Religion Has Always Played a Special Role in Human Life, Essay Example

Religion has always played a special role in human life, depending on the kind of society one belongs to. As a result, the world religious community today is as diverse as the different cultures around the world are. In this paper, Christianity and Islam, two of the most spread world religions, will be compared and contrasted by means of identifying the common features the two religions are incorporating nowadays as well as pointing out the main differences between the above mentioned religious practices.

There is probably no field of human practice in the world that does not experience problems or is not faced up with certain dilemmas. Religion is not an exception as well. When considering Christianity and Islam, it is definite that both of them have certain concerns of their own. As far as I can judge, one of the most important current problems with Christianity is the lack of bible reading. People call themselves Christians but how many times a week, a month or a year do they even think about sitting down and reading the Scripture. There are even those, who do not have a Bible of their own. As a result, another important problem arises. Nowadays not all Christians are able to distinguish truth from fiction. It can be simply explained as a lack of biblical reading that people are more likely to believe Dave Brown with his “The Da Vinci Code” than the Bible. One the other hand, talking about Islam, one can say that the most serious current problem of this religion is terrorism. The whole religious movement is being viewed as potential terrorists, which is far away from the real purpose of this particular religion. Consequently, the second problem appears: people of other religions are being afraid of Islamic people and are stereotyping about them. How many times have you seen a person crossing the street when being approached, for example, by a black-dressed Islamic woman? All in all, it is evident, that both religions have a number of issues to deal with and it is a primary concern of the religious leaders to protect the essentials of their existence.

Traditions differ from one religion to another, acting as unique identifiers of the individual’s communication with God and one’s belonging to this or that religious practice. There are two major traditions in Christianity: Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ, and Easter – the day of Christ’s Resurrection. These two holidays serve as major landmarks of Jesus’ life as well as holding points of the whole religious belief. For Christians they are the blessings showing the coming of the son of God to Earth and his resurrection from the dead after being crucified as a symbol of all human sin being taken away. During these two days people experience the closest relations with God by going to church and feasting in his glory.  When talking about Islam, Ramadan and Hajj should be mentioned. Ramadan is a month of fasting, during which Muslims do not eat or drink anything from dawn till sunset. It is believed that by doing so people practice sacrifice and patience during the month, in which, according to historical background, Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. On the other hand, Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest meeting place, which must be made by every Muslim at least once in their life. By fulfilling the pilgrimage, Muslims show their submission to Allah.

Summing up, it is important to underline once again that religious practices, though taking different actualizations around the world, are an individual concern of each and every person around the world. The main point it that no matter how world spread the religions can be, like Christianity and Islam, they are still experiencing problems nowadays. And as far as I can judge, it is up to the religious leaders to take action and pursue, grounding the correction activities on the fundamental religious traditions, which, on the one hand, are completely different for each religion, but, on the other hand, are some of the most powerful and reliable sources in making people believe and keeping their loyalty.