Religion (M.G)

[amoni]

Well, i have been searching through the books,, for the past 4 months (the forum was closed) about how the world view the meaning of religion itself, or the meaning of God, (another thing is What do u think of when somebody tells u God)
Take a moment to answer that question first and screw down for more answers











Why do we have religion? Why do we need religion? Human kind can be so noble and at the sometime we can be so evil but still why do we need religion?
We believe that human kind is the most important being in the universe and yet we are so small in comparison.
in the context, religion is one of the greatest human efforts in order to answer all these questions.
We could also ask: is religion a human invention or has it come from beyond our reality?
in a very simplistic way in order to answer such question one must ask, do u believe in God?
if you believe in God , whoever it might be, you do not need an explanation
if you do not believe in God, you need an explaination
Religion provides some of our human needs
1. we have a need to deal with death, our own mortality, with the pain it provokes.
2. Religion can provide peace of mind in the midest of difficult situations
3. Most people look for the spiritual world, when they do not find answers to their questions
4. Humans as general consider as "social beings" and religion provide a community for every human being (church, temple)
as a community
5. Human beings also have the need to express themselves through artisitic meanings, for example music, paintaings (icons)
Religion does have a function within our human lives and that is to supply an explation about our human condition
it helps us relate to planet we live in as well as to the universe we belong to.
Some scholars have suggested that religion is a human attempt to feel more secure in an unsecure universe.
Examples of those scholars
1. E.B Taylors an english anthropologist suggested that religion is related to the seeing of spiritis, in ancient times ppl fear these spiritis, therefore they tried to please them
2. James Frazier scottish was especially interested in the study of myth, he wrote the golden bought book,(you could find that book in amazon.com if u want to, it is about 20 bucks)he believed that religion come into existence for the purpose of controling such a spirits, he believed religion was an early attempt to influence nature, an intermediate stage between magic and science
3. Sigmand Freud (my favorite)
He is knows as the father of psychonalysis, he believed that god are only an illusion, he means an adult protection fromchildhood experience. Freud believed that the child insecurities are projected into the adult by the creation of the concept of a heavenly father, and his work in religion are in his books (totem and taboo and moses)
4. Williams james a philospopher and psychologist from Ireland, believed that the mind ahs great influence on the body, religion has a very postive way of fulfilling needs, (an assurance of safety)
the reason of religion in his point of view is growing out of psychological needs.
5. rudolf otto, was a german philospher, theologian
he believed that religion emerges out of mystery of fear, in his mind we take life for granted(we assume we will live forever)every now and then, something happens that disturbs our ordinary life, we tremble and feel fascination by these strange elements in this context, religion is created out of our own experience out of mysterious force.
6. Carl Gustar Jung, he was a disciple of freud
he broke a way with him due to basic disparities interpretations.
Religion was something that grew out of the individual need to arrive at personal fulfillment.
This is called individualist, he believed that religion could be used to help ppl understand their place in the universe and prepare them for death. he believed religion was a noble human respond the the complexity of reality
7. William schmidt, he believed that all humanity at one point believed in one supreme God, later on ppl began adding lesser gods and spirtis,
religion could have developed from animism
ppl thought he was convincing the scholars to justifiy christanity


God bless you all, and the rest to come,
el bakya ta2ty, i hope u like it, waiting for ur regards about what i wrote,,

when I fell in the atheism before , I had all these thoughts , and really these thoughts were driving me crazy, debating all the time to prove that there is no God and the religions are man work , well, I found all my answers in one place , Psalm 73 , I will put here :
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73:1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

73:2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

73:3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

73:4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

73:5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

73:6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

73:7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

73:8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

73:9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

73:10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.

73:11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

73:13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

73:14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

73:15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.

73:16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

73:17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

73:18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

73:19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

73:20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

73:21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.

73:22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand.

73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

73:25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

73:27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
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I hope you all have pleasure reading it as I do
saweres

[amoni]

Brother Saweres
We are not talking about christanity as general, i amtalking about a human point of view any human not just chris or even muslim

so when u read my words, put in ur mind u r human thinking about religion as a general

God bless you

[amoni]

What is the key of all religions??
we might assume every religion has some kind of writeen scriputres, we might presume that the word religion implies a belief in God, this is not always the case,
For example, Buddhism does not worship any kind of divine being, also the religion called confusciaism, or even native religions do not have any kind of written scriputures,

any ways let us move to the other point about religion itself, we talked about religion as a meaning in general but now we are talking religion as a definations, and defination of religion vary from human being to other,
Religion is the ultimate artistic expression given by humans, in order to understand the complex human experince,
We cannot say what religion must have inorder to be considered as a main religion,
Religons means
1. belief system
2. Community
3. ethics
4.characteristic emotions
5.Rituals
6. Sacredness
First let us first define the word sacred
All religions are interested in the spiritual level of reality,
all religions believe the origin of the universe and human kind is mysterious and sacred
the sacred is a mysterious force that is holy, this could be named in many different ways, the ultimate, the divine, the mother earth, the holly, the absolute, God, jesus,
predominarly on the west, the term god is used to denote the notion of a cosmic person
This person has all the power and control of the universe
However, the idea of the divine can be quite different
the sacred can be view as a personal force
For example, the concept of force in the movie start wars "may the force with be you"
Let us move to another point about religion itself and important point
Religions most of the time contradict one another
Because of the fact, religons are said to express the truth in symbolic ways or terms
a symbol is an object used to represent something abstract.
water can represent purity for example, circle can represent eternity.
Next time we will talk about the patterns of religons and their meanings


God bless you all
Mariam

[amoni]

OUR FIRST PATTERN is the time

around the 600 B.C.E historians called this age or era the AXIAL AGE
because around the world, something happened, people starte to change their moral behavior of their human being,,
For example, we have the prophits around that time in Middle east
Budha in Indian

the hindiu religion in india also

we ppl start to find a way to make God happy


For example before Hinduism

by the way Hinduism is not a religion it is a way of life, and a prove of that, that different ppl worship different statues and most of them have mono God',
and indians did not creat this religion but the Birtish did

before the british invaded India, there were two religion in the whole indus River valley

the first one was the Dravidians, they were farmers, and they were the first ones to creat cities, and jobs especailizations and ofcourse they had a population grow in that area, this is was in 2500_1500 BCE, they used water for purification to the soul or spirit, and they had lots of godesses more than the Gods, and something strange, they used the human sextuality as a metaaphor for divine powers, not for lust, which is nice.
and they symbolys they female production system as yoni
and the male system lingum
and they had the idea of Karma and reincarnation on the cycle of time

the other culutre was the Aryans or the known arabic as (heksos) and they conqured egypt for long time,
they were the cowboys,


we will complete our conversation next time

have class to run for lol


God bless you all