Religion Reflection Paper

Religion 120 has taught me something more than just the meaning of religion. I would argue that I will be taking away more knowledge from this class than any other class I have taken so far in my college career. The learning path Professor Robert takes has benefited me throughout the semester. The learning path I took persuaded me to open my mind and absorb and understand the ideas of other individuals. After I opened my mind up and read all of the content we were assigned in class, along with listened to my classmates and professor Robert’s take on religion, I was able to picture religion as something other than just the physical place of worship and discussions taken place there. When most individuals think of religion they think about going to church and not much else. Religion is so much more than just the physical place and the individuals leading the practice. Religion has the potential to help guide you in life, along with giving you a sense of meaning in this big world. Religion has the power to help you connect with individuals like yourself,

Christianity is a very developed religion and it resides mainly in the Western Culture. Followers up to 2 billion with a continuous rise as the world population grows. “Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestant Churches are the largest groups” (Stefon et al) known to Christianity. The life of Jesus and his teachings is the base of this religion. Jesus taught the way of God, whom is the creator of all and the father of Jesus. He taught the people that living their lives in a certain manner, would end with eternal life after you have died. Jesus and his guidance was becoming notorious; however, The Roman Government and Jewish leaders showed vast disapproval. Thus, leading to the crucifixion of Jesus where he was executed upon the cross. Christians believe that 3 days after Jesus died he rose from the dead; therefore, giving the chance to his believers to live eternal life after death. “Christianity is more than just a religious belief. It also has generated a culture, a set of ideas and ways if life, practices, and artifacts that have been handed down from generation to generation since Jesus became the object of faith” (Stefon et al). Christianity is appealing to me for the fact of knowing one man sacrificed himself for the good and eternal life of all the people is one hell of a sacrifice and I admire that. I admire most that you will always be given the chance to have you sins forgiven.

1. In a minimum of 100 words, describe the basic teachings of Zoroastrianism. What a fascinating religion, Zoroastrianism is! I never knew this religion existed. The first time I heard the word “Zoroastrianisam” it was a few months back when someone on Facebook was talking about Gal Gadot, the actress that plays wonder woman and saying that she is Zoroastrian, like it was a bad thing. Then, I found a chapter in my text book pertaining to Zoroastrianisam and I was excited to read the chapter, just to see what they are talking about. I asked myself, why would this be a bad thing if someone is Zoroastrian? I learned that this is probably the oldest monotheistic religion on the world and most importantly, the base for 3 major religions. Judaism,

List the religion(s) from our study this semester you believe are represented in, or have influenced, the United States’ system of governance. Give specific examples of the element(s) represented for each religion, and how they are represented. Are there “threads of truth” all the religions we studied share, which are represented in our civic society?  Cite scripture passages from each religion to back up your claims. Cite specific laws, documents, currency, patriotic music, sculpture, etc. that illustrate your assertions

In my parent’s eyes, I was born Catholic. When my sister and I were younger, we would wake up at six o’clock on Sundays and walk into church bleary eyed donning matching pink checkered dresses and snacks. I did not see myself as devout. I did not see myself as Catholic. Church was simply a routine. It was as normal as going to school. There is a clear memory of me stuffing a box of bandaids in my backpack one Sunday evening after listening to the Father recite the story of the Good Samaritan.

There are several reasons why I have the religious affiliation that I do. My membership, unlike that of so many, has very little to do with the choices my friends and family have made. My decision was based on reason and personal experiences. While some may say that these things are both easily influenced by parents and peers, in my case I have parents of different faith and therefore have less direct influence from them.

To be a sister of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Saint Rose of Lima, I am very grateful, blissful and joyful because God have mercy on me and have chosen me not by beautiful or intelligent, but by weakness. Encountering with Him in Religious Life, I do not only realize myself, but also the presence of God. All things that I have experienced in the consecrated life I would like to share.

Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the

When asked the question on my definition of religion, I decided to look at it in a way that goes beyond just my religion. Religion goes much deeper than being something that we just believe in, it is a relationship or a part of a person’s culture. My purpose of religion is something for me to try and understand what my goal in life is, as well as building a relationship with a higher being. Religion gives people that higher being that they can look to for guidance and comfort. I feel that you can also express your culture through religion as well as explain some of the reasons for some of the things that you have done in your life.

Religion is sometimes pushed on to people, which results in something completely different than the intended outcome. Throughout my life, religion has always been the foundation of my family’s morals. When I was younger, my mom and dad would accompany me at church and fill my head with the belief that no matter what, Jesus is here and he is real. They enrolled me in many youth groups lasting from elementary school to the beginning of high school. Religion has always been a hard concept for me to understand, since it is concept based purely on beliefs and morals. On more than one occasion, I have asked my parents for answers, but they were never able to give them to me. Christianity is very popular where I live, so it was not uncommon to see someone walking down the street that I knew from church or my youth group, but since I had a problem connecting with God, I had trouble connecting with them. As I am getting older, I am beginning to understand that since so many things are hard for me to believe, I need some time to think about where I am in my life. I have always wanted answers about how Christianity worked, but my parents would only tell me to ask God about it, and he would answer. After many years, I have started thinking that Jesus is not real since he never answered my questions. I knew that telling this to my parents would be difficult, and it is. We do not agree on many aspects of me being less involved with the church, but they ultimately let me draw out of my

To understand where I am now in relation to Catholic theology I feel that it is appropriate to look back on the thoughts and ideas that I had when I first started this THEO 1001 class. Honestly coming into college I have thought about my faith very little and studied the bible and what it means even less. In my mind I have always thought that theology was primarily a group of people just sitting around reading the bible repeatedly and then coming up with ways on how to interpret certain beliefs and messages in it and what they mean to us as Christians. Now I understand that theology has many more aspects to it than just the one example I gave earlier. The fact that this class was just about Catholic theology doesn’t really have a meaning to me because I haven’t studied other religions or denominations theology. Diving deeper into what I thought about how Catholic theology impacted my life will be a very shallow dive, given that I am neither Catholic or a theologian I honestly thought that this class was going to be a history of how Catholics are the greatest Christians and their way of looking at the bible. Thankfully I was very wrong about both those things and have learned about some very interesting topics throughout the class, one being the fascinating section we did about anthropology and what role it plays into theology.

Christian Tradition course exposed me to the Christian Tradition based on Biblical and church history. The course taught me the differences and similarities of Christian Tradition from other major world religions. I learned about the significance of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity based on the teachings of the Bible. The course also briefly covered 2,000 years of church history but with emphasis on the impact of the Council of Nicea, Council of Chalcedon, and John and Charles Wesley on Christianity. The professor emphasized the importance of the reformation that sparked a revolution in the church.

During the course of this class, I have learned a lot about different religions. I still have an unprejudiced view of religion. However, I did not suspend my belief to have an understanding of religion. I have been able to learn of other religious beliefs without feeling threatened of my own. I found there are many different practices in other religions, some I agree with and some I do not agree with. I have come to except others, ways of worship without getting upset. I have become humble in my conclusion now that I have a better understanding of others beliefs. The world seems to jump to conclusions and be judgmental about other religions. Postponing ones judgement on a religion is a difficult thing to do. Being raised and taught a certain religion and set of beliefs is distilled in to one’s mind. I, on the other hand, reserved my personal judgement until I have learned more about it.

This concept is an important concept for a christian to know. People can believe in God but also walk into paths that are directly against what God actually wants for you. There are a lot of people in the world that have that in their life. That shouldn’t be the way christians actually live their life. God intended for his people to be connected with Him through the spirit realm. The difference between the two is that being saved is believing in God but still having an absence of a relationship with god. What that means is that you believe in God because there is the hope for a heaven or it could just be that you just don’t care enough to have a relationship with God. Being filled with the spirit means you accept Jesus into your heart. You having a desire to be with God is what matters. God can take care of you and your life if you let him. God doesn’t chase us, but we should chase Him. God gives us a choice to accept Him into our heart or deny Him. Accepting Christ into your heart could be a very hard thing to do. But only God knows what is best for you. At the end of the day it is all based on our choice. Having the presence of God in life is very essential because only through God you can have true peace in this dark world. Psalm 28:7-8 says that God is our strength and our salvation.

Religion is an organized system in which people pursue to practice their faith and worship to a super natural controlling power. I always wondered how cultures around the world all developed the concept and belief of a higher being, even prior to contact. It is as if a larger force had touched every inch of this earth, blessing man with the gift of faith. With that in mind, when examining different religions, I like to think of it as different languages. After careful thought and research, different religions appear to be like different languages expressing similar messages. For example, in the English language we say “Hello” to greet people. On the other hand, in the Spanish language people say “Hola”. “Hello” and “Hola” mean the same