Catholicism And Religion

Religion was involved with many things in a person’s life. It affects things like social status, relationships, the economy, culture, and politics. The complex ideas of religion and politics have shaped societies. The Puritans have set their goal to make their society and way of living connected to God in every way, shape, and form. In the seventeenth century this standard to keep God by your side has deeply affected politics and lawmaking, and has even caused some people to be continuously persecuted. From the strength of their religious beliefs stemmed these radical ideas, which deeply affected lives in the 17th century. Though these ideas were a way of life at one point in time, if these ideas were applied to our government today the

Religion is one the most important aspects defining culture. There is no one dominant faith on the

Religion is meant to be a solid force, helping society to bond better and progress in a civilized manner. For the same purpose, religion, with its laws and codes of conduct, monitors peoples’ way of life to ensure that humanity remains

Before the Vatican II the Catholic Church was an aging dinosaur, still crippled by the Reformation and unable to relate to contemporary man. It emerged from it a modern Church, tolerant and accepting of other religions,

The Roman Catholic Church was an extremely powerful organization during the middle ages and for the most part controlled all aspects of people’s lives. However, this organization does not last forever and over time begins to crack and crumble until a series of schisms split the church into multiple opposing sides. The Church’s message and authority was eventually undermined by corruption and the lay people demanding reform.

Catholicism is the belief that God made the world and all creation. God's son, Jesus, was conceived immaculately by a virgin named Mary, who was chosen for this very holy task. (Adair, 2012) Jesus was created in the likeness of God and was born with the Holy Spirit's miracle. We do not know very much about Jesus' childhood. However we do know about Jesus as a man. He healed the sick, performed glorious mysteries, and included all people even sinners and tax collectors. Jesus set an example to include everyone and love your enemies as you love everyone else. Jesus was born so that he could die for all human beings on Earth. Catholics believe in Christ's death and resurrection. Jesus was killed on a cross with other sinners and buried, yet he still rose again. "Catholics believe that Jesus is 100% man and 100% divine." (Richert 2006) He is not half man and half holy. They also believe that Jesus embodies everything that we should strive to be. We can strive to be like Jesus, but there is no way that we could even rise up to his level. Catholics are said to believe that they cannot be on the same level as God.

Religion is a worldwide practice that has taken a huge part in all human cultures. One of the earliest recollections of religion came from the Ancient Egyptian that believed in Polytheistic Religion, which praised a variety of gods. Another religion that has been with us since the times of the bible is the Judaism belief. A variety of other religions have formed since then, but not all religions believe in a god. If there is one thing we have in common is believing and following those morals and values through faith. There are many factors that identify and shape who we become. Therefore, I believe, religion is sought to be one major factor that shapes our character throughout our whole

A goal of this course is to develop an understanding of various religious systems and practices in the lives of individuals and their societies.”

Religion is a staple of life in all countries of the world. There are many types of religious

Catholicism is the faith, function, and practices of the Catholic Church. The faith of the Catholicism is the belief in God, its function is to influence the world about God, and the practices involved are to serve in God’s name and to worship God. The word “catholic” means “universal”, implying that everyone in the world could follow the Catholic belief. Reinforcing the fact that the word “catholic” means “universal”, many elements involved, such as one’s experiences, the way the Church evolved, and sacraments, help build the backbone to the subject of Catholicism.

The incorporation of religion into a person’s life displays how a belief in gods can impact every facet of someone’s life. The entirety of religion is based solely on faith and the willpower of someone’s belief in what has been taught to them. In these teachings, through sacred texts, manuscripts, or orally transmitted; the basis of many religions is the idea of an object, person, or building being sacred. The reason something becomes sacred and is then believed to be sacred is because the sacred manifests itself and makes itself become known to man. This is what separates the religious man from the profane man, the idea that items can be sacred, and the belief that they are sacred. Eliade points out that the profane man experiences life uniformly neutral, he does not have something that shapes his life like religion does . The objective of religious architects was to separate the holy world and the profane world by utilizing sacred space to allow for a relationship between believers and the cosmos.

In this spring break, I followed my Christian friend and visited a Catholic Church located in Seattle and I had a chance to witness on how they conduct their worship in the form of Mass. The Catholic Church has many practices and rituals such as Last Rites, praying the Rosary, receiving Communion, Confession, Baptism, and Mass according to the members of this church. Nonetheless, the Mass is the most crucial ritual as they consider it as the Lord`s Supper. The Mass is the Catholic`s official formal worship service and is considered to be the most sacred and important worship act in a Catholic church. According to the Catholics, going to the mass is considered as the only way to fulfill the third Commandment of keeping the

“A religious individual may most gloriously carry out his or her own rituals, as a part of his or her cultural identity, but the moment, that person starts to build a wall of separation between the self and the rest of humanity, coaxed by the textual commands of a scripture, the healthy religiousness turns into dangerous fundamentalism, which is a threat to both the self and the society.” (Abhijit Naskar). In the recent history of our society, the actions of religious extremists have driven people apart, and hatred has grown from a lack of ecumenism between those of different faiths. By focusing on the differences between religions, and not on the latent similarities that inherently exist between different faiths, people become blinded to how various religions are all rooted in the same philosophies. However, by focusing on the similarities of different religion, through philosophies, rituals, or teachings, we can then learn how to tear down walls, grow as people, and become cognitive of our joint humanity. With the necessity of ecumenical relations in our community, it serves humans to see the similarities between the faiths that can divide us. On such similarity exists between the rituals of the Christian Rosary and the Buddhist tradition of Prayer Wheels, both are physical guides for repetitive prayers and personal reflection and meditation.

It would be wise to know for instance materials that are used in worship by a different religion so that one can avoid defilement of the materials that are normally said to be sacred tools that hold great meaning and should be handled in certain ways. It would also be considerate to learn some codes of conduct like how one should behave in religious sanctuaries incase one gets to visit such places,

The role of religion in society is definitely an influential subject. As defined, religion is the beliefs and worship of people’s opinion concerning the existence, nature and celestial involvement in the universe and life. The relationship between both religion and society is always changing. Religion affects different societies in different ways and different forms. For many societies, religion is best understood at a spiritual level. Some people believe that religion is neither good nor bad and they simply believe it is irrelevant because there are many alternative ways to find meanings in ethical ideals and lifestyles. In my perspective, I feel that religion should have a some role in society today, but not too much.