In some ways there are as many forms of religious expression as there are human cultural environments.
Having defined the concept of religion, I confess experiencing some of the extremes that can be interpreted from this concept. I've studied a couple of religions and even participated for a long time as a member of a various religious institutions. No matter what they preach or try to accomplish they have almost the same principles. In the present I don't consider my self a religious person but as I already mention I felt I had been in the past. In those times when I considered my self a religious person I started behaving in some ways that not only made me feel good about my self they also started to open a whole new world of knowledge for me and change my perception of life. This satisfied my emotions and intellect for a while but over the years my opinion on being religious has change quite a bit. .
The reason why I don't see my self as a person of religion in the present is because; for me, the term implies a lot more than just participating as a full time member of the religious institution. Personally, I believe that to truly be a religious person you have to achieve a certain state of mind in combination with the adequate behavior to give validity to your testimony. As we all know, humans, individuals who commit errors and sin without even knowing it, administer these organized institutions. .
It was the repeating behavior of different member on various religious institutions that made my perception of "religion" change. After receiving constant positive and reinforcing messages about love, brotherhood and equality, I started noticing how these feelings of jealousy and constant criticism among the members where actually contradicting the positive message they were trying to share. I"m not implying that every church is like this, but sadly that has been my experience with what they portrayed as religious individuals.
Why Religion? Has it ever crossed your mind why we have a religion? What about why having a belief in religion is so important to have? ... They remind me of whom I am religiously, and force me to determine who I am in character. ... These faiths and beliefs play a drastic role in a person's everyday life. ...
Why hadn't they tried to save my soul before now if they felt so strongly that I was going to burn? ... These were questions that I could not answer. ... Even though I was despised because of my religion I have faith that my religion is true. ... My religiosity (importance of religion in a person's life) can not by judged and measured by people who have no clue what Mormons are about. I am so proud to have religion as a top priority in my life....
My interest has been peaked and I am curious to understand how all religions relate to each other since most were outgrowths of other religions. ... Many of the teachings of these religions are applied by persons that do not prescribe to these religions. ... However, I soon learned that this was not the case and after studying in this class I am much more knowledgeable on a number of religions. However, despite my increased knowledge I am as much confused about religion and religious beliefs as I am interested in learning more about religion, religious comparisons and the way that peopl...
One God, Not the Same Religion "Nearly everyone has some conception of religion. ... Not only does each person have his or her own way of defining religion; each person has his or her own way of practicing a religion. ... In the Bible one of the Ten Commandments states that, "I am the Lord thy God.....thou shalt have no other gods before me." ... In the first passage Muslims portray Jesus as saying "I am inferior to God," and in the second he calling out to God. ... "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest a...
I am one of those people. ... I asked him to not talk about it at the dinner table and he asked me why. "I don't want you to talk about it because it's not something I believe in and I don't want to hear about while I am eating." ... I now think that the reason I can't believe in God because I"m not a person that believes in faith. To have faith you have to not question something and take it at face value. ...
Religion I don't believe that science and religion have to agree. ... The result is usually a person who has shoe horned a bunch of arbitrarily selected notions from numerous religions into a muddled distortion offensive to anyone really committed to any of the original faiths (Houston Smith, the fellow who wrote the best seller on world religions does this. ... One big problem I have encountered is the failure to distinguish between "how" and "why." ... Whenever I am confronted by a person advocating biblical inerrancy I ask them two simple questions: (1) do you read Greek? ... They p...
"The Truth in all Religions" asks why we define ourselves with labels? ... The most popular of these sayings is probably;"Jesus said: I am the light that is above them all. I am the all; the all came forth from me, and the all attained to me. Cleave a (piece of) wood; I am there. ... I do not believe that I or any other person on this planet will every truly know if God exists, or what our purpose here is, but I do know it is important to believe. ...
Man has always and will always look at the world and ask why. Why does lightning happen, or crops fail? ... This half is dark and can potentially destroy a person or a whole group. ... There are four other religions that have roots in Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and he Baha'i World Faith. ... The Buddhist religion is not set in stone as it has many local rituals and customs (Kauper, 1964). ...
In The American Heritage Dictionary, faith is defined as a "confident belief or trust in a person, idea, or thing- (308). ... Religion is a crutch, and only the crippled need crutches. ... If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this, I must believe" (Dembosky, par. 3). ... Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast..." ... I couldn't get by without faith in my life."" ...
