Religion and Human Experience

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Religion & Human Experience

1. “Holy War”

The term Holy War as per the “Sacred Fury” text is the “scriptural call and religious duty to engage in war, violence and mass murder on behalf of religion” (p.15, 2008). A holy war is not something that can be simply defined because for each believer this type of war has it’s own meaning. Throughout the pages in “Sacred Fury”, Charles Selengut gives a deeper look into not only the definition of holy war but also the justifications religious leaders and followers use to validate using violence and killing. From Judaism, to Islam and even Christianity, Charles Selengut discusses specific instances in which these religions utilize holy wars to protect and honor their covenants with God. To the believer, the use of violence is a necessity and permitted by God. Holy wars have been used as a means to rid the world of non-believers and evildoers, to the true believer these wars are not just a thing of the past but also an ongoing fight to bring the truth to all. “History is the arena for the realization of God’s blueprint, and what has gone wrong must be made right” (p.39, 2008).

2. Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths & The Eight-Fold Path

Ancient Buddhism was founded on the ideas and philosophies of Buddha, a man with the birth name Siddhartha Gautama, who was born into a family that practiced Hinduism. When Buddha was growing up his father, in particular, tried to shelter him from the truth about the world in which he lived. Eventually Buddha, then Siddhartha ventured out, and underwent a “rite of passage” after leaving his family and experiencing the world. What he discovered was that there were many factors that caused great suffering in this life. These circumstances known as The Four...

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...undamentalism as per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles. This type of Christian follows that definition perfectly, they believe in the literal word of the Bible and that it comes directly from the mouth of God.

References

Selengut, C. Sacred Fury, Understanding Religious Violence. [Print]. Rowman

& Littlefield Publisher, Inc. USA. (2008). p.15-40.

Simmons, John K. Beliefs & Believers.[Print] Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Dubuque, Iowa. (2007) Ch.4, p. 31-38, Ch. 7, p. 57-64, Ch. 10, p.83-88, Ch. 15, p. 123-131.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/ [online]. (2014).

Simmons, John K. A Teleclass Series; Beliefs and Believers. [Video] Western Illinois

University. (n.d.)

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