What is religion?
The word religion has no one generally accept definition. Some philosophers have called it " a superstitious structure of incoherent metaphysical notions. "; followers of Karl Marx define it as " the opiate of the people " while some psychologists call it the " mythical complex surrounding a projected super - ego. " The BBC English Dictionary defines religion in short: Religion is belief in a God or gods and the activities connected with this belief. The Newbury House Dictionary defines religion as a system of belief in a God or philosophy of life. In a nutshell, religion is the product of human's faith or belief in Higher Power. It is a response to the spiritual need for higher happiness beyond other basic requisites.
Although it is impossible to give a conclusive definition of religion, there are certain characteristic forms of human activity and belief which are commonly recognized as religious: worship, separate of the sacred from the profane, belief in the soul, belief in gods or God, acceptance of the supernatural revelation, and quest for salvation.
The sacred
The sacred is a supernatural realm in which gods and demons live, including a mysterious potency with lives within the sensory world, It exists in all everything and therefore must be reckoned with as an extrahuman force in all of the concerns of the daily life. The existence of the sacred is recognized because man understand that there are certain powers affecting his life, which lie outside the normal means he uses for controlling his environment. The designation of specific objects as sacred results from the recognition that these objects are possessed of a spacial, extraordinary power. In certain Christian community, the Sivite Hindunism, certain rocks, mountains, rivers, caves and trees are considered sacred.
Gods and God
There are many types of gods, which may be listen, for example; clan god, specialized god, the philosophic god, wrathful gods and the single God.
Clan gods are generally regarded as the earliest conception of deities. These clan gods are heroes of the past whose exploits are handed down from generation in myths and legends. In general, they protect against disease, famine, floods and other natural disaster.
Specialized gods are recognized in more complex societies. They are the patrons of certain human activities and are often of decisive influence of success or failure. The most specialized deities are those who have power over the world which man enters after death. these dead gods, often, however invade life because thy must determine, by the kind of life a person lied while on earth, whether or not his soul is to be given glory or suffering after death. Whenever the gods of the after - life have this power of judgment, they tend to be imperialistic and to dictate the way in which the whole of life should be conducted.
The single God in monotheistic traditions is a universal deity who has power over all that is in heaven, earth and sometime hell. Monotheism represents an advance degree of intellectualization. Most often monotheistic traditions recognized their single deity as the creature of the world, the source of all good, the regulator of all ceremonial and ethical conduct, the judge who will consign a soul to heaven or hell, and the true God who must be worshiped by all men. The major monotheistic traditions, Judaism, Christianity, ad Islam, all claim that there is the only correct one. The universal deity is never localized nor is he given temporal existence.
Worship
Religion worship is that activity which results from recognition of dependence upon sacred powers beyond man's control. Although all gods are at least possible friends to man, there is usually a price to be paid for their goodwill. When gods are the embodiment and source of the sacred, it is usual for men to recognize in the will of deity, the rules which regulate his relation with the divine. the earliest and the latest religious traditions are replete with the ceremonial dances, processions, and verbal incantations. Valuable gifts are offered as sacrifice to indicate esteem and dependence. A common form of worship is the petitionary prayer, in which the applicant asks for a particular blessing from deity. To a greater or lessor extent, all religious traditions mix public and private worship. Very often, image of gods or sacred things have special places of honor in their homes of believers.
The Myth
The ordinary natural experiences of man are usually susceptible to description by common scientific language. Meanwhile, the non - natural, however, poses a much different problem. Non - natural beings are usually beyond the ken of the sense and they are, for the most part, not comparable with anythings perceived by the senses. As the result, the religious man is forced to use his imagination and produced myths. These myths are only the meaningful way for a worshiper to express his understanding of the divine. In general, particular religious myths are accented by those within the particular tradition as being in some senses revelatory of divine, whereas myths in other tradition are viewed as superstitious fairy tale without religious significance. No matter how myth may be interpreted, religious tradition are dependent upon them for propagation of the faith and a dramatic representation of divine attributes and demands.
The soul
Virtually, all of the major religious traditions have had and do have a believe in an interior something in man, not a part of his body, called the soul. The soul is an insubstantial entity, which comes into the body at birth, which leaves the body at death to take up residence in heaven, hell, or a new earthy form. The only major religious figure to deny the existence of the soul was Guatama Buddha but his followers have usually found room for this belief.
According to the major monotheistic traditions, soul is life soul is blood and breath, the breath of life. Some Christian theologian held that every soul is a special creation of God at the moment of birth. The Hebrew, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and even more Buddhist sect, share a general belief that the soul survives after death, whereas the body is allowed to disintegrate into the material substance of the world. With very few exceptions, the idea of the soul constitutes one of the most pervasive religious conception. Some commentators claim that it is the most important single defining characteristic of the religious.
Salvation
Salvation is the goal of all religious endeavor and the ultimate motivation for all religious practice. It indicates that people have struggled to be save either for something or from something. The worshiper must therefore seek salvation by no means limited to a concern for protection. Many traditions, especially the more advanced, conceive of salvation for a future heavenly existence to be more important than salvation from earthly tribulations. Whenever tortures and frustration this life holds are more than compensated for by the happiness and bliss, which will attend each save soul in the life to come. In such traditions, most notably certain forms of Christianity and Buddhism, salvation is a positive fulfillment which occur after death, and no amount of earthly pleasure or happiness could possibly take its place. In such traditions the unsaved souls are dammed and consigned to eternal torment in hell.
The meaning given in term salvation are no less varied than the means by which salvation is to be achieved. Most way - and - means doctrines fall between two rarely held extremes. The monotheistic traditions contend that man has absolutely no power over his own ultimate destiny. Salvation is a gift of the grace of God and not i any fashion conditioned by the merit of a particular man. Therefore, the choice that God makes is not affected by prayer, good works or other human activities. Atheistic tradition, as Early Buddhism, on the other side, considers salvation as exclusively and solely dependent upon man's own abilities. " A man is his own helper; there is no one else to help. " The Theravada Buddhism recommends to practice the Threefold Training as a way for self - help in order to attain salvation - Nirvana while many Bhotisattava of Mahayana Buddhism are considered as divine saviour.
However, there may be, as in some form of Indian Upanisadic religion, an impersnal absolute into which the soul of man is absorbed; but the absorption takes place only through the self - effort of man. In Christianity, faith in the saviour Jesus Christ is looked upon to ultimate salvation. In Vishuite Hinduism, Vishnu become incarnate in many forms in order to teach man the way to salvation.
By THE BUDDHA'S Core Teachings
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