The Pew Research Center has lots of information about Religion and Public Life http://www.pewforum.org/
What information did you find that was surprising or interesting?
Here's a link to webpages with information about many of the world's religions. Check out one that is unfamiliar to you and post a comment or question about it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/
I decided to check out Baha'i, a fairly new religion that was started in Iran. What I think is most interesting is that they believe that God can never be fully understood by humans and the reason that there are different religions is because different groups of people perceive God as different due to their cultural upbringing as they try to understand God. Therefore, they have an extremely tolerant view of other religions and seek peace between them. I think this is very interesting because I don't know of any other religions that are this open to the beliefs of other faiths.
ReplyDeleteBaha'i sounds like a really interesting religion, Kristin. I think especially the aspect of peace is surprising to me. Naturally with all the terrible things that happen in the Middle East, I think we all automatically want to jump to horrible conclusions about what happens there. But this is proof that there are religions in the Middle East that promote peace regularly and religious tolerance.
DeleteI chose to look at Rastafarian beliefs. Before The beliefs they carry are very different than what I originally guessed it would be about. I have to say this is one of the more radical views I have heard about in quite some time. According to the website, Rastafarians believe they are superior to the white race. In their eyes, "blacks are God's chosen people". I think people should choose to believe in whatever they want, but a line should be drawn when the discussion of "what race is better" comes into play. I don't think there is any one race that is superior to the other races. We saw how the white supremacists acted, and it was obviously a very negative system. I don't understand why people would want to recreate that kind of belief.
ReplyDeleteThe religion I chose to look at was Shinto. Shinto is a region-based religion in Japan. Rituals and shrines are vital to the Shinto religion. There are no gods in the religion, but instead there are powers called kami. The rituals and shrines are designed for the people to communicate with kami. The Japanese people don't really consider Shinto to be a religion, more of an aspect of daily life. For this reason, there is really no competition with Buddhism. This leads to a great tolerance.
ReplyDeleteShinto sounds like a really interesting region-based religion, Meghan. The thing that I found most interesting in your post was the part where it says "There are no gods in the religion, but instead there are powers called kami." I found this interesting and decided to look up what kami was. According to Wikipedia I found out that "Kami are the spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the religion of Shinto. They are elements in nature, animals, creationary forces in the universe, as well as spirits of the revered deceased." Overall, I am glad you decided to share this because I for one thought it was very interesting, which made me curious to research it on Wikipedia so that I could find out even more about it.
DeleteThe thing that I decided to look at on the Pew Research Center was the topic of African-Americans and Religion. According to Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life they found "that African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole." To me I found this to be very interesting and surprising. Also, on a side note, since we have been talking about religion a lot in class I decided to take a spiritual path quiz to see what I would get. I got the spiritual path of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints (Mormons). So, not really not knowing what Mormons believed I decided to go check it out. Stated by Wikipedia "Mormons believe in a "friendly universe", governed by a God whose work and glory it is to bring children to immortality and eternal life." Also Wikipedia gave me in insight by letting me see that "Mormons have a scriptural canon consisting of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments), the Book of Mormon, and a collection of revelations and writings by Joseph Smith known as the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. Mormons however have a relatively open definition of scripture. As a general rule, anything spoken or written by a prophet, while under inspiration, is considered to be the word of God." Overall, I thought this quiz was very interesting and let me get in insight of a religion that I was not particularly sure was. Therefore, if you want to take this quiz and see what you get just go to: http://www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION/ and feel free to post what you thought of this quiz.
ReplyDeleteRachael, I also thought it was very interesting that there is a significant difference in the religiosity (I think that is the right word...) of African Americans compared to the U.S. as a whole. Also, that is really cool that you found a quiz that tells your spiritual path. Interesting info on Mormons, that is one branch of Christianity that I feel I don't know very much about either!
DeleteI also took the quiz that Rachael posted about and thought it was very interesting in the kinds of questions it asks and how you rank how important each question is to your belief system. I got a 100% match with both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism. Being a Roman Catholic this made a lot of sense to me, however the next closest match was Quakers (89% match) which I found very interesting because I don't know very much about Quakers at all, besides the things the minister told us when we had the clergy panel. One thing though that I love about Catholicism is how it is the same everywhere you go and since the Society of friends seems (from what I learned when the minister came to talk to us) like it is more on its own in each community on a small level, I think I would not like it as much.
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