Religion Part 2
II. Origin of the concept of religion
There are different theories regarding the origin of the concept of religion. But it cannot be certainly said that when and how religious ideas emerged in man. It is also certainly cannot be said that what is the origin of the ideas of religion. All these are due to the fact that there is no broad consensus amongst the thinkers of this field regarding the origin of religion. But there are people who firmly believe that religious ideas are instinctive in man. No other animals except man bear this instinctive feature. Man can be distinguished from other animals from two angles: reason and religion. Man possesses reason while other animals do not and that is why men are called „rational animals‟. Similarly, men are religious while other animals are not. Men bear both finite and infinite features. At the very inception of human race on earth, men were totally ignorant about the different events that occurred in nature around them. But they were curious to know the happenings and accordingly, they applied their own efforts. They had to face the different natural calamities like storms, floods, lightning; dangerous animals, famine etc. and they were unable to overcome these situations. As a result, they had to imagine an invisible power mightier than themselves upon whom they depended for assistance, strength and relief. Thus fear and curiosity are the main factors responsible for the emergence of religious tendency in ancient people. They also believed that this unseen and invisible power would be helpful in their birth, sorrow, old age and finally in obtaining salvation. They sometimes conceived God as their object of love. There are different forms such as, father, friend, lover, beloved, master through which they tried to attain relation with God. Thus, in order to meet their ignorance and to get strength and courage to face natural calamities, men time and again depended on an imaginary existence, the result of which is named „God‟ in religion.
III. Different aspects of religion
There are different aspects of religion such as, internal and external, individual and social.
In religious consciousness an emotional element is present. The emotional elements are- ideas, thoughts and feelings. Not only that, it also concerns man‟s relation to God. Thus these emotional elements as well as intellectual elements are referred by internal aspect. Apart from this an important aspect of religion is practical activities such as, rites and ceremonies. These practical activities are different ways through which men express their religious feelings. Thus these practical activities are referred in external aspect of religion.
But although it is claimed that God is the central element of religion, there are religion without God or gods. Some of these religions are-Buddhism, Jainism and Comte‟s religion of humanity. Crawley also holds that the fundamental feature of religion is „sacred ceremony‟. He believes that religion is possible without making any reference to God or gods. Bu there are thinkers who are of the opinion that without reference to God the true sense of religion is not possible. Many others claim that those who do not believe the reality of God in their religion, there is reference of communion between „man‟ and something beyond man‟ in their religion.
Religion is, in fact, an individual matter. It is individual who acquires religious experience and he has conviction on it. He personally realizes religious experiences in his life. He believes that salvation can be attained through performing religious activities. But to a social philosopher, social aspect of religion is more important and carries greatest significance. This social aspect is emphasized by all the great religions of the world. It is because of the fact that religion plays an important role in maintaining social unity, its promotion and maintenance. The religion which emphasizes this social aspect is the religion of humanity, although in traditional sense this aspect is not recognized as religion. In emphasizing the social aspect of religion Blackmar and Gillin, the famous sociologists say that without community worship, no religious faith can survive for long time. They are of the opinion that a living religion may lose all its importance if the believer and worshiper of that religion ceases to worship together.
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Religion
Introduction
What is Religion?
It can openly be admitted that in defining religion, most of the Indian thinkers follow the definition given by the western thinkers. As the western thinkers believe that the religious approach is theistic in its nature, so the Indian thinkers maintain that religion is some form of theism. This view of western thinkers seems to be an echo of a Scottish theologian and philosopher Robert Flint. According to Flint, both theism and religion are one and the same thing. In his lecture he says the impossibility of anything more than theism. Similarly, there is no religion which is less than theism. This point is stated by William James in another way. He says, “Anything short of God is not rational, anything more than God is not possible.”
1 Another definition of religion is given by Galloway which is definitely applicable to theism. According to him, “Man‟s faith in a power beyond himself whereby he seeks to satisfy emotional needs and gains stability of life, and which he expresses in acts of worship and service.”
2 By this definition Galloway tries to maintain that the essential feature of religion is a faith in a power beyond men which satisfies the emotional aspect of men.
In explaining the meaning of religion Taylor says that religion is the belief in spiritual beings. But his explanation of the meaning of religion does not satisfy a rational mind as he does not give us a clear picture of the nature of spiritual beings.
Max Muller, a German born philosopher, gives us a vague definition of religion. While explaining the nature of religion he says that in religion infinite is perceived.
There are three different aspects of religious consciousness, viz., intellect, feeling and action. But while defining religion different thinkers emphasise either of the aspects. According to Herber Spencer, religion is a type of hypothesis by which people attempt to comprehend the universe. His definition thus emphasizes the intellectual aspect of religion. Other thinkers like Mc Taggard emphasizes on the emotional aspect neglecting other aspects. Similarly, Frazer‟s definition of religion emphasizes only the volition and action. But the definition of religion seems to be more or less satisfactory is put forwarded by Robert Flint, as he embraces all the three aspects of religion. According to him, “Religion is man‟s belief in a being or beings mightier than himself and inaccessible to his senses but not indifferent to his sentiments and actions, with the feelings and practices which flow from such a belief.”
The above mentioned definition and analysis of religion is not sufficient. There are so many definitions of religion given by different thinkers at different period of history but none can give us a complete picture of it.
“Religion is hard to define, not because there is so little of it, but because there is so much.”
3 It is fact that God is the central element of religion and men have implicit confidence on Him and they exercise all their attempts to make commune with Him. Thus without mentioning this aspect of religion no definition of it can give us a complete picture of religion.
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Key factors in Marriages
Am writing about this here to give pleasure and understanding to the married men and women we have here.I hope you learn one or two things.
Putting words on these delicate matters enables husband and wives to discuss them together more freely. A woman can grow to understand a man's problem and a man can also grow to understand a woman's problem if there is enough sharing between them. It is not by any means necessary to experience all the difficulties oneself in order to understand them. We can almost feel the pain of a man with a broken leg without breaking our own. The objective of this article is to increase the dialogue and love rather than simply to impact knowledge.
A good example of how dialogue increases marital harmony is often found among users of natural family planning. When it is taught in it's fullness and not merely the dry bones of a method, it evokes a spontaneous dialogue at a deep level between husband and wife.
Dialogue as described above, is one of the basic elements in a happy marriage. I see Honesty as the second one; Honesty with ones self and with one's partner; the avoidance of sham, performance, pretence. This requires maturity and great sensitivity. It means speaking the truth to yourself and to your partner, but with the utmost gentleness. The truth often hurts but when gently expressed it leads to maturity. Be authentic; be true to yourself and don't pretend.
Growth is the third major element I see in marriages. I would like to stress something which at first my appear obvious but which if fully appreciated could minimize many marital problems. This is the fact of growth. Building a marriage is the work of lifetime. Love grows; it changes and newly weds need to recognize this fact. The romantic love of earlier years gradually develops into the caring love of later life and this change should be welcomed. It is true that a certain degree of romanticism should always be part of marriage, but clinging to this aspect of love may hinder the development of a deeper and more real relationship. Most of these reflections on growth arose out of a discussion with a friend whom I hold in high regard. He said, "everything takes time to grow- everything and everyone. This includes growth in one's knowledge of love, of sex, of marriage and of oneself. Infact we will still be learning about these four things when they are laying us in the tomb. So everyone should cheer up!"
Now on this light-hearted note, we will end our discussion on love for now. I hope you have learnt one or two things.
Thanks for reading. I would love it if you support me. It would boost my spirit to write more of this . Thank you all.
The secret of success
Alright guys, this is my first published article here and am going to be talking about Success. This is just my point of view on how I view success from the little research i made on it from different sources and ideas. Lets begin.
Some years ago, a researcher decided to find the secret of success. After a month of study and countless interviews, he finally gave up. "There is not a secret," he said. "It is all related to hardwork. One must climb the ladder to success, not just be lifted easily by an elevator without any obstructions or delays."
The successful individual is the one who would do what the average person would not do. Thinking wrong, believing wrong, and talking wrong always leads to an unhappy, mediocre and unprofitable way of life.
To think success, to become better, to believe big, and to strive to be above average, you must develop the right kind of mental processes.
You may have been programmed to be negative, to disbelieve, to be skeptical. However, you can change. Those negative experiences, the minuses, can be transformed into positives and pluses simply by changing your attitudes.
I was reading a book about how to utilize your wealth and i saw a quotation, it says, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that men can change their circumstances by changing their attitude of mind."
We are taught that changing the input can change those thoughts. What goes in must come out. You can control the future because you have the power to control your thoughts. Some say success is just a decision anyway. That is true on the surface. But that decisions must be backed up by solid effort.
A person with a winner attitude accounts for 80percent of the results in this world today. It's amazing that the future don't change from year to year. They say about the same 20percent of the people are getting 80percent of the results, and 80percent the people are getting 20percent of the results. That isn't very much when you realize these figures haven't changed in the last 25 years.
Your growth potential, return on your investment, rewards in proportion to your efforts and personal independence are limited only by your vision and desire. This already has made you above average.
So be enthusiastic!! You have a lot to be excited about. God created you in the likeness of himself and endowed you with specific talents and abilities. As you develop those areas in your life and use them to help others, you wont have to be concerned about being above average. You will have conquered that enemy.
Thank you all and stay safe.
Introduction
Hi everyone. Good day. Hope you are all doing well. I have decided to introduce myself in this place before i start or publish any article or work and I hope I will be welcomed well by everyone.
My name is Stella. I am an African but I am based in London. Although ever since the pandemic started I returned back to Africa with my family due to how fast the corona virus was spreading worldwide. We thought to ourselves that, if we are going to die, its better we die at home(my father land) than to die in a foreign country. But thanks to God non of my family got the virus and we are all safe.
By the way, I am 20 years old and a student of Accountancy in college. I have a passion for writing and read books. I have some books written by me already but yet to be published for public view due to lack of good sponsorship. I have also written so many articles for magazines and journals including school magazines. I also write for an online firm who lets me publish some of my article on their website and get paid by the number of views it gets, so you see its not so easy to make money with writing online.
So i got to know about this platform, read.cash, from a friend who introduced me to it and thought it might be very useful to me since i do lots of writing. At first i was reluctant to join due to the fact that it only pays in crypto currency and not in real cash like dollar and so. Am not really a big fan of crypto to be honest lol but i have decided to give it a try and maybe one day crypto currency might change my life for good. Now here i am. I am hoping to read more interesting and wonderful articles from the members of this platform. And i am also hoping to write more articles for you all. I am glad to be here and i sincerely want to thank the innovators of this platform. They have done a good job and have helped many people from what i can observe. I hope to smile and earn lots from you.I also aim to make good friends from here too. So hope i am welcomed?
Stay safe everyone. It will soon be over. Thank you.
@Stella