Reflection Of Religion

Spirituality is considered one of the components of health and wellness, and is a contributory factor in the delivery of holistic care (O’Shea, Wallace, Griffin, & Fitzpatrick, 2011). It only makes sense for us nurses to study and research spirituality since the nursing profession is committed to holistic development, which includes the spiritual dimension of life. However, elements such as time constraints, short staffing, insufficient formal education related to spiritual assessment and confusion between spirituality and religion have led to spirituality becoming a disregarded component of care (O’Shea et al., 2011). Adolescence is a crucial time in the development of a person’s spiritual path (Benson & Roehlkepartain, 2008). Findings showed that most adolescents hold spiritual or religious beliefs already and choose to draw on them when experiencing life-changing events. Despite this information, healthcare professionals overlook the spiritual needs of adolescents (Neuman, 2011).

I researched about 1 and 2 Timothy. The theme of Timothy is about God, lifestyle and money, and Paul tells us a lot of these three topics. Paul reminds us that we should pray about the things we are worrying about. We need to share good things with others, don’t be selfish. God wants us to give to those in need through fundraisers, charities, donations. 1 Timothy states that we should take hold of eternal life and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Money can’t get us far in life. We won’t be successful if we focus on money since our treasures are in heaven not here. Paul reminds us to be thankful for what we have because we are considered privileged. The love of money leads to evil desires and temptations. You will become lost in faith if you only focus on money. Money is not reliable; it isn’t stable. Instead we should rely on God who provides us with everything we need. Love is an important factor to remain united. We were all saved from our sins, but God wants us to come to a knowledge of the truth. We have to refrain falling into Satan’s trap; temptation. There’s hope to turn away from Satan, but you need to remain faithful in God and trust in Him. In 2 Timothy, Paul tells us that God doesn’t want us to be shy, because God gave us power, self-discipline and love. We shouldn’t be ashamed or scared to preach the gospel, for we should not only preach the gospel but to also suffer for God. Paul reassures us by saying that the Holy Spirit

For a good part of my life I have seen religion as a duty which must be accomplished with dedication if not enjoyment. Since all people are sinners and sinners must seek salvation it did not occur to me that some people might not see the point in all this religion business. “Oh, I’m not religious,” some friends would say to me, as if it were genetically transmitted or perhaps an acquired taste. They would blithely go about their lives, unencumbered by guilt, enjoying their sins, and occasionally pausing to shake their heads at my dutifulness. “Why do you bother?” they would ask curiously.

For some years now I have searched for answers to why I believe in certain ideas. Ever since I was born, my parents have raised me as a Christian. They would teach me stories from the Bible. I became familiar with the Bible and the lessons from Jesus’ parables. However, as I grew older I started to wonder, “Why do I call myself a Christian? Am I a Christian because of my parents or because I truly believe and have a relationship with God?” In today’s world there are so many religions that people are looking for which one is true. Out of all the religions, I have chosen to be a Christian as a result of personal experiences as well as the cosmological and moral arguments for the existence of a Creator.

Student Answer:           For me a religion consists of several different elements that are not universal to all religions found today. First, a religion is one that is shared and practiced by a group or ‘communal in nature’. Second, a religion has a unified set of beliefs that not only define the world and our place in it but also provides a set of ethical standards and guide to life. Third, I think a religion should invoke an emotional response from the believer through a supernatural connection with a higher being or God. Finally, I believe a religion should identify certain things that are sacred to the religion (Molloy, 2010).          Community or ‘communal in nature’: Having more than one person or a small group of people become followers of a religion is a testament to its validity in society. To me this is the most important aspect of defining religion. A true religion should be able to use its teachings and belief system to retain and cultivate new followers by connecting with them on a personal level.          Unified set of beliefs and code of ethics: What separates a religion from groups of people with an idea is the unified belief in something. Even if the exact details of those beliefs are not universal the overall beliefs are the same. An example would be all the different Protestant Churches, and the different sects of Islam and Buddhism. A religion’s beliefs should be (mostly) the same across the world. Also, there should be an ethical or moral code of

Before taking American Religious Lives, I had previously taking Mystery and Meaning, that was my first encounter with religion. Essentially everything that we have learned in the class has been new to me because I do not have any prior experience with American religion, since my other Religious Studies class focused on Asian and Native American religions. Growing up I never went to church growing up, but I was baptized, but never understood what that meant. I do no think of myself who is involved or a part of any religion. The fact that I am unfamiliar makes the class very challenging for me, but it is also a good type of challenge because it makes me work harder to understand all the topics discussed in class and it makes me really have to think deeper about all the topics. Not being associated with any religion is also helpful because I can be an outsider and not have a biased opinion and not have to choose a side of the different religious perspectives. Religion seems like it is a very complex topic, where a lot of religions in America have different sects and each sect has a different background. I knew that Christianity was the most popular religion in America, but I did not know about all the different sects and that Christianity as a whole is the faith of over 70% of Americans and that most of the other 30% is made up of people who are unaffiliated with any religion. (Wormald, 1).

I remember being a young, naïve boy getting ready to venture off to my first semester of college at the Lord’s school: Brigham Young University. I was ready to live away from home, stay out however late I felt, and eat as much ice cream as I wanted with no repercussions. Life was going to be amazing! My dreams were soon shattered as was bombarded with homework and essays from all my other classes but there was a light at the end of the tunnel: Religion. I was especially excited to embark on the journey of religion as it had always played an important role in my life and I couldn’t wait to explore seemingly endless verses of scripture and prophecy.

When directed to have a religious experience, I finally realized the irony of not being religious, yet taking a World Religions course. I haven't been to a church service in years so this whole experience-no matter the type of religion -would feel foreign to me. Being agnostic means I don't claim a religion, but from my experience, it felt like religions didn't claim me. I noticed that the last few times I was in church, I felt like an observer. I felt like an imposter as I looked over and saw people immersed in a world that was beyond human connection. How do you believe in a god? How do you put your life and trust into something that is so unknown? These questions swirled inside my head for years until I saw this course and thought I could finally get the answers. Due to my special history with religion, I wondered where to even begin.

Religion has never truly appeared in my life as something of higher importance. Ever since I was little, my family dragged me to church in hopes I would potentially get something out of it. It is prevalent that I never really retained anything from the sermons and the talks about God. Although I was still open to attending the service, I was always full of questions that no one could fully answer. I decided to sit in on an Apostolic Pentecostal church service that my best friend had been attending. While there, I began to understand why religion is important for various people, how religion can be perceived in different ways, and how sometimes it is okay to not truly believe in one religion or another.

First off, even though we have not been in class for very long, I already feel as though my perspective on religion has changed tremendously and I am curious to see what my beliefs will be like at the end of the semester. Although I do believe in Christianity and in God and that he contributed into the creation of the world, I question what I would believe if I was taught differently growing up.

Prior to this class, I viewed religion the way most Anglo-Americans do. From a young age, I was raised around Protestant Christian churches. My family went to church once a week on and off throughout my childhood. At church, I tried to focus for an hour on the sermons based around ancient stories that may or may not have happened. I usually forgot the story within a few hours of exiting the church doors. Like many Americans, this was religion to me. Something you more or less endured in order to say you were religious. This class gave me a totally different perspective on religion. For many Native American tribes, religion is not a separate portion of life. Many tribes have no word for religion. That is because there are religious aspects seen in just about everything they do. While there are cultural differences across various tribes, this idea holds fairly constant through most Native cultures. From the Navajo to the Hopi to the Pueblo and Plains tribes, there is a clear effort made by the Native people to treat everything around them with respect in order to maintain balance in the cosmos.

When we think of religion, we think of a higher being watching us from a holy place, ensuring that we are behaving accordingly. Growing up, my family never practiced any religion. I remember, when I was a child, I would go out every Sunday to play with my friends, but none of them would be available because they would be attending church. When I was younger, I remember attending a service once because all of my friends and their families were attending and I wanted to go with them. At the service, I was not truly paying attention to what the pastor was speaking, I was just trying to play with my friends. I vividly remember the look one of my friend’s mother gave me after I joked with my friend about how boring the service was. I, at the age of 8, remember being so bored, that I left the church while the pastor was still speaking.

I was raised in the church. Every Sunday and bible study I was there faithfully. Every church event I was there, I spent a lot of my holidays at the church. When I was a little girl I thought it was only one religion and that was Christianity. I thought that it was one God every one worshiped I didn’t quite understand that it was different religions and people had different views. When I got older I started to realize people beliefs were way different than what I knew. So I questioned my family and then they explained it to me that there were many types of religions. No one around me never really voiced his or her opinion about religion until I got into high school. In English class I had a lot of friends that I knew and hung out with in this class, when we are hanging out in school religion isn’t something my friends and I just sit there and discuss. The topic in English happens to be religion. The teacher went around the room and asked everyone to tell what religion they are and explain. One of my close friends name Jhoni said she’s “atheist” she even went on to say “church is stupid and god didn’t make earth and it was already here” she even said “we evolved from monkeys” now from what I know an “atheist” doesn’t believe in God. I could not believe that she didn’t believe in God. Then all of the stuff she said after that really hurt me and I couldn’t believe I was friends with somebody whose thoughts were that deep about something I believed in and loved so much. As soon

Religion has been a topic that I have struggled with all my life. It was always a subject that I never had much interest in learning as it was not stressed to me as a child and because of this I have found myself to be ignorant to the practices of the major religions of the world. Stephen Prothero’s book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World has helped me to develop a greater understanding of major religions like Islam, Confucianism, and Judaism. He was able to provide the basic ideas and stories of religions in an organized and simple manner that made it easy to understand the foundations of each religion. Prothero also explains the problem, solution, technique and exemplar for each respective religion to further develop that understanding. This was a great way to explain the major principals of these religions and educate those who are unfamiliar with them. Of all the religions Prothero presents us with in the chapters, the one I found to be most interesting was the one on Judaism.

Religion is a very interesting topic which is the very reason that I decided to write about it. It is a theme that could be written about for days which makes it difficult to summarize into a short paper. To get a better understanding of what religion is, it is “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs” (Religion). In other words it is a believing that there is higher power or giving your devotion to a higher cause like nature. There were so many great writers that shared their beliefs and views of a higher power like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, and Henry David Thoreau. These three writers revolutionized beliefs and thoughts about being minorities.