Religious and Ethic Groups

A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger religious group. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles. Sects are smaller, less highly organised grouping of committed believers who usually set themselves up in protest at what a church has become. Sects usually have members who are usually numbered around the couple of hundred mark, showing the main difference between them and the church.

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

““Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group,” says a new comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.” (Harper). Within the top five most popular religions, Christianity if found to be at the top with Buddhism ranked number four. With millions of people from around the world participating in these religions, one may wonder how they compare to one another. Upon exploration of Buddhism and Christianity, many similarities are found such as the importance of a spiritual master, shared values, and the followers strive for spiritual perfection. Although Buddhism and Christianity encompass many similarities within the religions, the fundamental differences in the view of God, salvation, and reincarnation ultimately outweigh their likeness.

Growing up, I knew what my race was but I never knew about my race. I attended a predominately white school throughout my entire life and the only thing that we learned about was slavery and a FEW of the inventions that were contributed by people of the same color. That brought up further questions and concerns about my ancestors and where my people originated from. There was so much racial tension at my high school and I just wanted to get away to a place where I could learn more about myself, my academics, and my people. This is why i decided to attend an HBCU.

I came into this class not so naïve as some students may have been. I’ve grown up going to public schools, living in a diverse small town, and having interracial relationships in my family. Although I was informed on some forms of racism and the fact that racism does in fact still exist, I didn’t realize it was extensive as it really is. All the readings, videos, and lectures have directly related back to the purpose of the course. As a whole, I feel like this class has grown in knowledge not only about how racism affects people, but how to change and make a difference. This class has informed me a lot more about the unfortunately thriving acts of racism in the United States.

The religion group that I pick would be Christianity because I love to know what the other religions believes in and how do they worship. In ethnicity group that I pick to talk about is Asian (Asian descent) I have learned a lot since this class about the different type of ethnicity group but I work a lot around Asian when I am at work. These two choices are different from each other but I would love to learn more about their religion and ethnicity group.

In this essay, I intend to compare and contrast two major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, that came out of India thousands of years ago. Though these two religions are old, they are still practiced today by millions of followers within the continent of Asia and the West.

My parents and my extended family has always made sure I knew my culture and that my race was different from other races such as Caucasian and Asian children I went to school with. I also always knew I related to a different race due to my family skin color versus the other people who were around whose skin color is different from mines. As a child when I was growing up I heard adults or older kids talk about issues such as different races and people they have interacted during the day. Another thing exposed to me as a kid was the different political issues especially George Bush administration and racism as general. Being exposed to many views on how the color of your skin will affect the way society sees you and places you in the social system put perspective on how I saw my future. Being black you often automatically deemed as you are not going to succeed in life or you are not going be educated enough to place in high

A. Overview: Asian immigrants attained in the United States with numerous religions, which includes Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. The categories of informative structures offered by religion, as a vital foundation of ethnic factors, developed especially significant when societies are surviving with the fluctuating surroundings. It is by the structured religion and household demonstrating that standards and philosophies are instructed in the newer generation. Though there are diverse dissimilarities amongst the Asian ethnic groups, certain of the harmonies in worldview contain: group positioning; domestic consistency and obligation; self-control and individual control; prominence on learning accomplishment; regard for power; admiration for the senior; the usage of disgrace for social control; and interdependence of families and personas.

For one thing, skin color can change your perception of a person, by looking at the celebrities, some of them identify as black and by looking at them, and I never would have thought that some of them were mixed with black among other ethnic background. Some of the celebrities shared a common distinctive religion and culture that could link them together, as well as share different lifestyle experiences, and how they were brought up. Some people try to define race and ethnicity as the same, but they are very different and taking this course open my eyes to several things that I was unaware of, ex: perception, race, and ethnicity play a

A difference between Christianity and Buddhism is their Spiritual leader. One was Jesus the Christ and the other Gautama Buddha. They were two men who lived at different times, different places, and followed by a different ethnicity and culture as it continues today. As both

Another way my eyes have been opened about race through this course is when we talked about images of God. I had never really considered God being any other race then my own. I didn’t realize that so many different cultures had created their own depictions of God and Mary. I had no idea what Lady of Guadalupe was until this

According to this view, the meeting point of these two important elements, is what is called religion. Within religion the world-view and the ethos are melted in a coherent experience, especially in religious act, or ritual. Inside the ritual the world-view becomes evident and real, while, on the other hand, it is possible to experience the indissoluble link with the lines of acceptable conduct and evaluation, because it is

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Religion, as defined by the High Court of Australia, is ‘a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005) and can be studied either substantively or functionally (Berger 1974:126). Substantive studies of religion fall predominantly in the realm of theology and are more concerned with defining religious beliefs; their historical accuracy; and the existence of supernatural entities (Holmes, Hughes & Julian 2007:425). Sociology however, concerns itself primarily with the relationship between religion and society, examining religion as a social construction (Van Krieken et al. 2010:350-1) and concerned only with the substance of