...study published in USA Today states that, quite simply, “Americans are losing their religion.” Some people might take this as a warning to humanity that something must be done or we will all spiral into Hell. Yet, when one takes the time to seriously look at our world’s history, it becomes obvious that religion has a direct correlation to some of the most awful things humanity has witnessed. Being that religion is purely man made, it therefore suffers from man’s inability to be perfect. Morality is an individually centered ideology, and by attempting to hold people to a staunch set of beliefs based on imaginary things results in hypocrisy. This hypocrisy can range from an individual being a hypocrite to an enormous hierarchy. Human beings are capable of being good without a god and religion based on the fact that the existence of god and religious stories have no basis in fact. In god is not Great, Christopher Hitchens writes that “religion has caused innumerable people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow” (Hitchens 6). Christianity specifically has been at the root of much of the evil that has occurred in our world. As Neitzsche states “People erect a concept of morality, of virtue, of holiness upon this false view of all things; they ground good conscience upon faulty vision” (Nietzsche 9). From the crusades perpetrated by the...
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...“Good and Evil in Religion” Week 10 Assignment 1: World View Chart Writing Assignment REL212-World Religion V Ware Monday September 8, 2014 As we study the world religion, we can review many different concepts of each of them. We can look and compare the concept of human nature, salvation, views of after life if any, varies practices and rituals, even the celebration and festivals. One thing that I noticed over the last ten (10) weeks of studying religion is that every religion as a view towards Good and Evil. The views may not be exact but there are some form of concept with good and evil in them all. We studied in details approximately eleven (11) different religions over the course of this class. Of the total religions, we found that only one of them had a witchcraft and healing view towards good and evil. This was the study of Indigenous people. The Indigenous people have a timeline of before 2000 BCE and ancient ways passed down and adapted over millennia. (Fisher, 2014) There were three (3) religions which believed in the concept of Karma. Jainism and Hinduism had a view of Karma which means actions, and also the consequences of actions. It states that every act we make, even thought, desire will shape our future. (Fisher, 2014) However Buddhism believes in Karma which is defined slightly different because “it is the action of body, speech, and mind impressions of our virtuous and non virtuous action which experiences moment by moment...
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..."Religions such as Judaism and Christianity are portrayed fairly and sensitively in the media." Do you agree? Religion is a very important thing in the media. The media can manipulate and stereotype as much as they want and people won't know about it. The media can put their point across and not say anything about the other arguments involved. They have one view however, this is not necessarily the right view. In this essay, I am going to view both arguments and then conclude with my opinion and the argument that I agree with. In the media, there are a lot of programmes such as Family Guy, Citizen Khan, The Simpsons and Father Ted where there are jokes about religion. I feel that most of these jokes are funny however, I think that some of the jokes aren't funny and that they could offend some people of that religion. I think that this quote, 'Offending the minority to entertain the majority' explains what the media thinks. But is it right to do this? What if the 'minority' was the whole religion? How would we know? I don't agree with this quote. This is because we don't know how big the 'minority' is. It could only be a few people but it also could be the whole religion it was directed at. People take things in different ways. How would the media know how many people it was going to offend? There can be lots of damage done by stereotyping/ joking about a religion as it is a subject that many people feel strongly about. It is something people follow for their whole lives...
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...The Hindu religion is very different than what we have always considered a religion. In reality it is a group of several smaller religions, or beliefs, that are all comprised of the same basis. Most see that there is a uniformity of behavior and not belief. Hinduism, in a general speaking though, is the belief in either several Gods and Goddesses, or the belief in one god that has many different faces. The gods would choose whether you were a good soul or bad soul, and your fate depended upon their choice and your deeds. Those that lived there lives with good karma were able to be liberated from the circle of birth, and given redemption, or Moksha meaning freedom. Those who had bad karma though, were to be punished for their sins by being forced to live in this world and be born again and again (Pecorino & Romano 2001). As said, Hinduism is a religion with various Gods and Goddesses. The three main Gods that are considered to rule the world are, Brahma: the creator, Vishnu: the preserver, and Shiva: the destroyer. For some, they believe that one God controls all three characters. Some people outside the Hindu religion do not believe it is a true religion. Some say that since it does not have one single unified structure that it cannot be. One who felt very strongly about this was Chief justice P.B. Gajendragadkar. In 1995 he was quoted: "When we think of the Hindu religion, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it...
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...faith are the rules of being in that religion. Cultural systems includes places of worship to their Gods and different branches of religion that belongs to religion. The Scriptures text from the Islam Qu’ran and Christian Bible includes beliefs and what happens to a person when they die if the are a follower of a religion. Islam and Christianity have similar commitments to their God. Islam commitments to their god is doing the Five Pillars of Faith. The Five Pillars of Faith for the Islam culture means following five rules which is: Acknowledgement that “there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.” The Islamic religion must pray five times a day facing “Mecca: at dawn, at noon, in the...
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...HUM/130 Final: World Religions Report HUM 130 October 16, 2011 HUM/130 Final: World Religions Report The Hindu religion is one of the oldest in the world. With his or her colorful celebrations and traditions the Hindu religion is very intricate. The Hindu religion believes in more Gods than anyone can ever get a true count of. The three main God’s Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are worshipped by all Hindus. During my research of the Hindu religion I learned that I knew very little about this elaborate religion. With the large amount of Gods, traditions, celebrations, beliefs, and stories it is so much to take in. Just learning the basics has opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. So many religions are based on the same principals. It is possible that all religion started with creation and the Old Testament. The three main Gods of the Hindu religion are worshipped by all Hindus. Brahma (the Creator) creates and writes a person’s destiny. When a person dies he or she goes to heaven and meet Brahma where his or her good and bad karma is judged. When Brahma judges karma the person is sentenced to heaven or rebirth. Heaven to Hindus is oneness with Brahma where his or her soul merges with God’s soul. Saraswati is the wife of Brahma and also the goddess of education and literature. Most scholars worship her. An interesting fact about Brahma is that it is believed Brahma came from Vishnu’s bellybutton. Vishnu (the care taker) is believed to have been...
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...Religion is based on a type of belief system; however, not all belief systems are represented as religions. A belief system can cover a number of different situations that may overlap with some religions; but, each individual belief is an opinion which determines how we interact with every aspect of our life. "Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation." (Edmund Burke) I believe that there is some sort of driving force that impacts my life and the lives of all other people in the world. I believe that when we die there is neither a good nor a bad place where we go, but that death is just leading our soul to the next part of our spiritual journey. This energy does not control life, and it does not judge us or make decisions based on us, it merely guides and aides all the beings in the world into the betterment of the soul. I do not believe in associating this power with any sort of religion because many religions have major flaws and are too specific on how people should lead their lives. My belief is based on my own experiences and situations that I have come across in my life. With the knowledge I have gained and as I have progressed I have created a belief system in which I live by. Throughout my life I believe that this force helps me when I arrive at conflicts and road blocks in my journey and troubles with choice and judgement. Similar to the idea of Karma, I know that when I do bad things there will be a negative...
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...target audience I have chosen is from the false theistic system. The world religion of Islam is a monotheistic world religion. Islam is an important religion that Christians should research in order to respond effectively and in a manner that does not appear to be condescending to the other. However, the Christian should develop a level of apologetics to defend the faith in a -knowledgeable and Christ-like fashion. 2. Summary of Significant Elements of the Worldview of the Target Audience: Muslims live in a monotheistic society devoting themselves to one god, Allah. Any gods or belief contrary to Allah is known to be blasphemous. In Islam, the Quaran is the source of ultimate authority. It goes into detail of who Allah is and highlights the humans are to treat others with dignity and with good deeds. Humans are to be believed as coming from clay and jinn created from smokeless flames. They also believe that there has been a succession of prophets with specifically identifying Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus preceding Muhammad. Muslims believe that Allah will return and resurrect the dead and every person will be judged in the Day of Judgment. At that time there will be a balance of good deeds verses bad deeds, and those who have good deeds overweighing the bad will live in paradise and those who have lived a life of bad choices will be condemned in hell. It is indeed necessary to possess good morals to avoid eternal life in fire. 3. Ideas of How Christianity Can...
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...years especially after the Holocaust. Religious Racism is the discrimination of someone based on their religion. There are many different forms of racism besides religion. It can come is Race, Religion, Sexual orientation, and many other ways. It has been many years since the Holocaust and Religious Racism has calmed down significantly but it has started to make a comeback against a different religion. The Islamic faith has been the target of many racist views and has caused many people to fear Muslims. There are many places where religious racism is slowly coming back but there is no place that is getting more impacted...
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...How does religion play role in a novel Catch 22? Religion plays role in the novel because many aspects in the novel are associate with believe in God. In addition, novel starts and ends with chaplain, and some debates happen because of belief in God. However, many characters in a novel do not believe in God, and only some believe in God. Moreover, chaplain is uncertain about God presents, and characters are not thinking well about the God. Therefore, religion is one theme of the novel, which has influence on characters and symbolization of God. Yossarian and Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s wife do not believe in God. They have interesting conversation about God. Yossarian says, “He’s not working at all. He’s playing. Or else He’s forgotten all about...
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...Before this law has been approved there’s a lot of procedure that happened. Unlike the divine law, the punishment when you break this law is going to jail or paying bail. There are some human laws or the law that has been made by the legislators that are alike the divine law or the law that has been made by God. One of the examples of that is seventh commandment of God that tells us not to commit adultery. In the human law or the law that has been made by human, adultery is also prohibited. Urbiztondo, Jonell D. BSME- II(GO) Mr. Alcoreza Chapter IV Conscience Conscience is what we are feeling when we are doing something that we do not want to do or something that is not good. For example, is when we’re lying to our parents, we are thinking that we should not do it because it is not good. Another example is when we tried to steal something from our friend, we are also thinking that we should not that and thinking on giving back what you have get. There some different kinds of conscience...
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...Islam, along with Christianity and Judaism is a major monotheistic religion of the world. It was founded by Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, in the 7th century CE. According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, “the Arabic term Islam, literally ‘surrender,’ illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer, called a Muslim, accepts surrender to the will of Allah (God)” (Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). In Islam, Allah is considered the only God, and it is believed that humans must submit to his will. The Prophet Muhammad is considered the last Islamic Prophet, and the one to whom Allah had revealed sacred scriptures known as Qur’an. Although Muhammad started with a small group of followers, they quickly grew in number and his teachings started spreading rapidly “through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China”(Mahdi, Rahman, Schimmel). Today, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world which makes it 2nd largest religion of the world. However, Islam is perceived to be radical and contradictory religion by many non-Muslims. Moreover, due to the terrorist attacks which had been associated with this “religion of peace,” Muslims call it, Islam had been viewed as a “bad” religion. Since America is the “melting pot” of different cultures and religions, non-Muslims should strive to learn about the Islamic religion, its teachings and interpretations, its differences and similarities with Christianity and Judaism, and how to...
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...Contemporary Issues in Eastern Religions Contemporary Issues in Eastern Religions Common Characteristics between Buddhism and Hinduism Buddhism is closely related to Hinduism, they both share some important beliefs. They both believe in reincarnation and the cycle of samsara - birth, life, death, and rebirth - and in the influence of karma on the circumstances into which you will be born in the next life. They both believe that the ultimate end is to escape from the cycle of rebirth. However, they are quite different in some very fundamental ways. For Hindus, there is an eternal soul that does not change, in essentials, from life to life. The material bodies it inhabits are like clothes. Buddhists believe that there is no core soul - that your experiences, actions, and intentions (your karma) constantly act upon you and you are constantly changing in response, so that the cycle of samsara is a long process of becoming. They also have different beliefs regarding the escape from the cycle of reincarnation. For Buddhists, achieving enlightenment, seeing the true nature of phenomenon and of oneself, eliminating all craving and desire releases you from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. For Hindus, realizing the oneness of existence, achieving mental peace or perfect unselfishness, perfect detachment from the world, or perfect knowledge of oneself, or the realization of unity with god releases you from the cycle of rebirth. As it relates to salvation...
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...Hinduism Paper HUM/130 June 8, 2012 Hinduism Paper The Hindu concept of god is confusing to most Westerners. The religion is generational and its beliefs and traditions are hard for those not brought up in the belief to comprehend. God to those of the Hindu faith is an omnipresent deity. Most Western religions see the supreme being, or god, as an individual and give the deity an individual identity. Hinduism does this to some degree, but recognizes thousands of god and goddesses Hinduism has a polytheistic concept of god at first glance. (McDowell & Brown, 2009). There are thousands of gods and goddesses that worshipped by its adherents. Three of the major deities in Hinduism are Vishnu, Rama, and Shiva. Vishnu is steadfast in the principles of order, righteousness, and truth. Rama is the deity of chivalry and virtue. Shiva is the deity of death and dissention. The text and my conversation with a follower of Hinduism seemed contradictory. I assume that my conversation with the follower was confusing due to the language barrier. Her words and descriptions were different than those in the text used in this class and the books that I use for research. Though there is a polytheistic view of a god in Hinduism, there is a monotheistic concept of a singular entity. Trimurti is the absolute entity that consists of the deities of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). This entity could seen as the Holy Trinity recognized in Christianity. Hinduism...
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...play a positive role in everyone’s lives. If people follow this passage they will be able to control their mind and their emotions. Dhammapada This passage discusses how your thoughts are always in your control and if you can control your thoughts you can control your actions and if we can control our thoughts and actions we can control our own happiness. Harmlessness This passage discusses how people who seek happiness by hurting others will never find happiness and I think this is not so much a religious passage but a passage of advice to help those who are negative along with those who are positive to help the negative. Great Discourse on Blessings This passage tells us all of the great things we should be to make us happy and good individuals. It also tells us what to stay away from such as intoxicants, have an unshaken mind. If we can fulfill all of the supreme blessings, there will be well-being everywhere. Hatred never dispels hate The only way to get rid of hate is to love. Everyone passes away, so why waste your life hating and being angry. Joy Live in joy, in love even among those who hate because how can someone hate someone who is full of love. Be free from fear and attachment because that is what brings you down in life. Sickness, Old Age, and Death Everyone lives to die; no one can escape decay. Everyone gets sick, and no one can escape it A monk beholds all physical phenomena, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and states of consciousness...
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