Importance of Similarities and Differences of the Religious Systems, Essay Example

Religion is a system of particular thoughts and feelings. It is an action shared by people that provides them with the object of devotion, certain behavior norms and a unique frame of reference that assists individuals to relate to their own groups and the universe in general.

“Human beings are community animals. In the Beginning… or so it goes, God created not one, but two humans in relationship.”[1] Religion is the essence of every human individual and a path to achieve personal purpose on earth.  Defining a religion is a complicated task that should take into consideration that there exist several various types of religion in the world. They all have similarities that eventually put them into a category called religion; however, they are also different enough to be explored as sub-categories in order to acquire total understanding of religious phenomena and beliefs.

Religion is a set of beliefs that involve nature, universe and the cause. According to many scholars it refers to both personal practices of faith and group rituals. It is an everlasting “interchange between the belief system and faith”. The development of religion involves appearance of numerous forms in different cultures. It goes deep into social and psychological roots as well as historical development of nations. The evolution of religion is impossible to be accurately defined due to the lack of distinguished stages but historical and anthropological studies do bring the knowledge of typology.

There exist several classifications of various religious systems. In order to understand the peculiarities and similarities, it is important to get an insight into each of them and evaluate.

A Prophetic Religion is a type of religion that puts the role of a prophet above the actual heavenly revelations and provides them with the certain status. This system is strongly connected with the Revealed Religion and often the terms are interchangeable. However, the two differ. In Prophetic Religion prophets exist in order to guide people and warn them during the hard times. The world religions that believe in divine guidance through the prophets of God include Christianity, Islam and Judaism. They originated among the Arabs, Phoenicians, Jews, etc. and are Semitic.

Second commonly described system includes the Revealed Religions that have their special symbolic center in a set of unique revelations that has been handed down by God or gods. Usually the revelations contain the holy scripts of the religion that have been transmitted and interpreted by the prophets of God or gods. Revealed Religions as the classification are based on the origins of body of comprehension owned by a particular religion. Sometimes we hear that this or that specific religion is revealed. In Christianity is means in terms of the Son of God, Christ, revealing its people the Word of the Father.  In Islam people believe the angel Gabriel opened up the God’s will to Muhammad. In such religion as Judaism God reveals His Commandments to Moses and the latter brings them to the people.

The next religious system deals with the Salvation Religions and is a set of beliefs that emphasize the sin and the salvation. This category seems to be principally a creation of Christianity in general because there is no other human religion that stresses the sin and salvation to such extent as Salvation group of religions. These religions are commonly found by a religious leader or a prophet of God who develops a basic canon about how the salvation can be achieved by individuals. The authorities and legitimacy of such leaders are usually highly dependent on the degree of their charisma and at times the ability to perform miracles such as sign of sanction, etc.

Mystical Religions as a separate system are defined as ones where mystical experience plays the vital role in terms of perceiving the divine learning, the nature and the religiously devoted person himself. These aspects appear in sub-current religious groups such as Kabbalah within the Judaism or Christian mysticism within Christianity. The practices of such religions sometimes go beyond normal devotional or liturgical forms and result in engaging such spiritual practices as meditation or breathing designed to bring spiritual awareness.

Taking into consideration extraordinary mysticism, we arrive to the Tribal Religions which is better understood in terms of what this system is not about.  These particular believers have no religious message for the universe. They do not support the salvation or will of God or gods and they do not greatly care about bringing more followers to the group. In Tribal Religions, for instance, there existed a habit of “burying material goods along with the body”[2] or re-clothing the dead after some period of time. Such practices were used by Papuans, Malanans, and many others.

Among most primitive systems of religious believes is Nature Religion. This category does not assume the simplicity of the religious system but the reference to the fact that this group was probably one of the earliest sorts of religion that appeared with the appearance of the human beings in general. These believers worshiped nature and earth as the primary sources of joy.

Many people view religion as a one particular thing that summarizes in the set of their rituals, beliefs and certain behaviors that form the world view. But maybe instead of seeing religion as a set of rules, is it more important to break it into two essentials: the faith and the religious tradition. Faith comes from the fact that people see it as a unique mystery and traditions arise from this perception.

From ancient times until nowadays people from all cultures see the world with some kind of amazement and wonder. From lightning in the sky to precise view of DNA strand, humans are daily confronted with the unique surprises and mystery. Especially people are terrified with the negative aspects of wonders, such as death or nature forces, something that we cannot explain. People wonder who they really are and why there are sufferings in this world?!

Faith takes various forms and as long as life exists with its wonders, beauty and even horror, people will keep having faith. Even science that examines such natural forces as thunder or lightning shows the greatest mysteries continue to inspire the mankind.

Faith translates into physical reality through different expressions such as music, religious systems, architecture, etc. It includes indescribable manifestations such as God as Father, beliefs in soul or reincarnations. Not only it inspires the religious traditions throughout the world but also faith is cherished by these traditions. It goes hand in hand with traditions and seems inseparable. But on the other hand it is distinguished between the things of religion and the faith itself that gives power to people and promotes spiritual growth.

When people fail to distinguish between the components of religion and the religion itself, it leads to confusion of the essence. It leads to external attachments instead of the inner mysterious beauty. Of course, some humans will also misinterpret the two but it does not mean that their visions cannot be cleared or properly guided.

United States is one the most religiously diverse countries in the world. Our social and political history goes hand in hand with the references into our religious history and background. According to the 2010 Statistical Abstract from the National Data Book of the U.S. Census Bureau there are “75 – Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population”.[3] It is believed that many Americans have a non-dogmatic understanding of faith. Strong percentage of those people who are connected with the religion, do not think that religion is the sole way for salvation. Many also believe that there is not just one way to interpret true teachings. Such openness comes from the broad range of religions viewpoints together with religious belief, practice or affiliation.

“In today’s age of science and modern marvels there are many people who ask, “Why do we still need religion?”[4] It does not mean that Americans take religion not very seriously. Still a great majority of people put religion as an important thing in their lives. It is simple. Religion provides a necessary blanket of security and a meaning of certainty to people in an uncertain world of today. By means of religion humans form their own identities within the society and acquire peace within themselves. When a person has faith, for him or her in any practical purpose, it is true. Religion offers hope no matter what and it is this comfort that people seek in order to be able to get away from the routine and dangers of life every day.

Bibliography

Benyei, Candace . “Understanding Clergy Misconduct in Religious Systems: Scapegoating, Family Secrets and the Abuse of Power”, The Haworth Pastoral Press, Inc. (1998): 1

Gieseke, Chris. “The Importance of Religion”. Independent. (27 November 2006): 5

Stearns, Peter. Adas, Michael. Schwartz, Stuart. Gilbert, Marc Jason, “World Civilizations”: 65

U.S. Census Bureau. The 2010 Statistical Abstract. National Data Book. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/population/religion.html

[1] Candace R. Benyei, “Understanding Clergy Misconduct in Religious Systems: Scapegoating, Family Secrets and the Abuse of Power” (1998): 1

[2] Peter N. Stearns, Michael Adas, Stuart B. Schwartz, Marc Jason Gilbert, “World Civilizations”: 65

[3]  The 2010 Statistical Abstract from the National Data Book of the U.S. Census Bureau

[4] Chris Gieseke, “The Importance of Religion”. Independent. (27 November 2006): 5