Rapture?

by Stella

You may have heard about the theory about "the end of the world" set to take place today, May 21, at 6 pm, but what is it really? Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired engineer and Christian radio evangelist who falsely predicted Rapture in 1994, claims that meticulous calculations point to today as the date of Rapture. Rapture is when true believers will rise into Heaven and be saved from suffering a massive earthquake that sweeps around the world, God's way of dealing with non-believers.

One question people have been asking is what time zone the 6 pm prediction is for. Well, the mighty earthquake will start in the Pacific Ocean at their 6pm and follow the time zones around the world.

Many Christians have been preparing for the rapture by saying goodbye to friends and family, and holding signs to inform people of Christ's return to earth. Have you seen this one by Harold Camping's Family Radio?

Anyone who accepts Christ as the messiah will be raptured, and Camping estimates these people to be around 200 million. Camping also claims that gay-rights movements are a sign given by God of the rapture, signifying that our world will be destroyed as Sodom was.

Atheists are not letting the rapture slide by unnoticed. Many are throwing after-rapture parties, and some have even started businesses to take care of believers' pets after they are raptured.

Which ever position you take, we will find out the truth at 6 pm today.

Works Cited

Betz, Dean. "The End-of-the-world FAQ Sheet : Hot Topics." SFGate. Web. 21 May 2011. .

Boyett, Jason. "Is Judgement Day May 21?" Beliefnet. 11 May 2011. Web. 21 May 2011. .

McGreal, Chris. "The Rapture: Judgment Day Imminent … If US Engineer Has Calculated Right."Guardian.co.uk. 20 May 2011. Web. 21 May 2011. .

Happy Easter

By Stella

As many of you probably know, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified on Good Friday. This is the ending of Holy Week, which includes Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. This is also the last week of Lent. Some traditions are less obvious, such as Easter eggs and the Easter bunny.

Easter eggs represent life and resurrection in the Christian community and painting them has to do with Jesus’s blood as he was crucified. Now, Easter eggs are mass produced and made of various sweets such as chocolate and marshmallows, but in many countries, especially in Europe, eggs are still intricately designed with scenes of life and beautiful patterns. The Easter bunny is another symbol of life. First recorded in Germany, the Easter bunny brings Easter eggs to children during Easter. Children make (or more modernly buy) brightly colored baskets for the Easter bunny to put eggs in. Peeps are a very modern tradition, starting to be mass produced in the 1950’s. Along with bunnies and eggs, chicks also represent life and being born.

This is an Easter basket consisting of Easter grass, chocolate eggs, peeps, colored eggs, a stuffed bunny, and a chocolate bunny.

Religion & Prejudice

By Gabbie

How does religion affect prejudice? Are religious people as a whole more, or less, prone to being prejudiced? Or is this only true of specific religious groups?

I’m not going to try to directly answer any of these questions; instead I’m going to let the statistics speak for themselves. This survey was taken of high-school students aged 14-17. The survey was not large enough for this to be considered conclusive evidence, but these are still hard percentages that send a very interesting message.

In the first section, the questions were general-knowledge questions such as “the HIV virus can be spread by coughing or sneezing,” to which the respondents were asked to answer TRUE or FALSE. Answering incorrectly is defined as answering one or mor

e of the five questions incorrectly, while answering correctly is defined as answered none of the five questions incorrectly. I consider this section to be significant because ignorance feeds prejudice; someone who does not understand HIV is much more likely to fear or discriminate against people with HIV, as will become apparent from examining all four tables in

conjunction. This section includes the first two tables, below.

The next section includes the other two tables, and involved statements such as “Nations should be allowed to deny entry to immigrants with HIV,” “Governments should be able to publicize names of HIV+ citizens,” “If I found out that someone I knew had HIV, I would be angry, or place blame on him/her,” and “If I found out that someone I knew had HIV, I would avoid that person or stop spending time with him/her.” Respondents were asked to answer AGREE or DISAGREE, and agreeing was defined as answering AGREE to at least one statement of the nine that were given, while disagreeing meant answering DISAGREE to all of them. In the first of these two tables, the discrepancies between different demographics, though present, are much less marked than in any of the four tables; I think that the more important thing to note is that for every group, a huge percentage agreed with the statements.

If you looked at all four tables together, as I suggested, then you noticed that the group of which the highest percentage answered incorrectly to general-knowledge questions also had the highest percentage of members who agreed with discriminatory statements, and the group where the highest percentage answered correctly had the lowest percentage of members agreeing with those statements. Therefore I hope that, besides conveying a message about religion and prejudice, this data also speaks of something else: that ignorance is the foundation of prejudice and discrimination.

The Origin of Music

By Stella

You might laugh at church music and Christian rock, but the truth is that most forms of music have their roots in religion. Western music, originating in Europe, developed from hymns and chants that eventually acquired melodies and became polyphonic (containing multiple notes). Early composers, such as Hildegard of Bingen (1098), set lyrics to hymns. Later, composers such as Tomas Tallis and William Byrd would branch away from religious seculars, and music would become a part of ceremonies and other royal events. Many kings and queens had their own composers. As music progressed, it moved beyond vocals and began to include many different musical instruments. During the Baroque Era, beginning in the 1600s,symphonies were written. This was the time of composers such as Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. Many pieces were still religious, such as masses and choral hymns, and most churches had organs for composers and musicians to use. Over the years, music evolved to include more instruments, composers writing massive symphonies and operas.

In Africa, music also originated from religion. In traditional African religion, music was used for ceremonies and for communication. This music used various percussion instruments, vocals, and wind instruments, and was usually accompanied by dancing. In the 1800s, when slavery was still prevalent, slaves who had been brought from Africa learned to play western music. This fusion of western music with traditional African music led to the birth of ragtime, Dixieland, and eventually jazz. Jazz evolved into rock and roll, and eventually pop.

Even today, music is a large part of religion, and vice versa. Many people still put passages from the Bible into song, or write songs with religious meanings. In most churches, hymns and songs are a very large part of ceremony and tradition. Whether you listen to pop or rock, jazz or classical, know that religion was the origin of the song you’re listening to.

St. Jude- Tom Belleque interview

by Nate

Out of all the work about Abrahamic religions I wrote on, I never got any opinions of the religions from anyone who has turned the religion into a profession. To gain another perspective, I went to St. Jude to interview my grandmother’s priest Tom Belleque. The questions I asked Tom were mainly about the Abrahamic religions as whole and his personal experiences with Christianity.

Islamophobia?

by Gloria

You’ve probably heard about the mosque being built at Ground Zero, but you might not know the details surrounding it. The plan was originally to build a 13-story building, complete with a swimming pool, as a cultural center for Muslims. The idea was Feisal Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan’s idea, they are both American Muslims. The plan was approved by the city council, but now due to protests and tension they may overturn their previous decision.

Many of the people opposing the mosque seriously think it will offend the families of those 3000 people that died in the 9/11 attacks, but some are just plain against Islam. They assume that their Muslim neighbors or co-workers are just like the terrorists involved in 9/11, or just like the independent terrorist bombers. This is an unfair and judgmental. Generalizing or stereotyping people is never okay, just like you don’t say “oh just because you’re black you’re a criminal”, you don’t say “oh you’re muslim, you must be a terrorist!”.

On the other hand, some protesters say that building a mosque at Ground Zero is like building a Japanese memorial on Pearl Harbor. It probably is offensive to people who’s loved ones died in the attacks. They say “build it anywhere, just not here”. But recently there have been protests against five different mosques being built, all around the country. This isn’t just about offending families of victims, it’s about people generalizing against Muslims and Islam. Islamophobia. Franklin Graham says Islam is “a religion of hatred. It’s a religion of war.” Protesters hold up signs that say things like “NO MEMORIAL TO TERRORISTS”. Others take passages of the Koran out of context and use them as proof this is true. They argue that Islam is not really a religion, so it should not be granted rights. Everybody’s read about neighbors suddenly becoming suspicious of their Muslim neighbors. All people should be able to express their opinion, just don’t harm others when you do.

Works Cited
Ghosh, Bobby. "Islamophobia." TIME 30 Aug. 2010: 20-26. Print.

Peyser, Andrea. "Mosque Madness at Ground Zero - NYPOST.com." New York News Gossip Sports Entertainment Photos - New York Post. 13 May 2010. Web. 06 Jan. 2011. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/mosque_madness_at_ground_zero_OQ34EB0MWS0lXuAnQau5uL/0

Bahá'í Faith

by Stella

Have you ever heard of Bahá’í Faith? Chances are you know somebody who has. With over 5 million adherents in all parts of the world, people from all different religions are becoming Bahá’í.

The Bahá’í Faith started in the second half of the 1800s, with the birth of Baha’u’llah in what is now Iran. He realized he was a Messenger of God when he was thrown in a dungeon for giving up a royal life and following Bábism, the predecessor to Bahá’í Faith. He was exiled to Iraq, where he announced that he was the Messenger predicted by the Báb, the founder of Bábism. He was then exiled a second time from Iraq to Istanbul, and in the following years authored many scriptures describing his teachings. In 1892 Baha’u’llah died, leaving the religion to his son Abdu’l-Baha. Between then and now, Bahá’í Faith has gained many followers and created a local, national, and global democratic governing system.

The main theme of the Bahá’í Faith is unity. This includes unity between different races, classes, nations and any other traditional barrier. Other principles are that Baha’is must take part in daily prayer, refrain from partisan politics, have a profession or craft, and participate in a period of fasting. The Bahá’í faith considers males and females equal, and also prohibits non-medical drugs, gambling, and backbiting. A Baha’i’s lifetime is to be spent striving for all of these principles. Any form of community service or education is considered worship, and many Baha’is tutor, mentor or perform other types of service.

One interesting fact about the Bahá’í Faith is they have their own calendar. It starts on the 21st of March and each of the 19 months has 19 days, with 4 intercalary days (February 26th-March 1st) to make it line up with the solar calendar. On the first of each month there is a feast, and in the last month, (March 2nd –March 20th) all Baha’is aged 15-70 take part in a fast.

I really think this is an interesting religion. Its themes of unity and fairness are a breath of fresh air amidst all of the wars and murders that surround many other religions and their conflicts.

Works Cited
Baha'i Faith United States Official Website. Web. 03 Jan. 2011. http://www.bahai.us/

The Baha'i Faith- The International Website of the Baha'is of the World. Web. 03 Jan. 2011. http://www.bahai.org/

Inside the Sant Nirankari Mission

by Gabbie

Our current research is focused on finding different perspectives inside and outside of our community. We started this off by interviewing a fellow student who is a member of the Sant Nirankari Mission, which seeks to unify people of all backgrounds and beliefs in the knowledge of God. I found the insight that she offered both informative and interesting, and am excited to share it with you.

First I asked her to explain some of the fundamentals of the Sant Nirankari Mission, and found out that she also had something to say about religious conflict:

“A paper is a piece of paper. You can call it papel, or cameo, or paper, or anything else in any different language. It's still paper. Similarly, everyone in the world worships the same God, just in different ways, in different forms, and under different names. Allah is the same as God is the same as Nirankar, etc. So why in the world are we fighting about it? This is the base ideal to the SNM. The SNM is trying to unify people under this belief. God is goodness, and love, and happiness, etc. God is not man or woman.

“Our satguru (kind of like our pope) is Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji (say Baba Ji or Nirankari Baba Ji). He travels endlessly, not sleeping for days in order to help people come together and share their thoughts. He is a very good man. Satguru means someone who gives you the knowledge of truth, truth meaning the divine knowledge, or knowing where God is.

“One last thing: SNM isn't a religion. It's not a cult either. It's a mission to unite people from different cultures. The main theme is knowing God – know thyself and be one with God. Knowing God means you know that you are part of a higher spiritual presence. When you know God, you feel like you are part of the same God everyone else is part of.”

I also asked her a few more specific questions:

Q: Do you identify with a specific belief system?
”Being Nirankari doesn't mean you have to give up another religion. In fact, most Nirankaris identify with a specific religion. My mom is still a Hindu, and my dad is Secular Jewish. The SNM is still fairly new, so people from other religions are mainly the ones who join, as well as a new generation being born into the SNM. However, lots of Nirankari parents raise their kids into different religions, too. My sister and I can be classified as people who do not identify with specific religions. We do, however enjoy learning from many different practices.”

Q: Has religion affected other aspects of your life?
“Being a Nirankari is like waking from a dream – I know it sounds cliché, but it's really how I feel. At the satsungs (gatherings) we don't really talk about specific things that happened long in the past, like how in churches they might talk about the story of Moses. It's mainly stuff like morality, such as Miracles, Tolerance, The Effects of Our Actions, etc. Every time I see people uniting like that to just be humans, and not Hindus or Christians or Muslims or Jews, etc, I am able to picture the world as I know and love it. Being a Nirankari helps me to work towards the peace that I know can happen someday, and see the world as a beautiful miracle – that needs some tweaking, but then, what are we here for?”

Q: How do you feel about freedom of religion/religious equality here or anywhere else you have lived? Have you ever been treated differently because of religion or witnessed people you know being treated differently because of religion?
“The Midwest is a very nice place, but at least in South-Eastern Wisconsin, people are either Italian or German, Catholic or Lutheran, etc. People are all pretty much the same, and my family stuck out like a sore thumb. It was so amazing when I came here, with so many different types of people, of all races and religions. I really couldn't believe how varied society is here compared to over there, and consequently, I feel I fit in much better here – in Wisconsin, I was kind of shunned by a lot of people. My next-door neighbors were the kind of people who would send their kids to a Lutheran school an hour away from home, instead of the Blue Ribbon -- Lighthouse School that was literally 30 seconds away. Their kids, once discovering that we weren't Christians, tried to scare us into converting, and for a while, I was so scared that I believed them. They were so closed-minded, and they didn't even know what we did religiously! They weren't bad people, but in their minds, good=Christianity x 100. It really was pretty hard to play with them after that, especially when they started to turn our play dates into Sunday school.”

Works Cited
"About Us." Sant Nirankari Mission. Sant Nirankari Mandal, 2009. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. http://www.nirankari.com/

"The Sant Nirankari Mission." E-mail interview. 17 Dec. 2010.

Editor's Note

Hi all! Our school is taking a winter break, and since we won't be able to communicate frequently, our blog will not be posting an article every day. However, we still plan to post several articles so check our blog occasionally if you can. We'll be writing about Islamophobia and Baha'i next, and also hope to take some interviews.

You can get updates by following us on Twitter (@rethinkreligion) or following our RSS feed (http://www.religionrethought.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default). We would love to have your input, so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions then feel free to email us at religionrethought@gmail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can!

Happy Holidays from Religion Rethought

Religious Holidays

by Nate

If religion has not affected you directly, by going to church or temple or some other form of participation, it has probably affected you indirectly, through religious holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah.

In American society, Christmas is widely celebrated with things like Santa Claus, colorful lights, and gift exchange, but this is not how Christmas started. Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25th, which to Christians means something more – the birthday of Jesus. It is written in the Bible that Jesus was born in an animal manger in a stable. You can read more about this in our article about Christianity: http://religionrethought.blogspot.com/2010/11/christianity-brief-summary.html

Have you ever noticed Jewish kids getting presents for eight straight days during Hanukkah and wondered why this is? A holy Jewish temple in Jerusalem was once captured by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of Zeus. It took the Jews about a year to reclaim their temple, and by that time it had been horribly defiled by the sacrifice of pigs and the worship of what they considered to be false gods. To purify the temple, they decided they must burn ritual oil in the temple for eight days. Sadly they only had enough oil for one day, but this one day’s worth of oil miraculously lasted for all eight days.

Now that you know the history behind Christmas and Hanukkah, maybe this time of year won’t be confusing for you anymore. Happy Holidays!

Works Cited
Fairchild, Mary. "The Christmas Story - This Bible Story Summary Tells the Christmas Story of the Birth of Jesus." Christianity - About Christianity and Living the Christian Life. Web. 11 Dec. 2010 http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/christmasstory.htm

"Judaism - ReligionFacts." Religion, World Religions, Comparative Religion - Just the Facts on the World's Religions. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/index.htm

"The Land of Israel." Judaism 101. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm#Promised

Pelaia, Ariela. "Hanukkah - What Is Hanukkah." About Judaism. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hanukkah.htm

Buddhist Church

by Gloria

I recently visited my friend’s Buddhist church in Seattle. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was a little nervous about going. I went with Stella; this was the first time either of us had visited a Buddhist church.

When we got to the church, my friend’s mom, who is a Dharma school teacher, showed us around. I was surprised – I had been imagining a gilded temple with monks in robes everywhere, like the ones you see in movies, but the layout was surprisingly similar to some Christian churches that I’d been in before—bright classrooms filled with cheerful kids of many ages, walls plastered with colorful crayon drawings done by the Dharma school students. One of the major differences was the room where the service took place. There were still rows of benches with an aisle down the middle, but the front of the room was slightly more elevated than the rest and it had a stand with gold decorations surrounding a statue of the Buddha. There was also a small stand at the foot of the platform for burning incense. The smell was rich and pleasant and lingered in the air of the whole church.

I had a great time, and I also learned a few things. The church was of a branch of Buddhism called Jodo-Shinshu Buddhism. Jo means “pure”, do means “realm”, shin means “true”, and shu means “teaching”. The branch is mostly Japanese. When the service began, we chanted sutras from the prayer book. A gong was sounded whenever the prayer book dictated. The sound of the whole room chanting in unison created an atmosphere that was unique and very spiritual.

Seattle Buddhist Church

by Stella

I am always excited when I visit a church or temple, because it's kind of like a whole other world. The Buddhist temple that Gloria and I visited on Sunday was very different from other churches or temples. This is how I remember our visit:

As we walk in, a lady hands us books filled with songs and chants. We sit down and she explains some of the things that are going on. There are people burning incense at the front of the temple, and the scent wafts through the whole building. The lady explains to us that it's meant to soothe and relax you. I expected everyone to be Asian, but there are a surprising number of white people around. Everyone wears a sort of a cloth necklace, to symbolize the Buddha's robes. Monks, the dedicated followers of Buddhism, wear full robes. A bracelet which you put around your hands when they are in prayer position symbolizes being one with the Buddha.

As service goes on, I start to feel the relaxed atmosphere of the temple. Following the introductory song and prayer, the priest has a talk prepared about different symbols of Buddhism. He goes on to talk about how not all Buddhists celebrate the same holidays, and why this is a negative thing. Afterward, all of the kids are sent to Dharma school (like Sunday school) so we follow along. This is even more laid back, with kids talking about pop music and dancing.

Overall, going to a Buddhist temple was a very interesting and exciting experience. I learned a lot about Buddhism and it's similarities and differences to other eastern religions.

Agnosticism & Atheism

by Gabbie

Despite considering myself nonreligious, I’ve never fully understood the difference between atheism and agnosticism. But now, with the popularity of non-religion on the rise (Phan), I thought that the knowledge might become useful, and I wanted to share my findings with anyone else who’s also confused by this subject.

For an issue so personal and possibly arbitrary, I chose to go straight to the source. I found an atheist psychology student who maintains a blog called The Atheist Mind, where he recently posted an article entitled “Atheism vs. Agnosticism.” This post could not be more relevant, and can be found here: http://www.atheistmind.com/atheism-vs-agnosticism. The author gives a simplified, easy-to-understand comparison, where he describes agnosticism as claiming that “there is, nor ever will be, anyway to prove beyond a responsible doubt that a God does or does not exist,” while atheism is “complete disbelief in any form of deity.”

To back up what I read on The Atheist Mind, I explored the Skeptic’s Dictionary, an offbeat website describing itself as “a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions.” There I found definitions of atheism and agnosticism. Though at first the Dictionary appears questionably reliable (its alphabetical definitions list is titled “From Abracadabra to Zombies), it is actually well-cited and offers a wealth of suggestions for further reading. Its definition of atheism stipulates “active rejection of belief in the existence of God” and goes on to describe distinct categories of atheism, which include apatheism and polyatheism. Its article on agnosticism is short and to the point, defining it as “the position of believing that knowledge of the existence or non-existence of god is impossible.”

After reading articles with a decidedly non-theist bias, I decided to look for a different perspective, and happened upon the website of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. With resignation, I anticipated righteous, holier-than-thou arguments – perhaps unfairly, and was surprised at what I found instead. The author of “What is atheism?” lent an intelligent, reasonable tone to a helpful and well-written article. He defined atheism as “the lack of belief in a god, and/or the belief that there is no god” and listed some basic tenets of atheism, as well as exploring the varying degrees of atheism, ranging from weak to militant. He also included a paragraph on agnosticism, saying that members of this group “have concluded that there is no God” but “are open to further evidence for God’s existence”.

I enjoyed the chance to find some interesting information from some unlikely sources, and hopefully this article can help clear up your confusion. If you consider yourself atheist or agnostic, we’d love to have your take on the differences and similarities.

Works Cited
"Atheism vs. Agnosticism." Web log post. Atheist Mind. Blogger, 24 Feb. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. http://www.atheistmind.com/atheism-vs-agnosticism

Phan, Katherine T. "Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State Christianpost.com." ChristianPost.com - Today's Christian News Online. 9 Mar. 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090309/survey-non-religious-americans-on-the-rise-in-every-state/

Popa, Cristian. "Agnosticism - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com." The Skeptic's Dictionary. Robert T. Carroll, 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. http://www.skepdic.com/agnosticism.html

Slick, Matt. "What Is Atheism? Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry." CARM - Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. http://carm.org/what-is-atheism

My experience as a Christian

by Nate

If you were to ask 100 different Christians what affect Christianity had on them, you would get 100 different answers, but here is my story. I became a Christian through a family decision in the second grade to be baptized in Saint Jude church. As far back as I can remember, I went to church every Sunday until third grade when my favorite priest was fired. Because of family reasons, I didn't go to church again until the summer of 7th grade. The only reason I decided to give Christianity another try was because I was influenced by a Christian camp, Camp Gilead. As of the beginning of 8th grade, I have gone with my grandmother to Sunday church at Saint Louise as often as possible. She has had a major positive influence on reviving my will to go to church and stay a Christian.

Something I have learned as a Christian is treat others the way you want to be treated; which is the Golden Rule as stated by Jesus:

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7.12 ESV)

I have also learned (the hard way) that violence is never the answer. In fact, I stumbled upon a bible verse that struck me as shockingly true:

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (Matthew 26:52)

Lastly, the reason I am alive is purely because I am a Christian. Yes, this means exactly what you think it means. Since early seventh grade to the beginning of the ninth grade I had more family conflict than I want to admit. I wanted an easy way out and suicide radiated the most selfish and easy way out of them all. I was talking to one of my friends about it and he told me that to commit suicide was like buying an express ticket to Hell. I believe Hell, and for this reason I decided to flip through my bible until I found my truth, twice:

1. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (Corinthians 1:8-11)

2. Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (Corinthians 3:16-17)

In summary, Christianity has played a huge part of my life.

Religion and Me

by Gloria

I’ve never really understood religion, beliefs, or the power of faith, but I’ve heard about it many times. I have some friends that are Christian and are wholesome, goody-goody, never swear, homophobic — but some of my other Christian friends don’t act like that at all. They just go to church and say that they're Christian, but you would never know. I recently found out that one of my friends was Buddhist and my reaction was “What????” I was completely surprised; I didn’t think she was religious at all.

When my mom made me go to her church every Sunday for the summer, I had to join the teen worship group thing downstairs where there was a band and everybody would sing songs about loving Jesus and songs about God. I didn’t really want to be there, and I don’t have a great singing voice either so I watched everybody stand up, smiling, and sing, as I stood there quietly waiting for it to end.

What is faith? What makes people believe in something they’ve never seen and don't know for sure that it even exists? I’d been to Sunday school a few times when I was in kindergarten to 2nd grade, and I don’t remember ever learning much about God. I have scattered memories of praying at night for materialistic things and hoping that God would grant my wishes. I realize from my brief church experience that this isn’t what religon is; it’s something deeper that I don’t understand. If I had been born into a religion like many others, things would definitely be different. Personally I don’t believe in any religion, because it would hard for me to believe in something that I don’t know even exists. For me, it’s not realistic and able to be felt/heard/touched/seen in the physical world. Believing in something blindly like that is something too much to ask for from me.

Maybe that’s what faith is -- believing in something so strongly that you would stake your life on it, and never doubt it. This is something you’d have to experience to know about, something that can’t be defined simply by someone who is a stranger to it, something so strong it can change people forever. I’ve seen it happen.

Which country is the most religious?

by Gabbie

It’s hard to find any definitive data on this subject, since sources choose different ways to gather their information; i.e., the questions that are asked of the people surveyed. For example, the Gallup poll here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/Alabamians-Iranians-Common.aspx asked people whether they considered religion to be an important part of their daily lives. Their results showed Egypt as the most religious country, with 100% responding with “yes,” and Estonia as the least – only 14% gave yes as their answer. The median was a substantial 82%, and the U.S. fell below, at 65%.

A different question was asked by the polltakers here, http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_chu_att-religion-church-attendance. The percentages of this poll reflect the amount of people who claim to attend church at least once a week. As their question is different, so are their results: Nigeria is listed as the most religious at 89%, and Russia as the least religious at only 2%. Rather than a median, Nationmaster used a weighted average, which was 26.2%.

These polls bring up some interesting issues; mainly, what are the possible reasons for these discrepancies? For countries that showed up lower on the second list, does this mean that residents consider religion important, but do not think that church-going is an essential part of religion? Or, for countries that showed up lower on the first list, does it mean that citizens attend church but it is not meaningful to them? If the answers to these questions are yes, then what does that say about these countries?

Works Cited
"Church Attendance Statistics - Countries Compared - NationMaster." NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. Nationmaster.org. Web. 09 Dec. 2010. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_chu_att-religion-church-attendance

Crabtree, Steve, and Brett Pelham. "What Alabamians and Iranians Have in Common." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. Gallup, Inc., 9 Feb. 2009. Web. 09 Dec. 2010. http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/Alabamians-Iranians-Common.aspx

African Traditional Religion

by Stella

Today most of Africa is Christian or Muslim, but there are still about 108 million people who practice what are known as African traditional religions, or ATR. They are very numerous and are different from each other, but still share many common themes.

In Africa, religion is a major part of the culture in a given community. African traditional religions are monotheistic, or of one god. However, certain religions believe that this Supreme Being is divided into parts. Another commonality is the belief in spirits of nature and the spirits of dead ancestors. The sacrifice and prayer involved in African traditional religion is thought to bring people closer to these spiritual beings.

African traditional religions usually involve a leader, who has special abilities. This leader is looked to for providing rain to grow crops, cures for sickness, and anything else the community might need. There are also believed to be witches or sorcerers, who can harm a person’s property, family or well-being. Spiritual leaders are supposed to protect those under their leadership from these people.

There are also many rites and ceremonies involved in African traditional religion. Children are greatly valued, and families are encouraged to have many of them. When they are born, a naming ceremony is held, and when they are old enough, another ceremony is performed to initiate them into adulthood. There are also special marriage ceremonies. In some African societies, polygamy is accepted and practiced. Music, especially drums, plays a large part in these ceremonies and is often accompanied by ritual dances.

Even though African religion isn’t as practiced as much anymore due to the spread of Christianity and Muslim, it is still very interesting to study and examine.

Works Cited
Friedenthal, Lora, and Dorothy Kavanaugh. Religions Of Africa. Philadelphia: Mason Crest, 2007. Print. Africa: Progress & Problems.

Confucianism

by Gloria

There are some religions that worship a greater god that is unattainable, and some religions that are based off a set of principles. Examples of these are Christianity and Buddhism, respectively. When I started looking into Confucianism, I expected it to be a religion that was based off principles. But I asked my parents about it, and they laughed when I referred to it as a religion. I learned from them that in many parts of Eastern Asia, Confucianism isn’t a religion, it’s the culture.

My mother, grew up in Taiwan in a small town in the country. Their religion was Buddhism/Taoism: “The religion I followed was a mixture... it is hard to separate them,” she told me, but their culture was full of the teachings of Confucius. These teachings are what the belief system Confucianism is based on. Confucius’ Chinese name is Kong Fuzi. He is considered the greatest teacher and most revered person in China’s history, also called the “Sage of All Time” and “First Teacher”.

In Confucianism, the value of family is one of the most important; three of the Five Relationships are within the family. The Five Relationships are father/son, husband/wife, older brother/younger brother, ruler/subject, and friend/friend. The only relationship of equals is friend/friend; in the others, the more dominant member of the relationship is listed first. I can see these values reflected in my daily life, where my father is more dominant than my mother. There is no mother/daughter or father/daughter, but this seemingly sexist aspect of Confucianism feels outdated and doesn’t exist in my family; that may be the case in the rest of the world as well.

Confucius was born over 2500 years ago to a government official who died when he was three years old. At a young age, he had already shown a vivid interest in learning, thought it is unclear how he was educated. Most of the information on Confucius and his life is known from the Analects, a collection of his conversations put together by his followers after his death. Some stories in the Analects are legends, and have not been proven to be true.

By the time that Confucius reached the age of 50 and was appointed Minister of Public Works and Crime, he had already begun teaching and had gained many followers. There was some disagreement and conflict between Confucius and members of the nobility, so he was forced to step down and was exiled from his province, Lu. He and his followers journeyed to many other provinces for many years in search of a leader, or someone of power who would listen to him and could use his ideas to change the world, but he claimed that no one’s offer was sincere and returned home to teach again. He died at the age 72 and considered his life a failure, unaware of how his teachings would later change China.

Works Cited
Hoobler, Thomas. Confucianism (World Religions). New York: Facts on File, 1993. Print

Interview

Littleton, C. Scott. The Sacred East: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto. London: Baird, 2003. Print.

Riegal, Jeffrey. "Confucius (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 5 Sept. 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/

The Life of Moses

by Nate

Moses is considered by many to be the most important prophet of Judaism. He was born in Egypt to a Hebrew family, but when the Egyptian pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew infants to be killed, his mother hid him and he was found by the Egyptian royal family, who adopted and raised him. Thus he grew up among those who enslaved and abused the people to whom he would later become a savior.

After he had reached adulthood, Moses witnessed the murder of a Hebrew at the hands of an Egyptian taskmaster. His eyes were opened to the cruelty and oppression of the Egyptians, and he killed the taskmaster. He was forced to flee to Median, where God appeared to him and told him that he must return to Egypt and free the Hebrews. He was instructed to warn the Egyptians that if they did not comply and set the Hebrews free, they would suffer ten plagues. These were as follows:

1. (Exodus 7:14-25) Water would turn to blood
2. (Exodus 7:26-8:11) Frogs
3. (Exodus 8:12-15) Gnats
4. (Exodus 8:16-28) Flies or wild beasts
5. (Exodus 9:1-7) Disease of livestock
6. (Exodus 9:8-12) Boils
7. (Exodus 9:13-35) A storm of hail and fire
8. (Exodus 10:1-20) Locusts
9. (Exodus 10:21-29) Darkness
10. (Exodus 11:1-12:36) Death of the first-born

Finally, after the tenth plague had passed, the Pharaoh conceded and released the Hebrews. Moses led them triumphantly from Egypt, but the Pharaoh soon changed his mind and sent his army after them. To help the Hebrews escape the Egyptian army, God parted the Red Sea so that they could pass, and released his grasp on the sea when the army began to follow, so that they were all drowned.

During his lifetime, Moses would continue to teach the Hebrews the knowledge that was given to him by God. One of the most important things that Moses taught the Hebrews was the Ten Commandments, a list of principles that God gave to him and required his followers to live by. They are listed below:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Works Cited
"Judaism - ReligionFacts." Religion, World Religions, Comparative Religion - Just the
Facts on the World's Religions. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/index.htm

"The Land of Israel." Judaism 101. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm#Promised

"Prophets and Prophecy." Judaism 101. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. http://www.jewfaq.org/prophet.htm

Outsider?

by Gabbie

I’ve always felt like an outsider looking in on the world of religion and faith, catching occasional glimpses of something I would never understand. When I was old enough to wonder about religion, it took shape in my mind as a giant, nebulous mass full of mysterious ideas.
This is thanks mostly to my upbringing. To my knowledge, neither of my parents identifies themselves as part of any religion, and so there has never been any attempt to instill in me a faith in God, or in any deity or set of beliefs. The little knowledge I do have of religion has been gleaned passively, from idle conversation with friends or snippets of news articles that only left me more confused. Knowing so little, I had to wonder if there were any benefits to be had from knowing more. Was religion a missing piece of my life? Would it help me reach “true spiritual enlightenment,” or realize my path in life and find deep understanding of myself?
I didn’t have to mull these questions over long before I decided that the answer to all of them was no. Maybe there are people for whom the answer is different – for whom religion is a way of feeling more fulfilled, or connected, or comforted, or any number of things that I couldn’t imagine getting from religion myself. I realized that I could never reconcile any religious belief with everything that I’ve learned and hold to be true – everything that is scientific and logical; rational, even. My way of thinking always leads me to doubt and question, and this includes every religion I’ve ever come across.
Now that I’ve read about and researched religions and belief systems from Islam to Sikhism to Scientology to Pastafarianism, I can be even surer. Religions come with beliefs and practices, that I do not believe or have any reason to practice. Many religions laud themselves as not just a religion, but a way of life. But I would never want my way of life laid out for me; to me the best part of life is the freedom to choose, and to adhere to any religion would be to give up some of that freedom. This is true for anyone, unless that person truly believes in the religion.
I’ve questioned, also, whether there are really true believers, or whether they are a result of frequent or skillful brainwash. The question is innocent; not meant to deride religion – it stems from genuine curiosity, not cynicism. I still have many more such questions; for example, how were the first religions really formed, and why? I’ve read the histories of many faiths, but I still cannot make sense of exactly how they were created, and for what purpose. It’s clear that I still don’t understand religion, and as I’ve always thought, maybe I never fully will. But now, at least, I know that I don’t need to.