Religion -- Books of the Old and New Testaments
The Bible contains many types of genres, themes, events and characters illustrating the seeds of Christianity in the Old Testament and the Old Testament's fulfillment by Jesus and the young Christian Church of the New Testament. Using the genres of epic and simple narratives, law, prophecy, wisdom, pastoral letters and apocalyptic expression, both Testaments show the struggle of ordinary people trying to understand God and build their relationships with Him. Beginning with the Old Testament, how their understanding of God grew from that of a tribal god to the universal, loving God.

Old Testament

Exodus

The book of Exodus is written in the basic epic narrative genre. The book and flows from Genesis into the designation of Israelites as God's people and His salvation of His people from earthly powers. The key themes/purposes/personalities/issues of Exodus are: describing signs and wonders, including the Plagues, which oses…...

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Mark is written in the basic genre of a narrative Gospel. Mark is believed to be the first written of the four Gospels despite the fact that it comes second in the order of Gospels. In many ways, is the simplest and most straightforward in its telling of Jesus' life, which has led some scholars to believe that it was written the closest in time to the actual life of Jesus. The key themes/purposes/personalities/issues are: the Messianic Secret, which consists of Jesus' exhortation to his followers to keep his mission as Messiah unrevealed to others; the suffering of the Messiah who reveals his Messianic mission to the people and arouses their anger against him because of his true revelations of his mission; the fact that the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus as Messiah casts its shadow over the entire course of Jesus' adult mission to the people; the Church of the risen Jesus being Israel's genuine successor in God's providence (Browning, 1997; Harbin, 2005, p. 334).

Acts

Acts is written in the basic narrative genre and recounts the gospel's spread from its Jewish small beginnings to Rome, which is the very seat of the greatest worldly power of that time. The book's key themes/purposes/personalities/issues are: Luke's testimony and Paul's guidance; the continued and, in some ways, renewed hope for the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah; the growth

eligion and Society
eligion is defined as an organized collection of belief systems, views about the universe, or cultural systems that humans use to relate spiritual and moral values to their lives. Many religions have symbols, traditions, and histories that explain the origin of life, the way the universe works, and the moral, ethical and legal ways to organize human life (De Vries, ed., 2008). While the exact origin of religion is unknown, anthropologists suggest that it evolved to both explain the nature of humanity and the universe and to allow for a basic degree of organization within society:

Many of the great world religions appear to have begun as revitalization movements of some sort, as the vision of a charismatic prophet fires the imaginations of people seeking a more comprehensive answer to their problems than they feel is provided by everyday beliefs. Charismatic individuals have emerged at many times and places…...

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REFERENCES

Akhenaton's Longer Hymn to the Aton. (n.d.) Trans. J. Breasted. Retrieved from:  http://www.brainfly.net/html/books/aton.htm 

Abulafia, D. (1988). Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. New York: Oxford University Press.

Armstrong, K. (2001). Holy War -- The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World, 2nd ed. New York: Anchor Books.

DeVries, H., ed. (2008). Religion: Beyond a Concept. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press.

A key celebration in the village invites a festive dance in which the performers fall into a stupor and try to stab themselves with knives (Heinrich, 2005 p. 78). Rituals in life are pertinent events for religious display and artistic expression. Events of puberty, marriage life and burial offer opportunities for alinese to express their notions regarding statuses, society and the afterlife.
The alinese denomination organizes their faith in a hierarchical manner with a small portion of the aristocracy, the rahmans or priestly classes being the highest in rank. rahman priests have no association with any temple but act as spiritual figures, leaders and advisors to families in several homesteads distributed throughout the island. People consult the priests when celebratory events requiring holy anointment water emerge. In other instances, individuals may hire doctors and traditional healers.

uddhism in Indonesia

uddhism in Indonesia in the 1990 period was the unbalanced product of intricate…...

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Bibliography

Esposito, J. (2000). Islam in Asia: Religion, Politics and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press on Demand.

Vroom, H. (2002) Religion, Conflict and Reconciliation: Multifaith Ideals and Realities, Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Intan, B. (2006) Public Religion and the Pancasila-based State of Indonesia: An Ethical and Sociological Analysis, Alexandria: Peter Lang.

Heinrich, S. (2005) Key into Indonesia, Melbourne: Curriculum Press.

eligion
Vocabulary, Christianity: citing your sources:

• Gospel -- pertains to one of the first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), or refers more generally to the life and teachings of Jesus (Babylon)

• parable -- a "symbolic story" that teaches a moral or religious lesson (Babylon)

• baptism -- initiation into Christianity via ritual submergence in water (Babylon)

• trinity -- group of three; in Christianity, referring particularly to the theological trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Babylon)

• creed -- belief, usually religious; personal faith (Babylon)

• eucharist or communion -- Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper (Babylon)

• ecumenical -- referring to the Church, worldwide or universal nature (Babylon)

• bishop -- "church official who oversees a number of Christian churches," (Babylon)

• heresy -- beliefs that contrast with the established religion (Babylon)

• schism -- faction or division, generally into two "opposing parties," as in the East-West schism of the Church…...

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References

Babylon Dictionary. Retrieved online: http://dictionary.babylon.com/

BBC Religion. Retrieved online:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/easter.shtml 

Bible: NIV ( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1&version=NIV )

Fairchild, M. (n.d.). Basic Christian beliefs. About.com. Retrieved online:  http://christianity.about.com/od/christiandoctrines/a/basicdoctrines.htm

Examples where religion has become intersected with politics are present throughout the entire history, and in more recent years, include the debates on same sex marriages or on abortion.
A more specific look at the relationship between politics and religion has revealed at least three points of intersection -- the role of churches, the evolution of human rights and the emergence and impacts of religious conflicts. In terms of the role of churches, these generally insufflate moral ideals and values to their churchgoers, which in turn become more involved in the political act and strive to implement the norms of morality and dignity. On the other hand however, by promoting these values at a community level and becoming engaged in voluntary work for churches, individuals miss out on the political practice. Secondly, in terms of human rights, these have been forwarded by religion and have evolved in the same ascendant…...

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References:

Bruce, I., January 25, 2008, 72,000 American Casualties: Toll of War on Terror, the Herald (Scotland Herald)

Campbell, D.E., 2004, Acts of Faith: Churches and Political Engagement, Political Behavior, Vol. 26, No. 2

Demerath, N.J., 2007, Introduction: Religion, Politics and the State, at Home and Abroad, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 68

Rieffer, B.A., 2006, Religion, Politics and Human Rights: Understanding the Role of Christianity in the Promotion of Human Rights, Human Rights and Human Welfare, Vol. 6

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eligion is belief in the existence of a supreme being while science is a study to explain the how. The main conflict of these two disciplines begins with the concept of life. eligion explains that God is the creator and giver of life, whereas scientists argue that life evolved from a microorganism. The debate between religion and science is highly controversial but I choose to take the stand of the integrative advocates who believe the two are one and only different artificially. This is through an attempt to understand God and His works through reason. Chardin, 1955 argues that science shows that there has been a progressive evolution from the simplest life forms to humans today. This means that history blends with a Christian vision to see future development to even higher development like the Omega Point.

Human beings are free individuals who chose to have faith in a supreme being.…...

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References

Stringer, M.D. (2011). Contemporary western ethnography and the definition of religion.

London: Continuum.

Platvoet, J.G., & Molendijk, A.L. (1999). The pragmatics of defining religion: Contexts, concepts and contests. Leiden: Brill.

Hare, J.E. (2009). God and morality: A philosophical history. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Religion and ar
Religion has been, and will continue to be, a cause of war. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate how religion, but more precisely faith-based thinking, has been used to foment violence and cause war.

To understand the role that religion has played in sparking violence and causing nations, tribes, etc. To go to war, one must first understand what exactly war is. One of the best approaches to understanding war, and the components of war, was articulated by Carl Von Clausewitz in his seminal work On ar.

In his book, Clausewitz defines his trinity model of war, also known as the "remarkable trinity." That is, Clausewitz argues that war consists of three distinct forces (1) primordial violence, hatred, and enmity; (2) the play of chance and probability; and (3) war's element of subordination to rational policy" (Bassford, 2011). Here one will notice the Hegelian dialectical format in…...

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Works Cited

Bassford, C. (2011). Tip-Toe Through the Trinity. Clausewitz.com. Retrieved from http://www.clausewitz.com/readings/Bassford/Trinity/Trinity8.htm

Clausewitz, C.V. (1982). On War. New York: Penguin Classics.

Dawkins, R. (2006). The God Delusion. New York: Bantam Books.

Weinberg, S. (1999). Address at the Conference on Cosmic Design. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Washington, D.C.

"Embryo cloning is the technology that would make the creation of eugenically engineered 'designer babies' commercially feasible." (Darnovsky M. 2002) This also relates to the growing concern in some quarters that technologies such as stem cell manipulation can be subject to abuse. "Many disability rights activists argue that it is being used in a misguided search for 'perfect' babies, and many feminists voice concern about its use to satisfy 'gender preference'." (Darnovsky M. 2002)
There is therefore, from a religious point-of-view, strong objection to this new technology from many large churches, particularly the Catholic Church. From a conservative religious perspective stem cell research and the cloning of body parts are seen to be tantamount to saying that man can create himself instead of God. This means that man and not God becomes the creator; which obviously undermines the foundations of many of the world's prominent theologies.

Therefore many who are opposed…...

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Works Cited

Antiaging. December 5, 2006. http://www.antiagings.co.uk/

Darnovsky M. Embryo Cloning and Beyond. December 5, 2006.  http://www.genetics-and-society.org/resources/cgs/200207_tikkun_darnovsky.html 

Goldenberg S. Religious right fights science for the heart of America. 2005.

December 6, 2006.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1407422,00.html

9%-11.2% while the proportion of Hindus decreased from 84.9%-82.7%. He could not attribute the proportional changes to differences in migration or mortality, but to differences in fertility. Census and survey data show fertility is higher among Muslims than among Hindus, he claims. The total marital fertility rate for Muslim women was 11% higher in urban areas and 20% higher in rural areas than the rate for Hindus in those same areas, according to the 1971 census data. Even when education was controlled, the Muslim rate was higher. The 11 demographic survey findings reveal consistently higher fertility rates for Muslims than Hindus. When education and socioeconomic factors were controlled, studies demonstrated that differences narrowed yet remained.
alasubramanian claims that one of three hypotheses is generally used to explain the differences. The first hypothesis attributes the fertility differences to background or socioeconomic characteristics of the two populations, but this explanation can not be…...

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Bibliography

Adsera, Alicia. "

Marital fertility and religion: recent changes in Spain,"

IZA Discussion Papers 1399, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). 2004.

Balasubramanian, K. "Hindu-Muslim differentials in fertility and population growth in India: role of proximate variables." Artha Vijnana 26 Sep. 1984: 189-216.

Religion is truly a lived experience. In today's volatile world, with world events hinging on various interpretations of religious texts perhaps more than in any other time in human history save, perhaps, during the Crusades, humanity is increasingly aware that religion is not a stoic object of study. Rather, it is a living breathing force in which we live and which inhabits us, whether we seek it or not.
Robert Orsi's edited work, "Gods of the City," provides vivid evidence of how and why religion is a lived experience. The best example of this, perhaps, lies in Karen McCarthy Brown's "Ecological Dissonance and Ritual Accommodation in Haitian Vodou." Here, Brown chronicle the unique religious subtexts and culture of Haitians living in New York.

Mama Lola, a Brooklyn Vodou priestess I have worked with for more than fifteen years, originally thought that her move away from Haiti would be a move away from…...

This means that there must be some correlation between religion and politics. Indeed Keddie (2003) asserts that there is an aversion to the word secular and that most countries that try to embrace this idea are not content.
According to Carroll (2003) this inevitable link between religion and politics forces the question of whether or not the world would be better off without religion. The author asserts that misconceptions about religion have caused a great deal of turmoil and war. As such societies around the world might be better off if religion did not exist. However, te author also understands that to "ask such a question from within a religious tradition is like asking, ould the world be better off without desire ? (Carroll, 2003)

Throughout the article Carroll presents a rather dramatic analysis of the manner in which the relationship between religion and politics should be handled in society. The…...

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Works Cited

Carroll J. (2003) Why Religion Still Matters Author(s): Source: Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 3, on Secularism & Religion (Summer, 2003), pp. 9-13

Keddie N.R.(2003) Secularism & Its Discontents. Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 3, on Secularism & Religion, pp. 14-30

Marty M.E. Our Religio-Secular World. (2003) Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 3, on Secularism & Religion (Summer, 2003), pp. 42-48

Tosteson D.C. (2003) Unhealthy Beliefs: Religion & the Plague of War Author(s): Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 3, on Secularism & Religion (Summer, 2003), pp. 80-82

My personality also plays a major role in my personal religious development. eligion may have been part of my identity when I was younger, but has since played a more minor role in how I present myself to the world. On the other hand, religion plays a more salient role in my metaphysical and cosmological beliefs. I appreciate the role of religion in helping human beings ask probing questions about the nature of the universe, the soul, and human consciousness. While I do not feel that religion has all the answers to such serious questions, I do like how religion attempts to address them. eligious traditions occasionally become the symbolic vehicles with which to contemplate mystical issues. For example, the holiday of Easter asks all Christians to ponder the meaning of life and death and the possibility of resurrection. A person does not have to be a Christian to appreciate…...

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References

Gottlieb, R. (1995). This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, and Environment. Routledge.

Robinson, B.A. (2005). Comparing U.S. religious beliefs with other "Christian" countries. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved April 11, 2009 from  http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_comp.htm 

Stone, D. (2009). One Nation Under God? Newsweek. Retrieved April 11, 2009 from http://www.newsweek.com/id/192915?from=rss

eligion
The Cuban community in South Florida has evolved customs and a culture all its own. Central to those customs and cultural expressions is religion. Whether Sephardic Jew or Catholic, the Cuban in South Florida is touched by religion in all aspects of his or her life. Family gatherings and community celebrations are often organized around religious events, holidays, or rituals. This is true for any religious community, but for this research I was most interested in penetrating one of South Florida's most mysterious and maligned religious tradition.

Of course, I am referring to Santeria. Since the first wave of Cuban exiles began to arrive in South Florida in the 1960s, Santeria became part of the local community. When dead chickens started to show up in greater numbers than before, a local ban was placed on the religion, which relies on animal sacrifice as a fundamental part of its rites. The issue…...

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References

Brandon, George.

1997. Santeria from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories. Indiana University Press.

Brown, David H.

2003. Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Religion in Tokyo in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries
Religion plays an important part in the lives of everyone. It is especially important in the various stages of life such as births, weddings, and funerals. It also plays an important role in the lives of many people on a daily basis. In Tokyo today, there are four major religions: Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, and another group comprised of various new religions. Confucianism was another major religion at one time, but it had primarily died out by the Tokugawa period. Of these, Shinto is the religion most closely associated with the indigenous peoples of Japan. The others were introduced later. Among these are many cross influences and it is at times difficult to distinguish the roots of these new versions of religion in Tokyo. According to the University of Texas, Shinto and Buddhism are by far the most popular, both in number…...

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Works Cited

Ask Asia. "Timeline of Japanese History.   Accessed June 2002.http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/readings/t000013.htm .

Japan-Zone.com. "Shinto.   Accessed Junehttp://www.japan-zone.com/omnibus/shinto.shtml .

Nelson, John. "Religion, History, and the State Japan Faculty." University of Texas, Austin

2002. Accessed June 2002.http://inic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/japan/religionhisndstate.html.

(Szaflarski, M., Ritchey, P.N., Leonard, a., Mrus, J.M., Peterman, a. And Tsevat, J. )
Generally speaking, the researchers in the area of health psychology who focused their attention upon the argument under discussion agree that there is a positive connection which can be established between mental health (supported by spirituality) and physical health. However, it must be mentioned that in numerous studies, the religious and spiritual factors did not succeed in having a strongly relevant impact upon people's health.

Community support has proved to be a strong influencing factor (especially in the cases of people who had been diagnosed with HIV / AIDS). Under these circumstances we ought to consider spirituality in its broader sense as well, and not just the one closely connected with religion. Or we could simply consider religion and religious beliefs as an enhancer and supporter of spiritual practices which a lot of people with sensitive health…...

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Bibliography:

JAMA and Archives Journals (2007, April 10). "Most Physicians Believe That Religion Influences Patients' Health." ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 24, 2010, from  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409164931.htm 

Medical News Today ( 2006, May 29). "Positive influences of religion and spirituality on blood pressure." MedicalNewsToday. Retrieved June 24, 2010 from  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/44202.php 

Savage, Allan. (2004, July- September). "The link between spirituality and health: holistic outcomes and religious practice in clinical health care." Quodibet Journal, Vol. 6, Number 3. Retrieved June 24, 2010 from http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/savage-spirituality.shtml

Szaflarski, M., Ritchey, P.N., Leonard, a., Mrus, J.M., Peterman, a. And Tsevat, J. (2005, August 12) "Modelling the effects of spirituality/religion on patients' perceptions of living with HIV / AIDS." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA Online . Retrieved June 24, 2010 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p23047_index.html

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This could be a challenging assignment because if there is a defining principal to describe Native American beliefs, it would probably be that there is no defining principal to describe Native American beliefs.  Native American tribes practiced a range of different religions and they included, but were not limited to, polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, henotheistic, animistic, and shamanistic religions.  There were some shared elements among Native American belief systems, but many differences, as well.  In addition, it can be very difficult to understand Native American beliefs at the time of contact with Europeans because of the tremendous losses....

To write a good thesis about this, you have to first put together what you know about early America and its approach to religion.  Obviously, the American colonies were initially established, in part, as a way for people to freely practice certain religions.  That said, they were extremely restrictive, with punishments for people who did not adhere to societal norms.  Many undesirable behaviors were not just considered undesirable, but labeled as sin.  The most dramatic example of this could be found in the witch hysteria that overtook some of the colonies and the executions and general destruction that happened surrounding....

In order to really understand resistance in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, it is important to look at all of the characters and not just the highlighted European males, such as the protagonist Marlowe, that sit at the center of the story.  That is because resistance is the undercurrent behind all of the action in the story.  The main characters are always acting against the threat of resistance by the African people who are often portrayed as victims, but are consistently offering resistance to the colonizers, as evidenced by the arrow attack by the natives on the ship. ....