...Religion and Its Persuasion on U.S. Politics Rob Farmer Hodges University, Fort Myers, Florida HUM2030-OL-SU15 Dr. William Cooney August 22, 2015 Religion and Its Persuasion on U.S. Politics Religion in the United States is significant not only due to the high percentage of Americans who identify themselves with a specific religion, but the population’s large number of widely diverse beliefs. Ultimately, the United States is a nation bound on a people of immigrants, many of whom originally fled their home countries for the sake of religious freedom, and as such, laws are carefully engineered to safeguard those freedoms. Consider the formative era of our nation and to America’s culture and thinking at the time the US and the Constitution were formed. The leaders of the various colonies, states and ultimately the Founding Fathers themselves were steeped in biblical thinking. They drew examples from the Bible, and looked for confirmation of their ideas for government in scripture. Biblical absolutes enshrined into law offered a consensus that meant freedom without chaos. As stated in the Declaration of Independence, there exists “unalienable rights” of men. Rights were unalienable because they were provided by God. This was important because in most societies up until that time, and even in some countries today, rights are only conferred by whomever is in power at the time. An important aspect of our system of government is that it is based on the Rule of Law. This concept...
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...Jack Higgins Into to Sociology Who Am I Part II Due: 9/14/14 Religions of India Religion just might be the biggest social institution I can think of in the world. There is no part of the world where religion doesn’t exist. The biggest thing religion and India have in common is the freedom and diversity. All of India’s people have the right to religious freedom and can practice and worship any religion they please, but religion plays a central role in Indian daily life through its temple ceremonies, festivals, pilgrimages, family religious traditions. Diversity of religion is what I would like to focus on as I look deeper into the foreign country of India. Just like the United States, India also shares freedom of religion. India is diverse in its own since when it comes to religious beliefs. India is the birthplace of four of the world’s major religions; namely Hinduism Buddhism Jainism and Sikhism. According to a 2001 census, out of 1028 million population, little over 827 million (80.5%) have returned themselves as followers of Hindu religion, 138 million (13.4%) as Muslims or the followers of Islam, 24 million (2.3%) as Christians, 19 million (1.9%) as Sikh, 8 million (0.80%) as Buddhists and 4 million (0.4%) are Jain. In addition, over 6 million have reported professing other religions and faiths including tribal religions, different from six main religions (Religion, Census of India 2001, censusindia.gov.). With India being the second largest nation population wise,...
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...What is Religion? What is religion? Personally religion is defined as believing in a higher power. This gives us an identity and relationships. Religion has two categories and seven dimensions. One category is Dualism. Dualism posits a cosmos or universe in which the Creator, God, is separate and distinct from the creation. The in-world experience is a threat or stumbling block to real experience - be it in Heaven or some other transcendent realm - will thrust believers into a pattern of using force to remake that world (http://faculty.deanza.edu/burkesusan/stories/storyReader$39). The other category is Monism Sacred power was diffused throughout the natural world (http://faculty.deanza.edu/burkesusan/stories/storyReader$39). This first dimension is The Practical and Ritual Dimension. Both Dualism and Monism have practices, prayers, and rituals. Christianity practices prayers, churches, and hymns. This happens every Sundays, Sunday evenings, and with personal experiences even on Wednesdays. As the Hindu and Buddhist Religion focus on meditation to focus on love and so on (Philosophy of Religion, Gary E. Kessel). The Second Dimension to religion is Experiential and Emotional Dimensions. This means religions with its rituals give us a sense of peace and satisfaction. No matter what type of religion we are. If it wasn’t for the sense of peace or satisfaction we probably wouldn’t believe in our religions. One of the main reason music is so potent in religions...
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...FGD TRANSCRIPT Jagrika Q1. What is the first word comes to your mind when I say the word ‘religion’? G: faith F: faith E: I think the word religion is derived from the Latin word ‘religiō’ which means faith, to seek, to try to pursue. B: peace A: belief C: faith D: It is a way to the upper life. H: I think religion is a stigma forced upon children when they are to young to understand the concept. M: can you just sum all of this up in one word? H: forceful; Q2. How does each one of you define religion and what constitutes of religion? E: I think religion is a set of belief that is followed by an individual that according to him probably leads to a Supreme Being or power. What constitutes it, ummm… lets say: faith, belief. It serves as a moral compass for human beings. It is a sort of guideline. For me there are two extremes: heaven and hell. Hell indicates the bad and heaven is for the good. The preacher who actually came up with this idea wanted us to maintain the delicate balance and stay in the center. So yeah, it is a guideline for me. G: it is probably a way of life. Our faith tells us how to live our life, keeping in mind the afterlife M: And what constitutes it? G: my religion has five basic pillars: shahada (faith) which is the declaration stating that there is only one god, the Allah, the creator of all beings; salat (prayer); charity; fasting and pilgrimage. G: i think it is a way to live our life E: yeah, but that’s kind of...
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...Many of us may misunderstand the meaning of the “separation of church and state”. The Founders’ notion of the separation of church and state is incredibly different from what the present-day notion is. The Founders’ notion of the separation of church and state was not to erase religion from public life but that the church would not determine governing laws and the laws would also not determine church doctrine: the Founders encouraged religion, as they believed religion was an essential and vital part of the new nation (Spalding, p. 312, 2008). The Founders acknowledged the importance of religion in our country. Even when they thought their homes were being barraged and overrun, they took the time to start their important meeting with a prayer, and as John Adams put it in his letter to Abigail, he had never seen a “greater effect upon an audience” (Novak, p. 306, 2008). Novak further notes that The Founders formed a covenant with God, pledging their fidelity to Him, and asking Him to protect their liberty, and solidifying this covenant by asking Americans to set aside a day for prayer and fasting (Novak, pp. 306-307, 2008). The Founders saw religion as guidance to morality. They also believed in God’s providence and saw Him as the author of liberty. Dreisbach notes that today, the “separation of church and state” or the “wall of separation” is frequently used to separate religion from private life and thus encourage a private religion and a strictly secular state, and a philosophy...
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...understanding religion today Functionalists have put forward their perspective on religion and how it benefits both society and the individual starting with how religion brings people together harmoniously, creating social cohesion and a sense of belonging as people believe in the same thing and all abide by the same rules. Religion creates and maintains a value consensus whilst giving society social order. By confirming to religious beliefs this allows us to gain morals and therefore Functionalists see religion as a positive aspect to society. Durkheim defines religion as ‘a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things’. He says all societies divide the world in to the sacred and the profane. Sacred are things set apart and forbidden, inspiring feelings of awe, fear and wonder. Profane are ordinary things that have no significance. Durkheim’s views on sacred symbols represents society’s collective consciousness which is the shared norms, values, beliefs and knowledge that make social life possible; without such consciousness it would crumble. Participating in shared rituals binds individuals together reminding them that they are a part of a community. Religion defines values as sacred giving the people great power compared to the non-believers. Through collective worship society understands the moral bonds that unite them. Durkheim also argues that religion functions to reinforce the collective unity/ social solidarity of a group. The individual sees religion performing...
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...didn’t really say much about religion. The ones who wanted to give faith a greater part, and those who were afraid that it would do so, were very concerned. Some worried that the Constitution did not exclude the kind of state supported religion that had thrived in some colonies. This resulted in Congress adopting the first amendment to the Constitution. When it was ratified in 1791, it prohibited Congress to make any law "respecting an establishment of religion” (Paulson, 2001). Religion has become a very important topic in the US, today. The ideas that shaped our government were...
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...Colorado Technical University Individual Project # 1 Religion as a Social Institution Donald Ricker Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for SOC 205 Introduction to Sociology By Ray Cordero Colorado Springs, Colorado November 2010 Abstract Religion is just one of the many functions that make up social institutions. Understanding the definition of a social institution can be key to understanding human behavior. Recognizing religion’s overall function within this social institution can also help us create a better society. I chose to write about religion as a social institution because it reflects an area that requires an individual to take more of a “leap of faith” in my opinion. In other words, this belief requires a person to rely on things that may not be seen or something you can touch or feel. To explain my view of religion as a social institution I will give you a definition of social institutions and then I will cover its function from the religious standpoint. First, let me give you some definitions. Webster’s New World College Dictionary tells us that an institution is an “organization, society, or corporation, having a public character, as a bank, church, bank, hospital, etc.” Our course reference book further defines a social institution as “organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs” (Sociology 113). Finally, another definition would be that a social institution is a group of people...
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...view to mock religion throughout the novel. He worded his sentences very carefully and it helped greatly to hint at just what he thought about religion. Faulkner’s use of these literary devices not only mocked religion, but also gave us a bit of insight into his views on religious people and their approach on life. Faulkner is able to start the mocking of religion with his use of specific diction. The characters in the novel are shown to be people who use religion and God to give authority to their own opinions. For example, Mr. Tull says that the Lord did not want him to spend so much time thinking to rationalize...
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...Finding the Line A recent 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...
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...Religious Tendencies Religion, one little word that can spark the largest argument that one has ever heard. But what is religion? Religion is the act of believing in a higher deity or deities that can control the cosmos, or not believing. It is the way society is grouped based on who they suppose controls life. For example in the Christian religion people believe in the holy trinity. Over the decades society has evolved and with the advancement of science and math some aspects of religion have been disproved. Yet though all decades of time religion has survived and is still a predominate part of our society. Religion has been able to survive over generations of scientific and mathematical advancement for many different reasons; its place in our history, politics, human necessity, and belief. First and foremost, Religion has always been predominating in our history. When our Neanderthal ancestors were first beginning to civilize, they needed a way to explain why things happened a certain way. They had no or very little math and science. So in order to explain the sun rising and falling without fail they came up with a god or gods. They used these religious deities to explain the cosmos. Why everything happens and why. This is how the Greeks came to believe in Zeus, Hades, and Athena. As Human being we have a thirst to know why things happen. In the past without the science and technology we have today we had no way of knowing that the Aztec god Tlaloc didn’t bring the rain...
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...Morchid SSK1202 Spring 2008 Instructor’s Name: Mrs.Monica Sturgess Abstract The main objective of this research study is to find out the level of commitment of AUI students toward their religion. It had been revealed after going through the literature review that the main reasons that push students to ignore their religion can be related to the political regime that the government is approaching which combines religion with modernity, parents that don’t want to put pressure on their children, and the lack of connecting religion with the public schools curriculum. In order to get a relevant research, we have used both qualitative and quantitative methods. We have formed a survey and handed 70 copies to AUI students, Moroccan and exchange ones. Moreover, we have accomplished a meeting with the Imam of the mosque in order to use his experience to enhance our research. The result section showed that students at AUI have interest in their faith; however, since they are strained by studies, they don’t give much time to religion pursuits. These results have helped us to comprise a clear comprehension of the main aspects of this topic, as well as to correct some of the wrong images that we used to have toward AUI students like the lack of praying and interest to religion. Introduction Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane is a Moroccan University that is based on the American educational model. It has an excellent reputation among all the North African Universities...
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...Common Practice in Religion Paper REL/133 October 15, 2014 Common Practice in Religion Paper We as people have an opinion about religions whether we believe in it or do not. As a society have made religions part of our social conversations, part of our life’s, and even a day to day ritual. Too many of us go by a type of book to worship from or worship a divine being, but we follow the beliefs and customs that religion is based for. Religion means a different thing to all human beings all around the world, but in a whole it comes down to one purpose which eventually means different to everyone. Define what Religion is Religion is a word that means many different things to every human being. Though the textbook stats that religion was originally from Western Civilization. When the word religion is broken down, the word “religio” define to mean “awe to the Gods” which comes from the Latin world. Most religions use a book or a type of scripture which is part of their everyday lives and that is the main tool to guide them to their beliefs and ritual’s in many religions such as Zen Buddhism also Tribal Religion they do not use any type of scriptural text but use what they call an oral religion in which it has been passed from one generation to the other. The textbook also stats that religion is a type of system that most human beings follow by worship or a God or gods, different types of prayers, rituals, and a code of morals. Religion is mostly based on eight elements: belief...
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...The Religious Life on Planet Earth Veronica Esparza Introduction Religion crosses so many different boundaries in human experience; religion is notoriously difficult to define. Many attempts have been made, however, and while every theory has its limitations, each perspective contributes to our understanding of this complex phenomenon. But I would like to say that religions pertain to the most significant of life concerns the concern to which all other are inferior. As a friendly stranger coming to the people in this planet I would like to show them the importance that religion has if it is practiced with love in the correct way to preserve the peace in earth. Superiors, as I explained religion is complex but very important to our people and our beliefs it focus on the cause, nature, and our purpose in this universe. We are devoted to our God and we worship and obey him. We live in peace not make war because our God forbids us to harm other beings. He is a very important aspect of our everyday lives and we pray to him when we are in need, when we are thankful, and for creating us. We can’t see him but his presence is supernatural and divine he controlled our past, controls our future, and if we follow his teachings and his rules we will get to meet him someday face to face. Our God is what keeps our civilization alive with all his blessings we gather together every day to hear our minister read and lecture from the Divine Book. We sing songs, we pray, and we worship...
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...nearly two hundred years, some ideologies of Marxist Criticism don’t fit the social norm as well as they did in his time. Ideologies such as religion, consumerism, and rugged individualism have grown with society and don’t have the same effect as they once did. In Marxist Criticism you will find one of Marx’s ideologies to be religion. Religion is an ideology that helps to keep the poor satisfied with their lot in life, or at least tolerant of it, as a tranquilizer might do. (Tyson, 59) With religion being a major part of many people’s life in the 1800’s his view on its role in society as the “opiate of the masses” is different now that it is the twenty-first century than it was during the nineteenth century. In centuries prior religion would include the conviction that the poor, if they remain nonviolent, will find their reward in heaven. (Tyson, 59) While that ideology was extremely relevant in Marx’s time, religion today isn’t a requirement, it isn’t expected thus making it outdated. While religion is still widespread, it has become common to not be religious at all. A growing number of people are identifying as Atheist or Agnostic, choosing not to believe or partake in religion whatsoever. While religion is still prevalent, many people look less at churches and other places of worship and more to themselves and what religion and being religious means to them. We live in a very fast paced society where not everyone has the time to carve out an entire day to worship...
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