Religion As A Cornerstone Of The Human Experience Essay

During the late fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches. It was thought that these individuals practiced black magic and performed evil deeds, the deeds of the devil. This all happened during a time of great change in Europe, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments. They were persecuted for a variety of reasons, but three major ones were religious reasons, social prejudices, and the economic greed of the people. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin influenced the ideas of their followers. Religion dominated the time period and it’s easy to see how many opinions

In the 1600s, a group of Protestant Christians, known as Puritans, migrated to the New World to form a colony completely based on the Bible. Because the Puritans were fundamentalists, they believed everything said in the Bible was a true word of God, and thus, they believed everything in the Bible to be true. This included the Devil and witches. The Devil could possess a human’s body and turn them into a witch. During the 17th Century, witchcraft became a serious offense and lead to 24 deaths. The causes of these many deaths were deep religious beliefs, relations of the church and government, and bored girls striving for attention with the infliction of paranoia.

Furthermore, another cause for the witchcraft frenzy was religious uncertainty (Spielvogel 439). There were numerous witchcraft trials in the region where “Protestant-Catholic” arguments still fumed (Spielvogel 439). According to Spielvogel, “[a]s religious passions became inflamed, accusations of being in league with the devil became common on both sides” (Spielvogel 439). Additionally, another contributing factor to the widespread witchcraft hysteria was the escalating amount of trials and executions of alleged witches (Spielvogel 437).

Witch craze in Europe during: the period of the Protestant Reformation, Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the consolidation of national governments from about 1480-1700

During the late 15th to 17th centuries, thousands of individuals were persecuted as witches, mainly older women. Throughout this era, it was widely believed that these individuals performed evil deeds of the devil and practiced dark, black magic. The events of the witch trials occurred in a time of great change in Europe. In a time of social, religious, economic, and political uncertainty or instability during the period of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and more political shifts and changes, citizens began to turn to supernatural scapegoats and superstition, which in a way revived the religious theology which had flared downwards during the Renaissance. Witches were soon hunted down and unjustly

From the late 15th century to the 17th century, a flow of fear for witches swept through Europe. This all happens during a period of change in Europe, such as scientific revolution and the Reformation took place around this time period. Germany has one of the largest executions and trials. A witch was an individual who mysteriously injures other people. Women mainly widows are often accused of practicing witchcraft.

Including the fact that religious change produced, conflict and even war especially in Germany and France which were also centres of witchcraft, suggesting the appearance of a link. Second, the period tends to coincide with the peak of witch-hunt when the bible was widely circulated in the vernacular. Protestant priests preached things such as “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live”. They were keen to root out magic in all its forms because they associated it with catholic practices and superstition. There was confessional conflict as Hugh Roper sees witchcraft as being motivated by catholic and protestant desire to show godliness in a time of religious schism. The witch-hunt cultivated feelings of moral superiority plus helped to remove or reduce feelings of guilt because of religious changes. This again can be a form of psychological projection, which is a type of defence mechanism. This involves individuals attributing their own unacceptable thoughts and motives to another person. Therefore, people scapegoated others if they had done something wrong to get rid of their own guilty conscience by making themselves believe the accused individual was in the

“Who am I?” is a broad question that will change over the course of my lifetime. Currently I define myself as a white Catholic woman who is religious and independent. I am also a college student studying to become a social studies teacher. I am in a relationship, but still open to religious life. My relationship defines a part of who I am and who I want to become. This definition of who I am will not be the same in years to come, but this is who I am currently. My view of the human experience will also change over time, but right now there are four pillars of the human experience: education, community, religion, and nature. These pillars are things I believe everyone experiences in their life. The readings I have done in this class has helped me define the human experience and develop who I am. “The Allegory of the Cave,” “Declaration of Independence,” “Ingroup and Outgroup,” “Human Nature,” and “Religious Diversity” are the five readings that have had the most impact on the meaning of the human experience and who I am.

In Europe from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries many people, both men and women, were persecuted as witches. The reasons for the persecution of individuals as witches included gender discrimination, religious fanaticism, an explanation for the otherwise unexplainable events that took place, and even as a way for secular officials to gain more wealth. Misogyny being a cause to the witch trials may have resulted from the new roles of women in society conflicting with the traditional views of women as sinful, and also accounts for why the majority of individuals persecuted were women. A religious spark was ignited during the Protestant Reformation as people became more religiously devoted and wanted to eliminate threats to their faith, such as witches. Many strange occurrences such as disease or even non-harmful events that were simply unexplainable led people to believe witches as the causes. Some people may have not even believed another person to be a witch but may have just wanted wealth and that person’s possessions and declared them a witch for that reason. All these factors contributed to the period now known as the witch craze, which resulted in the torture and death of many people.

Although the Salem Witch trials are commonly referred to as the start of the witchcraft persecution, witchcraft can be found the early civilizations. Evidence of this is easily found in the societies that had Shamans or Healers of the village, where healing or blessings were done through spiritual connections. Back then, people were more accepting of it in their daily lives because they depended on it, but things were different in Europe during the Middle AGes. With the added influence of Christian faith, and the advancement of technology, many Europeans developed a fear of the unknown, and fear for the forces that they believed were supernatural and influenced by the devil. This terror and fear for the scientifically advanced confusion resulted in the persecution and hunt of all of the unknown, the witches of Europe. Although Witchcraft is mainly associated with The Town of Salem, Witchcraft had a presence and effect in Europe by the ways it changed everyday life for commoners, how it forced the European Government to react to its development, and the way it challenged the Catholic Church.

Over the course of time, there have been incidents where the existence of religion has a played detrimental role in many communities. I believe that religion contributed to the troublesome incidents that transpired between 1692 and 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts, which is commonly referred to as the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, these events spiraled out of control and resulted in the executions of twenty innocent men and women. Before the Salem Witch Trials occurred, a war between France and the American Colonies erupted. Throughout the history of mankind, humans used religion as a way to explain the unknown; when faced with something as daunting as the unknown, humans found it easy to use religion as a resolution. For instance, when Reverend

Although all three questions have the potential to develop an interesting essay, the question about the correlation between happiness and religion contains more complex and compelling ideas. Indeed, the concept of religion is broad, but I believe that narrowing it down to a single religion would limit its potential. Religion in this essay will be defined as its literal definition: the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Thus, the main question that I plan on answering

There are several important ideas and most interesting thoughts that are poised by Smith that communicated to me directly. Some of the most important ideas that Smith depicted were a result of events that he experienced. He was able to observe traits from others who believed they “knew” a religion and he was actually able to explain to them the difference in sentences and phrases that one was able to understand and comprehend. It is important for one to not only study a religion and practice it but for one to be devoted to the religion. Religion is a part of life, and to live you must have religion in your life. In his article he continuously states that he is not defining the religion although he may not realize that he actually is. He is defining the religion as a concept in which an outside reader is able to understand. “The man of religious faith lives in this world. He is subject to its pressures, limited within its imperfections, particularized within one or another of its always-varying

     According to the American College Dictionary, religion is a noun defined as the quest for the values of the ideal life. This definition is vast and general, allowing for a variety of interpretations by people from all cultures. There is no single path to follow in order to lead an ideal life, only personal beliefs and experiences. Religion is non-finite so there is no way of determining a boundary (Smart, 5). In my quest for a true understanding of what religion is I explored my own traditions and religious beliefs as well as life experiences. Slowly, with the added insight from the text and videos, my own definition of religion has begun to take shape.

To experience a new religion is to open one's mind to an entirely new world. For my World Religions course, I was asked to visit a place of worship for a religion other than what I was most used to. Upon considering being raised as a Pentacostal Christian, the first idea that came to me after hearing this was for Billy and I to go with our friend Arjun's family to a Hindu temple—since Arjun had moved away recently to go to college however, he was unable to attend.