...renowned religions spread out around the Eastern side of the world. It is a religion with over 300 million followers worldwide and originated 2500 years ago, with its leader Siddhartha Gautama. (buddhaguide) The word ‘Buddhism’ comes from the word ‘Buddhi’ which means ‘to awaken’, which is an accurate summary of the entire fundamental of the religion. Buddhism, as a religion, involves living a certain lifestyle where the believers are asked to be mindful of their actions and words, live morally and have wisdom. The religion targets the human mind and penetrates through the mind, body and soul through meditative rituals and practices, making it...
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...instances where God and the values of religion came into play, as the characters had to subdue their loneliness. Many of these novels had characters whom survived solely on the life skills they were taught as a kid, or they were given assistance from God. This ideology of God relates to the novel The Life of Pi. The novel incorporates and explains the central theme of the nature of faith, and how faith is one. This is shown as the novel’s protagonist, Piscine ‘Pi’ Patel, a character that dedicates himself and practices many different types of religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Yann Martel makes a clear indication on how faith brings a person together and how faith and religion brought Pi to the person he is today. These 3 religions play an important role in Pi’s life as Pi refers to God many times throughout his devastating journey on the lifeboat. The novel, The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel offers and gives the reader the most accurate definition of religion, which is incorporated by simply and basically having faith. At the beginning of the novel Francis Adirubasamy states that Pi’s story of survival is “…a story that will make you believe in God” (Martel. 21). This story makes you believe the ideology of religion and notion of God due to the fact that Pi’s devotion to God helps him obtain freedom from this horrific incident, that God gave Pi strength, and that God performed miracles to help Pi survive and continue living on his journey. The main character Pi Patel...
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...Trent University (1981) Montreal is where he wrote the fantastic novel “Life Of Pi”This problem faced can happen anywhere in this world. | Who? (Charactural)| Piscine Patel, “Pi” an Indian boy, from Pondicherry.(Brought up as a Hindu, discovers Christianity and Islam) (Has a mom, brother and father, who die in the ship wreck while traveling the Pacific Ocean) Father:Santosh Patel| Yann Martel is a Spanish born Canadian writer. (Bachelor degree for Philosophy). It affected him spiritually, but I believe the whole word was struck by his imaginative yet true journey to believe in god. | What? (Thematic)| Pi’s father is emphatic about his kids being aware of the true nature of wild life (animals). Which then lead him to believe that Pi didn’t truly understand that the animals are a danger. To force that animals are indeed killers, he made his son, Pi, watch the tiger kill a goat. Part 1 also shows Pi’s journey to find religion and to meet new people along the way that eventually will speak to him about science. (Shown below.) The whole story was to put faith in god, and how Pi found that, spirituality and practicality. “A story with God is the better story.”...
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...went to bed. I can remember my mother kneeled down beside me as we recited this prayer together like a fine tuned duet. This is how I received my first indoctrination into the concept of God and religion. I will share my religious journey from a pre-teen youth, into my twenties, and to the present day. This journey consists of my religious enlightment through animism, superstition, and taboo. My religious travels have taken me from a young Christian boy, to an Islamic convert, to a man who sees the richness and beauty in those who hold religious and non-religious beliefs. As a youth, I could not grasp the understanding of the spiritual world. What was the difference between ghost, spirits, demons, and other beings that were invisible to me? I didn’t have an answer for that particular question. My mom always told me to live my life as if God was watching me. Marvin Harris speaks of this spiritual world when he talks about animism. “The basis of all that is distinctly religious in human thought is animism, the belief that humans share the world with a population of extraordinary, extracorporeal, and mostly invisible beings, ranging from souls and ghosts to saints and fairies, angels and cherubim, demons, jinni, devils and gods.” (Harris 17). Harris goes on to explain that religion sprouts from when people start to believe in one or more of these invisible beings. Animism by definition is the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe...
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...Amanda Heck The Richard Stockton of New Jersey The seconds of life are carried away by the winds father time creates. With in each and everything second that passes, a person becomes more prone to an action or thought that can result in the birth of a new them. In the short stories Goodbye, Columbus and Epstein, Philip Roth, “the self hating Jew”, combines the use of time, multiple themes, and the main male characters to depict the journey in self-realization and the birth of two new people. Goodbye, Columbus revolves around the story of Neil’s journey to self-realization and growth through the major theme of power through the use of sex and money as well as the journey to achieve the American Dream. Philip Roth uses the old and new Jewish religion to show how much of a power grasp it has over Neil. To Neil, Brenda’s family is extremely different from his own because of their type of religion and standings in society’s eyes. Neil is apart of the Old Jewish religion while Brenda is apart of the New Jewish religion. The Old Jewish religion represents Neil’s life and family in the beginning of the novella. The use of Aunt Gladys’ “abundance of the other (fruit) jamming her refrigerator.”(Roth 1959 p.6) compared to Brenda’s which “fruit grew in their refrigerator” demonstrates their standings with in the American Jewish society and Neil’s displacement over his current standing at the time. Neil is a librarian, who is apart of a middle class Jewish family. Though he should...
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...biologists and cultural psychologists may explain this away in the paradigms that are satisfactory for understanding the observed world. For practitioners, however, religious yearning derives from an external intangible source that is not directly amenable to empirical verification. If there can be neutrinos and dark energy that defy easy detection even through powerful and sophisticated instruments, one could argue, why can’t there be other intangibles whose existence is beyond meters and scopes? The matter continues to be debated, but this is not our concern here. No matter what the source, this heart-felt beckoning and fulfilling framework almost defines the religious person’s existence. There are many in our group who are religious persons. Religion informs and inspires the values and visions that are part of one’s existence. It provides a backdrop for one’s life, present and future, terrestrial and beyond, real and visualized. The spiritual yearning has taken concrete forms in human history as different religions with deep historical, geographical cultural links. Though its essence transcends such links, it is through these that the religious experience becomes meaningful, enriching, and relevant in its observance. There have always been conflicts not only between those who hold particular versions of the religious spirit, but also between those who accept the validity of the religious experience as a genuine reckoning of something beyond the physical...
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...slowly failing faith proved to be intense. Her deep loneliness and an illness that had later been diagnosed as epilepsy, was something that marked her as an outsider completely. She saw herself as a complete failure as a nun, as an academic, and as a normal woman who was capable of intimacy. Her future seemed very much in question until she stumbled into comparative theology. What she found there in learning about other religions and comparing them to what she knew was a feeling that she had never known before. The...
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...Christianity to stand alone as a religion and no longer be seen as another sect of Judaism, with this Pauls work incorporated people of all faiths or backgrounds as long as they accepted...
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...In the sci-fi story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, author Philip K. Dick introduces to his readers a futuristic religion based around a very common human emotion, empathy. Empathy plays the biggest role in the book through the global religion known in the novel as Mercerism. The practice of Mercerism centers on a piece of technology known as the empathy box. Users of the empathy box will take this technology by it handles which in turn infuses them into a type of physiological virtual experience. One of the experiences showcases the struggles of a mysterious man named Mercer and his journey up a mountain. Mercer’s journey up the mountain is met with hardship as unidentified bystanders would toss rocks at him as he attempts to ascend to his destination. Mercer would repeatedly fall to the bottom of the mountain but resume to the repeat process of reaching the top. Characters in the book also experience acts of enlightenment with Mercer where they are taught or told something by him that builds their character in the real world. Towards the end of the story, character Rick Deckard seems to have reached a point of enlightenment when he was able to experience the fusion with mercer in the real world without the use of the empathy box. It was then when Rick realized that Mercerism wasn’t just a false religion meant to mind trick people into becoming subordinates. The interesting thing about the empathy box is that not only are you watching this tragedy of Mercer unfold in front...
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...found in almost every religion present on earth. I mainly agree with the statement that “the most powerful aspect of religious rituals is their ability to bring followers of a religion closer together with one another.” Throughout my essay I will discuss the importance of rituals within the Hindu, Islam, and Jewish religion. In addition to these three religions, I will also discuss a Native American ritual to help highlight how unifying rituals can be. Giant celebrations can be the result of partaking in specific rituals. The Festival of Lights is an annual celebration and ritual practiced in Hindu that brings joy and delight to the followers of Hinduism. The ritual of Diwali symbolizes the victory of light overcoming darkness, also known as good overpowering evil. Diwali emphasizes...
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...come to the world in search of Truth. What this research paper intends to do is give a historical biography of Guru Nanak and the Truth he was referring to. Moreover, this paper seeks to find out where his journey for Truth ultimately led him, and what we, as a society, can learn from this journey. If something is to be gained from reading this article/research paper, I hope it’s more then some student somewhere getting some benefit when having to write a research paper on some religious topic. Spark. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1992) states that Owen Cole has traced the source of the term “guru” to the Aiteraya Upanisad and the Kulnarnava Tantra. “Gu” signifies darkness and “ru” is that which restrains it; “so a guru is a restrainer of ignorance.” This understanding is shared in the Janam-Sakhi text: “via the Guru, the light, the ontological basis of all, becomes visible.” Nanak is thus charged to deliver the message bequeathed to him through the vision. For the next twenty-four years Guru Nanak traveled throughout India and beyond, spreading the Divine Word (p. 341). INTRODUCTION In order to research the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, we must focus on analyzing the data relating to the personality and the man that was Guru Nanak and not so much the Sikh religion that follows him today. More specifically, we must look into some of the primitive thoughts and teachings that surrounded Guru Nanak in his time. Finally, we must attempt to relate Guru Nanak’s theology to...
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...EAST IS EAST, MY JOURNEY MY ISLAM, MUSLIM COOL, DEBATING THE VEIL RESPONSE PAPER Islam Despite its huge following around the world and the growing Muslim communities in western countries, Islam is foreign to most westerners who are familiar with Christianity or Judaism. Because most Americans know little or nothing about Islam, they have many misconceptions about Muslim beliefs and rituals. These misconceptions are formed by the media and the lack of research most people do on Islam. There have been many movies and documentaries made to show people the life of a Muslim person and to show people what Islam really is; East is East, My Journey My Islam, Debating the Veil, and Muslim Cool are examples of movies portraying Muslims in a different light. These movies although very different from each other in the way they are portrayed all are out to achieve the same goal, which is to show misinformed people what Islam really is. East is East is a movie about a Pakistani immigrant in the UK by the name of George khan who tries to push his family to abide by his strict Pakistani Muslim ideals. Having an English mother and being born and raised in England, his children see themselves as being English and disobey their father’s rules on how they dress, the foods they eat, religion, and other aspects of life. East is East, portrays Muslim Isolationism, patriarchal authoritarianism, white English racism, and teenage rebellion. The film perfectly explores connections between comic modes...
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...of many different people, religions and beliefs. Though many people have strong beliefs about certain religions, unlike many countries, the US allows people to practice any religion that they please. Throughout the years, many faiths have been the center of controversy. However, one particular belief system known as Scientology is the most controversial religion of the 20th century. Scientology was founded in 1952 in the United States of America by a man named L. Ron Hubbard. Although it is an actual religion, many people view Scientology as a trend. However, just like any other religion, Scientology has its own churches, beliefs, practices, and scripture. The word Scientology was created by Hubbard that derived from the Latin word Scio which meant “Knowing in the fullest meaning of the word” (Melton). The actual definition of Scientology is "the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes, and other life" (Melton). Hubbard began his journey while studying the human mind which led him to write many of his publications. Slowly, he began to further his studies by teaching classes which taught people how to become “auditors” which would allow them to teach these beliefs to others. His teachings used an array of methods that focused on the study of the mind and the problems that many people faced. Hubbard then researched other elements to the brain which he then called “thetan”. Thetan was the observer but to other religions it seemed as though hewas...
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...Lawrence ENG4UV-04 July 8th 2016 U4A4: Life of Pi - Part 1 Quotation Analysis “Religion?” Mr. Kumar grinned broadly. “I don’t believe in religion. Religion is darkness.” (Martel, 29) I chose this quotation because doubt seems to be a common theme associated with today’s religion. Many individuals either do not conform to any religions or are atheist also there are so many people today who question religion, such as, if God or religion exists, why is there so much violence in the world? Or, why is there a majority of people living in poverty? These thoughts lead me to have doubts, is religion leading us into darkness? Also, this quotation is interesting because it follows Pi telling Mr. Kumar “religion will save us” (Martel, 29), and Mr. Kumar immediately opposes Pi’s statement. Personally, I was raised as an atheist as my parents do not have any beliefs in religion. I have never been connected with the Church or with God; however, sometimes I do find myself to believe that there is a higher power out there. I could relate this to my personal hero’s journey. Many was raised as an atheist because they were not exposed to religion growing up, which is like a hero being pulled in an unknown direction because he/she had no guide. Next, is call to adventure, which for me is being exposed to religion as I grew older; at this stage in life, sometimes I was convinced the existence of God through peers and media. Then comes the refusal of call, which for me was my peer convincing...
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...k, it wasn’t as strong as it was in the beginning. The trauma that he went through while lost at sea and the experiences he had had an impact on his faith understandably so. Many of the things he had to go through made him question God at times and wonder why such a higher power considered so amazing and giving, would allow Pi to go through all this suffering and difficulty. Although all of this made him doubt and question his faith, it still never went away. His faith overall gave him the courage, power and hope needed to survive at sea which all proved how religion had an extremely significant role in the novel. Religion is used in Life of Pi to help Pi persevere through his struggles and essentially give him a sense of hope, sanity and individuality. Religion is fundamentally what kept Pi alive throughout the journey he experienced. It was the one motive he had that reminded him to remain hopeful through all the adversity. There were many scenarios he found it very difficult to have hope in, and he could’ve easily given up on everything as I think many others would have done if they were in his situation. He kept his hope and pushed through it and that primarily was the reason he survived. “I was giving up. I would have given up if a voice hadn’t made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, ‘I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far miraculously...
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