Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection Question #1

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection Question #1: "According to Mircea Eliade religion has 'not vanished without a trace; [it] has contributed toward making us what we are today and so, after..."

I believe religion has deeply contributed toward my personal history and has changed the course of my life. As a Christian I believe in countless morals, one of such is to love your neighbor as yourself. This moral has helped shape my personality and form the person that I am today. As well as these morals that I live by, there are also taboos that religion has 'told' me to stay away from. Christianity has also taught me, through my sister, that it is charismatic in a sense that it is able to work through people close to us. My sister has always acted as a sort of totem in a way. She has always helped me and guided me towards God so I could mature spiritually. Both morals and my family has changed my perception on multiple aspects of life, in effect, changing my personal history.

Christianity has also taught me to perform certain liturgies that are devoted to the propitiation of God. These mores include praying, being baptized, and participating in communion. Rituals like these have a life-altering effects on me because it helps me mature not only spiritually, but it also helps me grow as a human. It also helps me build a steady, strong relationship with God, something that I would like to continue to solidify. Other than affecting my personal history, I believe religion has also contributed toward societal history. I believe that now that we have technology and media, it has led us to form common misconceptions about certain groups of religious people. I think this has an overwhelming effect on how we react to seeing these people. After taking this into consideration, I do wonder if people from other religions also are affected by their religion or if it is just a Christian perspective.