Jainism x2

Jainism

Explanation of God/the attacking of God

God had to make the material world because if not then he is not the creator. But if he made the Material world, then the world is only his will.

-If God is perfect, why did he feel the need to create?


Jainism attacks "God" only to explain the existence of the world

To have one is to have another. If God is perfect then he must also be imperfect.

Does God have a good reason to create the world or was he just fooling around for no reason?

             If there was no purpose to the creation of the world then what is the purpose of a "God"?

These are all points that were brought up amongst the creation of the world and/or the explanation of God. I think Jainism doubts God, but I don't think they are completely against the idea of God. I think the proof of God is necessary.

Jainism

Jainism

I think Jainism is one of the hardest religions for me to be able to accept. The fact that the religion is against any harm to any living thing seems to be a hard concept. I mean even if I wasn't being physically harmed by a spider or a strange looking bug, I feel the need to kill it. If I was in a position where I could be in possible harm, I would have no doubts of trying to harm/kill whatever was going to harm me or anyone around me.

I think that is the hardest concept for me to get past in Jainism but almost any other concept or idea of Jainism I can easily accept and seem very similar to Buddhism.

Reincarnation: Is it real or not?

Reincarnation:

Do you believe in it?

Or NOT?

 

 

 

 

 

I have thought about this often. Wondering if I have lived a "past life" or if after this life I will be able to live again. I don't really know what I believe. It is common for me to joke around and say that: "In my past life I was..." or "In my next life I will..."

 

I don't know whether to take myself serious with this question or to continue to joke around. I do lean towards believing reincarnation could be possible, but I also think that there are plenty of people who believe that it is impossible.

 

I also think a lot about those who have died. Especially my family, thinking that they could be looking down at us and guiding us through our own lives.

 

I cannot say that I believe in it or not because I still haven't decided what I want to be true.

Hinduism

Hinduism

 Just like the other religions, Hinduism, I believe, was formed to fix a problem for from community tradition. Hinduism was supposedly formed in the Indus River Valley where there were sophisticated cities and a population of 40,000 people. The area was advanced in their plumbing system, weaponry and they had a settled/peaceful society. The area traded internationally and had a writing system. A bathing ritual, yoga, meditation and statues of goddesses were all important in the new religion which is the oldest living religion today.

Hinduism, I believe, was formed to help the communities of the Indus River Valley to create a way of life. Something to believe in while working hard as a nomadic people.

Hinduism and Vedic Religion

Vedic Hymn

 

 

 In class, we talked about the Vedic religion and a certain Vedic Hymn from Philip Novak's book, The World's Wisdom.

 

 

       

Then even nothingness was not, nor existence.

There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.

What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?

Was there then a cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?

 

There is an attempt to find the origin of earth and/or life.
We discussed that if the world couldn't come from nothing or something, then "creation" started with the existence of a God. How did God come into existence?


I'm not really sure if I believe any "creation" stories that exist in any religion or community. Rather, I believe that something happened that no one truly understands that allowed for the creation of the Earth or possibly God.

I'm still debate with myself if Earth came before "God", or if "God" came before Earth...or if God really exists.



Asra Nomani

Asra Nomani and...Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam

 

Asra Nomani received outstanding controversy to one of her books called Tantrika,  which was about her experience when researching about a Tantric sex phenomenon. Tantric is a term, from Tantra, that refers to a religious ritual/meditation of a human body in a sexual way.

 

In Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam, Asra Nomani talks about her pilgrimage. She also discusses about the rights of Women in the muslim world. Before I actually talk about the book, I wanted to talk about Asra Nomani and do research on her to understand her more.

 

 

Asra Nomani was born into a Muslim family and actually grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. I actually found it interesting that she graduated college with a degree in liberal studies which is very similar to what I am doing with my own Professional Studies major. She also earned her her Master's in International Communication which is similar to what I want to do with my life by going to South Korea after I graduate and eventually earn my own masters in either Social Work to work with Biracial children in Asia or Major in Communication to become an interpreter or something of the sort.

 

 

Asra Nomani had a child out of wed-lock and eventually challenged a rule at a Mosque in Morgantown, West Virgina. The way she is able to challenge the people of her own faith allows me to realize how strong she is and she seems to be a very independent woman.

 

I want to be a strong woman like Asra Nomani.

Pre-Axial/Post Axial

Pre Axial vs. Post Axial Religious Traditions

 

 A lot of the Pre-Axial religions started in between 700-300 BCE and included Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism that were born out of China, India and other Asian countries. These religious traditions allowed a major shift in thinking in many different communities.

 

I relate a lot to the Pre-Axial traditions, and these are the ones that I have come to like to study about most since I have been in college and have come to like Asian culture/religion. These religions were focused on maintaining harmony.

 

 

 

Post Axial Religions are religions that are slightly younger than Pre-Axial religions and they allow a transformation to occur, usually amongst humans. These religions focus on the end of time and trying to fix the problems of the "end of the world".

 

 

I believe I relate to Confucianism/ other Asian Religious traditions because I like to maintain harmony amongst my friends and I would like to be able to believe in peace in the world, which is often brought up amongst the Pre-Axial religions.

Animism/Manaism

Animism vs. Manaism

 

 

Animism is the individual souls within nature where as Manaism is the power behind all things.

 

 

Animism comes from the Latin anima which means soul/spirit. It is also the belief that individual spirits exist not only in people but also in all individual things in nature, whether they appear to be alive or not; individual animals, plants, rocks, thunder and lightning, and mountains, lakes and rivers (Van Voorst, 30).

 

Cultural anthropologists held that the first stage of all human religion was Manaism. Manaism is the belief that there is a spiritual power and energy that permeates the world. Manaism is pre-animistic because the power is not connected to spirits or a species (Van Voorst, 32).

 

 

I like the idea of Manaism most. It seems more correct that there is a power that circles around the earth rather than a soul or a spirit controlling power

Does Religion cause violence?

Violence and Religion

 

Looking at history, I believe that Religion can and did cause violence. There was massive destruction and violence in order to have a large number of converts into a religion. Also, there seemed to have been a large number of people who had been forced to convert.

 

 

However, I don't believe that because there is relgion that there has to be violence. It kind of reminds me of the discussion of the British Philosopher, McGinn, that we talked about in a previous class. As long as those of a religious faith was able to criticize another religion but were not allowed to persecute others for their beliefs.

 

 

 

There are certain things that lead to violence that should be avoided such as:

 

Uncritical Obedience: Important factor that leads towards violence.

Dualistic Thinking: Thinking that there is "us" and then there is "them"

                                    Us=saved; They=not  saved.

Focus on the next world: Focus is not on reality or the present

Celebration of Martydaum: Giving one's own life in order to defend a religion

Zealous Puritanism: Purify a religion from "fake" believers

 

 

 

If there were certain religions who were to rid themselves of some of the beliefs from above, I believe the world would be a lot less violent due to Religion.

Define God

September 6th,

Define God

 

 

Is there a way to define God? In my own opinion, everyone holds God in a different standing. He may be someone that they go to often, where as others occasionally think about Him. Personally, I usually only think about him if I am in a tough position or during certain holidays.

 

 

Also different religions have different beliefs on God.

There are Polytheists who believe in many gods, Henotheism which means that there are many gods but there is one supreme god, Monotheism which is the belief in only one supreme god. There are also Pantheism, Atheism and Agnostics.

 

 

Richard Dawkins came up with a 7 point scale which could help answer the question: "Do you believe in God"

 

#1-No Doubt

#2-Fairly certain, but have some doubts

#3-Lean towards belief but not confident

#4-Exactly Middle or maybe have no opinion or can't decide

#5-Leaning towards rejection that God exists

#6-High degree that God doesn't exist but there is still doubt

#7-Certain God doesn't exist

Philosophy opposed to Theology and/or Religion

September 6th,

Philosophy

 

In class, we discussed how philosophy is the nature of the self. It could also be the nature of an alternate reality. Compared to Theology and/ or Religion, I believe that philosophy comes out of whatever is studied. It is what is to be believed about Religion or the study of theology.

 

 

For example, in each religion there are teachings that each person should take away. However, I think each person will respond differently to what they have learned and have opinions. This is their philosophy to what religion/theology is teaching the human race.

 

 

With philosophy there is a need for tolerance, as we had brought up the British Philosopher, McGinn. He said that tolerance was not refusing to criticize a person's beliefs or ideas, but also not persecuting someone for what they believe in.

Theology vs Religion

September 6th,

Theology vs. Religion



In class we discussed the difference between Theology and Religion. Through the discussion in class it was said that Theology is a study of religion from the inside whereas Religion is a study without being a part of a religion. In Robert Van Voorst's book, Relg, Theology is the study of a religion based on a religious commitment to that religion, in order to promote that religion (12-13).

I always believed that this was the other way around. That the study of Religion was actually being a part of a certain religion and that Theology didn't necessarily have a certain religion. However, after talking in class about this I realized that I have been wrong in thinking this.

The study of religion involves many religions and not one, while having knowledge and being able to discuss about certain things within a religion is strictly theology.

Religion Survey

September 4th,

Religion Survey

 

What surprised me most about the results of the Religion Survey

 

 

I guess what surprised me the most was that I took four years of Religion in Catholic High School and I have just began to realize that I learned a basic Catholic teaching of that religion when I was raised as a protestant Christian. Also, even though I did have four solid years of Religion class, I don't think I was able to learn a lot or at least take away anything from those classes.

 

 

During the survey, I realized that I was not able to answer a lot of the questions including the questions involving the Christian Faith.

 

This survey made me doubt if I am Christian because that is who I am and the religion I belong to, or if that is just the faith that I grew up with.

Community, Problem and Different Dimensions

In class we discussed that in studying religion and in religion in general, the sense of community is very important. I do agree with this because without the sense of community and people who agree with the same ideas I don't think there would be religion.

Also, Religion starts with a problem. I think that this is very similar amongst Religions. Humans want salvation and want to know that they can be "saved" or at least want to find an answer to a certain problem. How religions differ, however, is the way each religion or community takes care of a problem. The means of overcoming the problem is what religion is formed from.

There was something that I didn't quite understand during the lecture which was the different dimensions such as the emotional, aesthetic and cognitive dimensions? I wish we had gone into further discussion about these.

What is Religion

What is Religion

Religion is something that I can't define. Although I would like to believe I have some idea what religion is, I also believe that religion is what people make of it. However, my idea of religion is that it is simply something for me to believe in and debate upon. I have thought a lot about whether I am Christian because that is what I believe or if that is just what I have grown up to believe.

I often think that there are other religions that would be better suited to my own tastes and although confucianism isn't really seen as a religion, I often believe that I am more suited in that direction than Christianity. I'm also really interested in the South Korean culture and they are impacted greatly by the confucious teaching, so I think I am also influenced by that.