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Chapter 1: THINKING ABOUT GOD: THE SEARCH FOR THE DIVINE
Your Name Name of ProfessorPhilosophy
Day Month Year THINKING ABOUT GOD: THE SEARCH FOR THE DIVINE My reflective essay will first discuss what religion is according to Reason and Religious Belief; then it will differentiate between reflective and unreflective engagement on the matter of questions related to religion. I will further debate the difference between religious "believers" and "non-believers” and discuss why and why not this distinction was useful. In the next part, I will include my personal reaction to the topic, and discuss why or how it is personally relevant for me today.
Definition of religion according to Reason and Religious Belief, is established on the set actions, beliefs, personal and collective experiences, structured around the idea of Ultimate Reality which requires or inspires worship, devotion, or a motivated and focused life orientation (Peterson, 2013). Religion is basically an organized practice that includes participation and belief of other people. It is the system of belief which is practiced by people who openly share the knowledge of standards of God. It is a significant part of the lives of so many people, to function on a day-to-day basis. It is even considered important by the people who are not that religious by nature. The oddest part is that there are many people who do not know about the clear meaning of religion. Moreover, there are many religions that have ethical elements that teach people the way they should live their lives. It reflects that the most significant thing is that the person believes on the teachings of a particular religion; on the other hand, in some cases, it is significant what a person does in his/her life than having believe only. Religion is the kind of belief system, but not all the belief systems are considered as a religion. Therefore it is clear to declare religion to grow the connecting elements teach religion as a belief. In the aspect of religion, what is belief? It is a powerful conviction, hope, feeling and expectancy in supernatural power or powers that manage, help and control a person’s life. According to the Reason and Religious Belief, to present purposes, there are five basic areas. First, when a person finds him/herself in difficulty. Second, when people need a solution to resolve the difficulty. Third, the existence of Ultimate Reality that is the goal of our existence or assists us. Four, this existence can be approached in a specified way (Peterson, 2013).. Five, we need to do something to achieve liberation and salvation. These beliefs are responsible for the experiences and actions that a particular religion endorses. When a group of people is involved in the network of actions, believes and experiences which are linked with Ultimate Reality which deserves things like devotion, change of the pattern of life and worship, then it is called as the instance of the religion (Peterson, 2013).
There are people who believe that everything regarding religion is made up and all religious people are into false lies. It is not compulsory for such people to worship some supernatural force to live a good patterned life with right-doings. Such people consider it because they believe that religion creates boundaries and snatches away freedom ("Views of Religious Similarities and Differences"). They do not believe that there is some mysterious force who is witnessing all that they do and they need to be careful about a certain thing in lives, and they can practice ethics and manners in their lives without being necessarily a part of any religion. Some of such people believe it does not matter how they spend their life, they are not going to hell or heaven for what they do, instead, they’ll be eaten by decomposers at the end. They question the existence of God and ask for a logical and experimental proof for everything that religious people believe in. On the other hand, people who believe in their respective religion ask for the proofs that how does God not exists, how is this whole universe running, everything has a creator, who created the entire universe and who is responsible for running daily matters of life etc. Moreover, every religion questions every other religion and argues about believes. Hence the criteria of believers and non-believers is complex and broader than it seems like. When people are intricate in the network of actions, believes and experiences which are linked with Ultimate Reality which deserves things like devotion, change of the pattern of life and worship, which is all unique from other religions, sets a place for a single religion. According to every religion, every person that does not have faith and practice that particular religion is a non-believer and the one who does is a believer ("Views of Religious Similarities and Differences"). On the basis of this, different religions are categorized and have a different representation from each other. This distinction is useful as it unites the people that have the same perspectives and beliefs and they feel bonded in a relationship because of their religion. On the other hand, it also leads to the disunity of many people as most of the people that belong from different religions think they are different, one specific religion is right, and all others are wrong, this is what creates clashes between different religious communities and it also affects the social relations of people ("Views of Religious Similarities and Differences").
I found it very thought-provoking when I read this chapter of book that with all the differences in worship styles, life patterns, belief in God or gods, or simply believing that everything is a lie, is it even necessary to create a boundary that defines every single person wrong and rejects every single belief other than what one personally believes on? Is it not wiser that we all respect each other’s beliefs, and give each other space to practice what we believe in? Today, with growing concerns of society, people of the entire world, whether they are religious or not, need to throw their clashes back, respect each other’s differences and fight together with the social evils like racism and terrorism etc. Moreover, being good or evil whether one believes that God is witnessing everything or not, needs to be taken as objective. Those who believe in the existence of God and those who do not, both need to be such part of the society in which they live with the message of peace, love and unity instead of picking up fights on the basis of dissimilarities.
There is a constant battle of evil and good inside every single person; religion is what helps one understand what is right and what is wrong or what is virtuous and what is evil. It can be taught by humanism too, but this way, most of the people do not care to keep up with ethics, and right-doings because they believe nothing will happen to them if they die anyway, such people choose to live life on their own terms. Maybe the only reason we are seeing a clear increase in horrible social issues like racism, sexism, bullying, and body shaming etc. is the increase of the concept that there exists no God and things like religion are made up. In most of the cases, people consider it senseless to care for small things when they believe they will simply end up in a hole; they do not take their freedom fairly. It’s not that all those who have no religion are expected to appear in society as spoiled personalities, but if it is seen according to the nature of human and psychology, then it makes it clearer why there is a constant need of religion for society. It is the religion that has been saving the human civilization from falling apart. With the fear of Ultimate Reality, people would have done enough damage to make this world nothing but a pile of dead bodies. Today, there are many religions in this world but they have common teaching about goodness, kindness and nobility such as every religion teaches a person to appear nice in society, and be kind with others and animals etc. Similarly, these religions are united against evil and wicked acts like terrorism and racism etc. People follow religion to get the outlook of life and a pathway that teaches how to live a life doing what’s right and avoid from doing what’s wrong. In my opinion, it does not matter from which religion or belief one belongs from; every individual should be given respect on his/her beliefs about religion, even if he/she has no religion at all, and focus on one main goal, that is making this world a better place. It’s simple those who believe in the existence of God and those who do not, both need to be such part of the society in which they live with the message of peace, love and unity instead of making each other’s differences a debate. We all need to look for the similarities and respect each other’s dissimilarities with goals that uplift the positivity and goodness in the society.
Work Cited"Views Of Religious Similarities And Differences." Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. N.p., 2019. Web. 5 Feb. 2019.
Chaves, Mark. "Secularization as declining religious authority." Social forces 72.3 (1994): 749-774.
Peterson, Michael, et al. Reason & Religious Belief. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013
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