In today’s society there is so much we can talk about pertaining to the diverse religions and faith in the world. There are people all over the world that are apathetic about God and faith. Throughout history most religions have been primarily based around putting their God above all others while showing love and reception. Religion has become tangled with culture, economics, politics, and modern social relationships. It does not matter if you attend a service consistently or not we cannot escape religion. In the previous essays, I discussed the details of my religion and how it affected my life growing up. Also I had the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone to interview people from Jehovahs Witness and Hinduism religious groups. While observing the different aspects and effects they have compare to my religion was an eye-opener. I made a promise to myself after seeing different views that I would not look from the outside of things anymore I will go explore it for myself because the stereotypes people have of the different religions is absurd. With that being said, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christianity, and Hinduism diverge within their variety of gender, class, and symbols.
First, I will discuss the comparison within the symbols of Jehovahs Witnesses, Christianity, and Hinduism. Symbolism has been utilized by all religions in the world. It represents a specific concept within their religion. Christianity uses the cross as a reminder of God’s love in sacrificing his son.
Many studies about Jehovah Witnesses state that they are the strictest religion out there. They have rules that should be followed or the person ends up condemned. They do not believe in other religions whatsoever, in any shape or form. Jehovah Witnesses God’s name to them is Jehovah. The sociological concepts discussed will be social class and norms, a function and a dysfunction of Jehovah Witness religion, a symbolic ritual, and an aspect of this religion that entails conflict.
This entry is about a woman on a journey to discover her religion. The author felt that she fell behind the religion department, compared to her friends that already had a set religion given to them by their parents. She discusses how she was afraid she would never find a religion that will suit her. She started researching churches and religions to find one that fit her beliefs and values. She believes that you shouldn’t do things out of revenge and that you should act on things you notice needs to be done. After visiting numerous churches, she is left her faithless and different perceptions on religion. In the end, she discovered her religion is Deity, a Christian religion that means to live a decent life that appeasing to the higher power. I found that this entry is related to me as well because I grew up with a strict set of beliefs my dad enforced on me. Growing up, I didn’t have the opportunity to live out my beliefs because of Apostolic beliefs of my dad. Being Apostolic, means that girls aren’t allowed to wear pants, makeup, cut their hair, wear skirts above the knee, wear hair extensions; unless bald, and listen to music that isn’t gospel. Additionally, you can’t work on Sundays, not allowed to have Christmas trees or seasonal decorations, girls have to place a prayer cloth over their head during service, boys can’t have their heads covered in church and boys can’t have long hair.
Throughout the second chapter, we see the various religious impacts the American society had and how deeply they were influenced by most of them. Various movements brought in various results and the people who once had complete faith in Christianity, Protestantism or any other sect of religion began questioning their doubts and started believing the idea of reasoning over any situation. This helped the writers to establish and also to bring in the new form of writing that widened the horizon of reality for the people. With so many religious reformations taking place, Americans were full of doubts and they questioned their ethics and religious principles.
Even though, George W. Bush had become, like some of his great predecessors, the voice of inspiration and hope for freedom not only in America, but in all over the world, he had received many critics for his religious contribution on American politics. In the light of this quotation, Noll shows that the second victory of President Bush was somehow astonishing when we noticed the crucial role of the white evangelical Protestants plays in his second term. Additionally, this quotation shows that if there were no evangelicals’ support, the President would not win the election, it also; strengthens the value of religion and its place in the American political life.
“The relationship between faith, reason, and fear sometimes resembles…rock, paper, scissors (45).” This is the opening sentence in chapter two of Al Gore’s book, The Assault on Reason. In this chapter Gore talks about how fear takes over reason, reason challenges faith, and eventually faith defeats fear. This is the way that our society worked when he wrote the book, and it has not changed for the better since then, although it has not necessarily gotten substantially worse. Today religion is still a huge player in political debate because people are guided, for the most part, by their morals and it is commonly held that morals come mainly from religious teachings. This is a complex subject
The United States of America has the most diverse religious population in the world. In places like Iraq, Syria, Israel, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other countries too numerous to mention, countless lives are lost over religious differences. In America, a Protestant can live happily next door to a Jew, who might live across the street from a Muslim, or a Catholic, or a Sikh, or even a Humanist! This is in no small way attributed to the fact that the US Constitution’s First Amendment includes what is known as the establishment clause, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” effectively separating affairs of religious institutions from secular,
It is universally known that religious faiths creates diversity in culture and give new identity and outlook to matters signifying a new way life. In most cases, religious faith is accountable for people’s behavior in conducting daily activities including business, work, socialization, and cultural functions within a specified community. The immensely large majority of the human species has always looked to a higher power for acceptance, love, enlightenment, guidance, and even sometimes discipline. There are many different religions with many different practices and beliefs, however, in this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the belief on who is worshiped as the “higher power” as well as
I started my search based off my long held interest in politics, and the issues that affect the way we govern. So I boiled that down to the entities that decide when and what we govern. Political Parties. After I had my subject I looked at the three things I believe political parties play a role in. The three areas of interest I chose were our political parties role in our history, economics, and religion, and what factors in those areas determine how political parties’ function.
As a Roman Catholic born into a religious family, there are a plethora of beliefs and practices which are central to my everyday life. Being enrolled in Catholic school from the age of five all the way through high school allowed me to develop a sense of belonging within the Church that influences almost all of my decisions. I do not believe that I would posses the same morals and values I have today if I had not been raised in such a way that allowed me to acquire these morals and values. The fact that I, along with many others, believe in the Christian faith definitely does have an impact upon American life, culture and politics. Similarly, the fact that many people adhere to other faiths affects American life, culture, and politics as well. In general, religion plays a positive role within society, so long as it does not prohibit others from living how they want to live.
In every culture there seems be a creation myth—the story of how the world and everything on it came to be. Religion and the rituals surrounding them are found in every culture in the world. Examples that are familiar to many Christians in the United States are attending churches, praying before a meal or in a time of grief, and baptisms for infants shortly after they are born. Religion serves many functions in society, and attempts to answer some of life’s big questions, such as: Who am I? How was the Universe created? Why am I here? What happens when I die? The role of religious belief and practice everyday life can affect us in ways we may not even realize until we dig a little deeper below the surface.
Religion and politics are two topics that should never be discussed. The reasoning behind this statement is because both are very controversial, especially religion. The term religion in itself does not have a proper definition because it varies based on what an individuals’ response the question of: what is religion? Throughout history, religions and belief systems have been associated with wars, persecution, diasporas, etc., which ultimately infers that religion is at the core of violence, hatred and exclusion. A main reason for these emotions of such negatively is due to the incapability of individuals’ to be understanding of the beliefs of others, and the ignorance that surrounds what religions consist of. The essence of religion is classified as faith, which ultimately leads to ignorance on the behalf of the one with faith and on society as a whole, due to lack of evidence and a preconceived notion to whom ‘God’ truly is.
A wide array of literature exists that examines the connection between religion and American politics. The majority of the literature shows that religious individuals tend to be more active in politics, but scholars have demonstrated many explanations as to why this occurs. It is more challenging to determine an individual’s participation in politics and religion than it is to define further demographic aspects, which have a consequential effect in influencing voting patterns because of lifetime religious and political participation variation. Smidt (1999) finds that socioeconomic demographics, such as education and age, significantly affect religious and political participation. Wolfinger (1980) contests Smidt’s (1999) conclusions with his
In this course, I found the connection between religion and politics the most important concept we’ve studied. With engagement and understanding of politics becoming increasingly important, it’s valuable to study the ways people both interact with politics and form their political opinions—and as we’ve seen, religion can play a huge role in both of these aspects. However, the way religious groups engage with politics can perhaps be generalizing when discussing major religions, seeing as these groups are often widely diverse and brimming with unique experiences. Therefore, I believe it is just as important to discuss the political dimension of religion with the social influences of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and the interrelations between them.
Religion plays a major role in people’s lives, it is not surprising that it influences their daily lives so much. There are many religions in this world. Some religions have a very concentrated following related to their specific geographic areas, while others have enormous followers in the entire globe. Each of the world’s religions has certain differences that makes them unique yet all follow a structure of basic morals and similar instructions on how to live their lives.
The rise of Social media within the last 10 years has revolutionized the way people interact with another. By analyzing the boundaries and practices of the Catholicism, this paper explores the tension between the Church and Social Media