The other thing this book will not do is list and rate the numerous religions and schools of philosophy. Consequently, you will learn nothing about rat worshippers of Eastern Malaysia, Mongolian shamans who believe that the life is really a cosmic game of Jeapordy, or American political talk show hosts who believe that ethics are character defects. Instead, you will get an intoduction to the concepts which, in one form or another, are of concern to all religions and the structures that form philosophy. This book has three basic sections. The first concerns religion.
Religion comes first for historical reasons.
Religious movements built the largest buildings the earliest. Philosophy is next. Once the buildings got built, the philosophers moved in. Ethics is the final section, because, since the beginning, ethics has ridden the coat tail of both philosophy and religion. It is like a little dog that tags along, so I let it tag along at the end.