5.Which of these groups tends to avoid bowing to people in authority when this could be interpreted as showing respect to their function, rather than to the spiritual potential that is in all humans?
*Catholic nuns
*Buddhist monks
*Mennonites
*Witnesses of Jehovah
6.Which of these countries has traditionally been considered to be the 'Queen of Sheba''s homeland - though there is at least one rivalling theory that it was Yemen in South-Arabia?
*Kenya
*Sudan
*Ethiopia
*Egypt
7.Who was the last ruler to officially inherit the solemn, Biblical-sounding title 'Lion of Judah'?
*Mussolini
*Haile Selassie
*Ben Gurion
*King Solomon
8.What Catholic religious order had its origin in the foundation of the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy?
*The Premonstratenzians
*Ordo Fratrum Minorum or Friars Minor
*The Cistercians
*Ordo Sancti Benedicti or the Order of the Benedictines
9.For which religion was the Millennium Year AD 2000 their 1421AH?
*Judaism
*Hinduism
*Buddhism
*Islam
10.Who is this prayer from: 'Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not just now' ?
*St Jerome
*Erasmus
*St. Augustine
*Thomas More

Answers

1.Egypt
Copt derives from Aegyptus, in Arab Qupt.They considered themselves to be the true descendants of the ancient Egyptians. There was a group of Copts in Ethiopia too, but they don't any longer want to be considered part of the Coptic community. There also was a Kingdom of the Coptic Church of which the capital was Aksum. That town is now in Ethiopia. The Coptic Church started its history and had the larger number of its followers in Egypt however, not in any of the other Middle East countries where it always has had small minority groups up till today.
2.Zealots
The story is situated in 66 AD. The fortress of Massada had been built by Herod between 37 and 31 BC. Its details are to be found with the Romanised Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
3.Stupidity
In the very centre of the wheel there is a rooster chasing a pig chasing a snake chasing the rooster.
4.Persia
Manicheism sees Creation as a battle between the two independent forces of good and evil, evil not being subjected to any superior power. It can be seen as a form of Gnosticism. Mani lived from 216 till 276. He was born in the province of Babylon, which was under Persian rule. His family was Persian, but his name is Aramaic. In the course of his life he got into conflict with the dominant Zoroastrian priests in Persia and was put to death. His death was compared to that of Christ's.
5.Buddhist monks
The principle being that Buddhists should always focus on the spiritual rather than on the temporal and worldly. Catholics and Christians are supposed to give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, as the Gospel puts it.
6.Ethiopia
There is a rivalling theory that she may have lived in Yemen.
7.Haile Selassie
In the Abyssinian War, Mussolini was after the territory of what is now Ethiopia, which he wanted to make an Italian colony.
8.Ordo Sancti Benedicti or the Order of the Benedictines
St. Benedict of Subiaco came here in the sixth century after Christ. The Premonstratenzians are also known as the Norbertines. The Cistercians are also known as the Trappists. The Friars Minor were of course founded by St. Francis.
9.Islam
H means 'since the Hegira' or the Flight of Mohammed to Medina -- 622 AD.On 16 July of that year (Julian calendar!) AH1 started? AH stands for Anno Hegirae, year of the Hijra. In the year AD 2003 we have witnessed the start of Islamic year AH 1424.
10.St Augustine
In his younger years St Augustine was a bit of a brat. St Jerome was a much more sombre man. Erasmus was not really a saint and prayers are not what he bequeathed to the world. Thomas More had a few original prayers, e.g. a prayer in which he asks to be enlightened as to what IS to be done, and also to be enlightened as to what CAN be done, and especially to be given the wisdom to distinguish between the two.

 

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2005