Faith is the reasoning of the absurd to satisfy the inevitable To live one’s life based on religious faith is a very personal question, one that on many occasions I have stated that in coping with the inevitable it may be a necessity for some to live comforted by their faith. To me faith is something that is transient, it is constantly adjusted by knowledge and actions of ourselves and others. One example is that of love and the faith that is between two people. I believe this is probably the best way to look at faith because the situation is reciprocated between the people involved, and is made even more precious from the fact that it can easily be lost between them through words or action. Now to take a look at religious faith, this type …show more content…
First in my mind is the use of faith as a scape goat in order to vindicate ones actions. This can take many forms, and has throughout human history lead to many wars and persecutions simply based on what one set of people put their faith in did not match what another groups faith believes. Some of the major examples that come to mind range from the crusades to acts such as persecution and enslavement of the native inhabitants of the Americas by the European countries justified by faith in religion that they believed justified them to do so because the natives were no more than soulless beasts to eventually be saved through conversion to their religion. Even to current times with extremists justifying the killing of innocents because they do not believe in the correct god. Do not take the last section as a rant it is just an emphasis on some of the history of what religious faith can bring about. I do understand that many of these acts were carried out by extremist in their religions and may not point to the general populous of that religion. However, it does help me make a point about of one of the weaknesses I eluded to earlier. A common quote that I have heard many times sums up this weakness rather nicely “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” To me this fits well and actually leads into my thoughts on the book fear and
Another example would be ISIS, and how they confuse religion with killing people for God. People in the 1960’s would kill for God as seen in Mississippi Burning. ISIS kills for their God, but nowhere in their bible it says to do so (LaFortune). This is not only a
...lt of the Christian religion itself, perhaps the present religious conflict could be resolved. We, too, have the obligation to remember that the strain of Islam that has come to fore in these days of terrorist attacks, is but an extremist fanatical derivation or a religion that also has a pure and good basis. We should all make sure that religion is not a "mere covering for the most horrid crimes--a justifying of the most appalling barbarity...in which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds...find the strongest protection" (1059) as it was in the days of slavery in the southern U. S. and in the life of Frederick Douglass.
As a result of our global society being manipulated by ancient doctrines Sam Harris argues in The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason the ultimate thesis: religion is the basis for all of human conflict. Because faith bypasses all evidence, Harris feels “we are building a civilization of ignorance” and another direction should be taken lest we desire to meet our doom. It is incredible the amount of detail Harris delves into. Each reference to religion, he notes their various foibles and incorporates well-reasoned arguments, including others, that support his view. Though there are flaws, The End of Faith is a worthy read that explores the idiosyncrasies of all facets of religion.
I will explore the relationship between faith and belief. At first glance, most of us will have the same thought that there is no difference between faith and belief. However, if we carefully examine them in detail, we will recognize their differences. Consider the difference in the meaning of “belief” in the following propositions: “I believe it will rain tomorrow” and “I believe 2+2=4.” Our general purpose is to express our thoughts to others and show them what things we want to believe. Shortly, our belief can be changed depending on our mood or our different cultures. When we’re talking about our faith, we must keep it in constancy. We can not say today our faith is this and tomorrow is on another. Therefore, the difference between faith and belief can be express as: faith is constant, and belief is varied. Faith shows “X-experiences and pre-cu...
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
“history is written by the victors”(Winston Churchill). Conflict has been deeply engrained into the history of mankind. For thousands of years all across the globe the prevalent aspect in which mass conflict has surrounded was that of differing religious practices. With all that is good that comes from religion, much evil is directly following. This conflict over religious views has caused hundreds of years of war in some parts of the world as well as problems that can range from day to day in your home. In the book Lame Deer, Seeker of visions religion can be seen at the base of all the struggle between the Native American people and the European Colonist that moved in to take over their land. Religion has been used for centuries to explain the surrounding world, but it only seems to pertain to the people practicing these beliefs. People through history have used their religions to justify their own personal desires even if they were not always the ideas of the religious institution.
In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.
The problem with putting your faith above all else, is this can make you do irrational things, without thinking about the reprocushions that could occur. In the story Mr. Bhowmick marries a woman, not out of love, but in an arranged situation, all a custom of his religion. (Mukherjee 365) “He recited prayers in Sanskrit to Kali, the patron goddess of his family, the goddess of wrath and vengeance” (Mukherjee 364). This line shows that his religion, though not a traditional type seen in our country, is still an everyday ritual that he keeps sacred even though he has moved to America. This is the same practices more prevalent religions take here, known as prayer. In this story the man’s religion does not give him peace, or provide him with a satisfaction in life, as the ideology of it was intend...
Throughout the course of history, man has looked to religion for answers. Curiosity as to how we got here and why we are have driven people to seek out answers to these somewhat unanswerable questions. Over the past few thousand years, several varying religions have been established, some more prominent than others. Many of them share a similar story of a divine creator who has always been and will always be. In the case of Christianity, whether true or not, it has proven to be beneficial to society as a whole. The Bible set the standard for the moral compass that humans live their lives by to this day. The key fundamental problem with religion, although not the fault of religion, is that man has often used it as a gateway to power and prominence. In the case of the 18th century Gallican church, the French were abusing their religious powers, thus creating vast inequality throughout France, which eventually led to a rebellion against the church, and the eventual destruction of the church within France.
Religion has its shares of promoting violence. Many will argue that a cause of religion wars is for economic and political reasons, but others argue that those who start wars are, by definition, not religious. In reality, separating religion out of economic and political motives can be involved in such a way finding religious motives innocent of much. Excuses for Christianity responsibilities cannot be accepted whether the person has misappropriated the message of Christ. The primarily set of doctrines is not Christianity, but by living through past background it personified the visible actions of Christians. In other words, Christianity, Islam or any other religion has no intention of excusing from survey. Given certain conditions, Christianity, Islam or any other religion can and do cause war.
...gion” developed by socialism of religion. She warns of “the global upsurge of religiously inspired violence” caused by “National Socialism” (Kurtz). Kurtz questions whether collective faith is beneficial to nations as a whole.
In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my belief that faith and reason are both needed to gain knowledge for three reasons: first, both concepts coexist with one another; second, each deals with separate realms of reality, and third, one without the other can lead to cases of extremism.
In any culture, war has always been a factor whether it is due to religion, communism, nationalism, militarism, or just down right greed. It is a way for one to have control over something that does not belong to them. Recently there has been an argument circulating around anti-religious beliefs that “religion has been the cause of more wars and conflicts than any other factor” (Pimentel). This theory is obviously inaccurate and shows no relevance of any proper research done. Religion is based on one’s faith. Faith can be warped into fanaticism, which is bad no matter what form it comes in. It can motivate a ...
With modern technology and the rapid advancement of science, it is easy to look back into history and point out the problems religion had created in the past (Violence, intolerance, ignorance etc.) However one must keep in mind that reli...
In the world we are in today, every continent, city, and smallest village has some sort of belief set. Religious belief frequently has the most impact over societies with religion’s ability to mold social laws, boundaries, and sometimes hold entire sway over government systems. However, because religion is left to interpretation of its audiences, religion itself can only be as peaceful or as violent as its followers make it. When religious beliefs are paired with religious intolerance, and people willing to act on that intolerance, religious beliefs can take a turn towards violence, death, and destruction. Religious intolerance is being unwilling to tolerate another 's religious beliefs or practices