Friday, May 29, 2009
New Religions
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Baha'u'llah
The process of creating a new religion is usually a long one. It can begin as a variation of a major religion and eventually it evolves different values or symbols so that it becomes fundamentally different. For example the Bahais took a while to come about. It was a long process. They began as a variation of Islam. The Bahais share some of the same beliefs as the Islamic faith, but, they are different. For example when Tihrani entered the tent without her veil on, it signaled a major change. This was a huge distinguishing factor between the Islamic faith and the new religion that was being created.
Having a founder for a religion is very important. It is actually fundamental. Without a founder the creation of a new religion is not the same. There needs to be at least one person in control or with the power. There needs to be that one divine person that gives direction and guidance from whatever entity that is being believed in. It was very important to the Bahais that Baha’u’llah be a founder, because he had a lot of power both financial and political. He assisted greatly in the creation and progression of the religion.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Babylon
I also find it interesting that they agree with the majority of Christian teachings and the Christian bible, yet they believe that someone human is God. If they believe in the Christian bible and the accept Revelations, then how would it be possible for God to have come down to earth again without the apocalypse. Maybe there are logical questions to this but I haven’t read anything yet to answer the question and it’s just weird to me.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Rastafari
Bob Marley’s presentation of Rastafarian life was one of a somewhat stress less care free lifestyle. But in his song “No Woman No cry”, he presents a life that seems to have some political stress in it, but there is still this idea that the person should not be stressed. One thing that I feel is not presented in Bob Marley’s music is how devote the Rastafari can be. In the video they spoke about the times that they get up to perform ceremonies. They also strictly observe the Sabbath day.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
God ok with rape?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Light
The story of Kebra Negast shows that God had a special purpose for the nation of Ethiopia. It seems as if things just fell right into place and as if things were destined to work out the way they did. The merchant saw King Solomon’s wisdom and the Queen just so happened to love wisdom and wanted to learn. It seemed as if God had laid down a path for the Queen to follow.
Solomon was a great man. He was very wise and well respected. He was a follower of the lord and the Queen of Ethiopia also became a loyal follower of the God of Israel. The Queen had the child of this well renowned king. After reading about the dream that King Solomon had of the light shinning over the land of Ethiopia it was clear to me that the Lord claimed that land as his, and the child that the Queen was to bear was the light. It showed that Israel was now not the only kingdom with God’s blessing, and this gave Ethiopia special significance.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Conceptual Blending
In religion conceptual blending is used a lot. The bible is a prime example of this. There are many examples in the bible of human actions being compared to odd things. At first glance they may not make sense. Augustine might argue that when the bible say odd things like killing babies that it is to be taken figuratively. This is a form of conceptual blending. You have your input or your ideas that are blended together to create a new reality or idea. This idea of killing babies doesn’t literally mean that we should do so, rather it means that we should kill all evil ideas. After the metaphor of killing the babies is taken away the new blended idea comes forward.
Conceptual blending is a tool that most religions use. It is key to faith and explanations of certain things such as the bible. This tool is important to the study of religion because it allows people to grain a lot of insight in to the world of religion.