The Significance of Religion in Human Life - Essay Example

THEMATIC PAPER--NOAH OUTLINE: The need and significance of religion in human life---Three Abrahamic religions and their beliefs---Sources of belief---Holy Scriptures, traditions, values and laws--Noah, his time, teaching, preaching and philosophy--People of Noah and their opposition--Noahs construction of Arch and peoples ridiculous attitude--Noahs famous flood and consequent outsized devastation---Noah in Scriptures THE ESSAY INTRODUCTION: It is in the nature of humans that they look for someone metaphysical and supernatural for the solution of their problems and difficulties whenever they feel themselves unable to do the same. It is therefore the institution of religion came into being. Looking into the history of the world at large, it becomes evident that religion existed in all human societies from the most primitive to the most modern ones. “Humans have formed their own beliefs (called probability belief in mathematics and science) about the set of unknowable elements of the universe.  They have branded their beliefs about the unknowable as religion.” (Acharya, 2006) Since religion is a highly diversified subject, different societies maintain different religious faiths and beliefs. Not only this that it varies from society to society and from one culture to the other, but also one single society contain the followers of different religions in it. The religious cults, practices and festivals vary among the followers of different religions, though there are some similarities too. The main living religions include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and others, among which Judaism, Christianity and Islam share almost the same mythology and traditions. The holy personalities and their life-sketch is also one and the same according to their holy Scriptures. The traditions about patriarch and holy prophet Noah is also common among the three. The guidance of humanity is the basic theme behind the foundation of a religion. The concept of prayer and meditation exists in all the religions of the world, which is also the outcome of the search for truth and justice. The source of spiritual guidance and inspiration i.e. the Divine Scriptures reached to man through the prophets of God. These Holy Scriptures of Abrahamic religions including the Torah, the Old and New testaments, the Bible and the Quran clearly reveal how severe trials the holy men had to forbear to spread the message of God. The name of the Patriarch and Prophet Noah is at the top of the list of greatest people. Noah maintains a very dominant place in the theology of the Abrahamic religious beliefs. He appears in the Holy Scripture of Old Testament in the Book of Genesis, Chapter V, where the descendants of Adam have been described in a precise, but comprehensive way. Noah was among the prophets of God sent for the guidance and spiritual uplift of human beings, who preached his people the message of God for many centuries. Noah, according to the Book of Genesis, was the son of Lamech and the grandson of MethuSelah. Lamech called his son by this name because he thought him to be soother and comforter from God. “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.” (Genesis, V:29) Almighty God has created man in His own image and blessed him with the superiority over all other creatures including the birds of the sky, the beasts of the forest and the fish of the water. He not only created man, but also introduced and developed a perfect scheme for his comprehensive guidance and spiritual uplift on permanent basis. The basic motive behind that all was to protect the children of Adam and Eve from the seduction of satanic forces. Satan is the central figure, basic symbol and supreme source of evil, iniquity and wickedness according to the teachings and mythology of all the three Abrahamic religions. The Holy Scriptures of these religions emphatically affirm that the Prophets suffered from painful tortures and opposition in order to save the humanity from following the path of Satan. Satan, according to these sources, is one among the creatures has been made by the Lord out of flame of the fire. He became the enemy of Adam and Eve at the time of their birth and caused their expulsion from the Eden Garden because of his jealousy with the new creature. Satan had challenged God that he would try his utmost to seduce the children of Adam and Eve to prove their superiority as a wrong thing. Hence, God Almighty sent His angels to His apostles including Adam, Enoch, Noah, Eber, Shelah and others to preach the humanity the noble message of God, so that they could manage to regain their permanent dwellings in the Eden Garden lost due to non-compliance of their first parents in respect of tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree because of the satanic seduction and temptations. Satan maintained grudge and enmity for the whole mankind and intended to entice Adam, Eve and their children forever and ever till the Day of Resurrection out of sheer malice for the human beings. According to the Torah, Satan does not challenge Almighty’s powers; rather, he challenges God to examine the sincerity and compliance of Adam, Eve and their generations. “However”, Scheib argues, “Satan remains inferior to God and is incapable of taking action on mortals without God’s permission. Almighty God, according to the Abrahamic religions, has divided the humanity into two categories: one who those are transgressors and breakers of the covenant of God, and imitate the path of Satan; and the other ones are those who sincerely comply with all the terms of the sacred covenant. The individuals, tribes, clans and communities which did not obey the word of God and committed crimes and practiced deviancies by following the path of Satan, were inflicted misery and wrath of the Lord. On the other hand, the nations which remained obedient to their Lord, and displayed virtue and evaded vice, were blessed with the spiritual leadership and God was pleased with them. The reward in the form of God’s favor and mercies was bestowed upon them and were declared as the people of God. Almighty God has narrated the incidents of their sacrifices and great velour in the Scriptures they displayed while facing mountains of hardships and their foot neither trembled nor wavered in any sort of turmoil or turbulence. The name of the holy prophet Noah is also at the apex among holiest personalities. Adam spent over thousand years on the earth after his expulsion from the Eden Garden and breathed his last subsequently. He left his progeny in a state of social and moral uplift and took covenant from them to remain pious and obedient to the commands of their Lord. But man is perhaps transgressor and the Adams progeny forgot the teachings of their first father. They started committing the misdeeds which were according to the seduction and temptations of Satan, and thus involved in deviancies and malpractices. Then God sent His prophets time and again to guide the children of Adam and Eve. The Noahs advent was also the part of Gods blessings to protect the humanity from going astray. Noah was underwent all types of trials; the people of his nation inflicted severe pains on him and tried to expel him from the city but he remained as firm as the rock and could not be bent down at all. Then it was the benevolence of God which was showered upon Noah and his progeny because of getting successful in all trials, tests and examinations. Noah asked his people not to worship the gods of their own imagination, and worship one God, the Omnipotent, the Lords of heavens and earth. But the people refused to listen to him even. "Men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped the creatures of their own imagination; and as the result, they became more and more debased. The psalmist describes the effect produced upon the worshiper by the adoration of idols. He says, "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." Psalm 115:8. (Quoted in egwtext.whiteestate.org: 91) The Quran also narrates the same in these words: "He (Nuh) said: 0 my people! serve Allah.  There is no god other than Him.  If you refuse, verily I fear for you chastisement of a grievous day.  The Chiefs of his people said: Most certainly we perceive you in clear error.  He said: O my people! There is no error in me but I am an Apostle from the lord of the worlds.   I deliver to you the message of my Lord and I counsel you right (The Quran, VII: 59-60: retrieved in http://www.islam101.com/history/people/prophets/nuh.htm) Though man is rebel by nature and he has often violated the rules of law, as Cain killed Abel and ran away, yet his transgressions were not excessive till the Noahs time as well so that God had to decide to perish away the whole mankind. "There were evident tokens of decay, but the earth was still rich and beautiful in the gifts of Gods providence. The hills were crowned with majestic trees supporting the fruit-laden branches of the vine. The vast, gardenlike plains were clothed with verdure, and sweet with the fragrance of a thousand flowers. The fruits of the earth were in great variety, and almost without limit." (Quoted in egwtext.whiteestate.org: 90) The people at Noahs time had forgotten the true spirit of the word of God and were turning into transgressors by following the footprints of satanic forces. "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." (Genesis, 6:11-12) Almost all the individuals of that time were corrupt and had deviated from the right path. Only very few people including Noah were following the instructions of the forefathers regarding performing righteousness and avoiding evil by strictly neglecting the satanic temptations and seductions. Satan is the transgressor and Gods nemesis, who refused to comply with the commands of the Creator—Almighty God the Omnipotent. God has decided, according to the Genesis, to destroy the whole generation comprised of corrupt and disobedient people; but found Noah as the pious and charitable one. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis, VI: 7-8) God Almighty was deeply concerned with the violence, injustices and misdeeds being exercised on the earth. He did not feel happy with the transgressions and cruelties conducted by human beings on the very face of the earth. "God decided to destroy all humans and other land animals, in the largest and most thorough act of genocide in history. All of the men, women, youth, children, infants and newborns, as well as birds and land-dwelling animals, were to be drowned in a great, world-wide flood." (Quoted in religioustolerance.org) The verses clearly reveal the very theme that God doest not like any kind of corruption and violence on the earth and whenever violence exceeds touching the sorry state, He brings calamity and destructions to the wrong-doers on the one hand, and saves the charitable and pious on the other. Since God found Noah an extremely righteous man, He decided to protect him, his family and companions from the destruction had already been decided for the whole humanity. He ordered Noah to build an ark of sizeable length and width and made rooms, doors and windows in it. The ark would carry Noah, his family and those who were pious and had belief in the oneness of God. In the words of the Book: "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you." (Genesis, VI: 17-18) The Creator ordered Noah to bring one pair of different kinds of every living creature including animals, birds, insects and fish, belonging to male and female genders, into the ark with him so that their generation could be saved from going destroyed in the great flood. The theme behind this command from Almighty God is this that the Lord does not punish those, who are obedient, virtuous and devout; rather, only the defiant and transgressors got punishment from the Heavens. "The character of the people before the flood as given by the unerring pen of inspiration is explicit. And God said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Quoted in preparingforeternity.com) God Almighty directed Noah to plant a plane-tree, which required forty years to grow. Almighty Lord foretold Noah that as soon as the tree grew, Noah would construct a huge ark with apartments, doors and window in it out of the wood of the tree. "The sign presaging this event will be water boiling up out of his oven. This oven, mentioned in the Koran narrative, is placed by the commentators in various places. According to one tradition it was Eves oven, which had been handed down from patriarch to patriarch." (DHerbelot, "Bibliothèque Orientale"). Since Noah was building the ark on the land, the people of his time ridiculed and made fun of him by saying that how would he run the ark on the land without water. On getting reply from Noah that the Gods flood would destroy the humanity and would save only those which were virtuous and would board on the ark on the promised day, the people started rebuking him. But no one could stop him from completing the construction of the great ark. At the eve of the flood, "Satan himself, who was compelled to remain in the midst of the warring elements, feared for his own existence. He had delighted to control so powerful a race, and desired them to live to practice their abominations and continue their rebellion against the Ruler of heaven." (egwtext.whiteestate.org:99) The other Scriptures belonging to all the three Abrahamic religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam also assert and affirm the construction of Noahs ark and the grand flood in almost the same words. "Most of the people did not believe in the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him).  They made fun of him and ridiculed him as a mad man.  Whenever he tried to convey the message of Almighty Allah (God) to them, they began to thrust their fingers into their ears.  They persisted in their infidelity and proudly disdained his counsel to do good deeds.  The people were so stubborn under the influence of their priests that they paid no heed to the message of Allah and their aversion rapidly increased." (Quoted in Islam101.com) The construction of the ark took many years and Noah had to undergo hard time because peoples taunting and jeering attitude was getting intense day by day. At last the day came when God ordered him to board on the ark with the members of his family. In the words of Genesis: "Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. “You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;" (VII: 1-2) Here is the main theme behind that all that God saved seven pairs of clean creatures and two pairs of the unclean ones in order to increase the generation of these animals, birds, insects and fish for the future human generations and the descendants of Noah. The Hebrew also described the same in these words: "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:7). Hence, the clean always maintains priority over the unclean since ever, and the pure always win the Gods applause and will. The Holy Quran also says the same in these words: "And he began to build the ark and whenever the chiefs among his people passed by him, they deride him but he said: Though you scoff at us now, we will scoff at you in Hereafter." (11:38) Noah located different creatures in different apartments of the ark. Besides Noahs family the Arabs suppose that seventy-two other persons were saved in the ark. These were persons who had been converted by Noahs preaching. However, they did not beget children after leaving the ark, and hence all mankind descended from Noahs three sons. Gabriel brought Adams body in a coffin to be placed in the ark; it served to separate the men from the women in the middle story of the ark; the beasts were placed in the lowest story and the birds in the top (Baiḍawi). Pigs and cats were created in the ark to consume the filth and the rats (Ṭabari, l.c. p. 112). (Quoted in Jewish Encyclopedia) As soon as Noahs family, companions and the pairs of other creatures entered the ark, it started heavy rains that lasted for forty days and nights continuously covering even highest of the mountains and everything on the surface of the earth. "Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water." (Genesis, VII: 17-18) Noahs three sons had entered the ark, but the fourth one refused to enter into it. Thus, he was one among those who were destroyed in the heavy flood. He remained one among the transgressors in life and also died with them though he was the son of the most righteous man. "The son replied: "I will betake myself to some mountain: it will save me from the water." Noah said: "This day nothing can save, from the command of Allah, any but those on whom He hath mercy! "And the waves came between them, and the son was among those overwhelmed in the Flood." (Quran, XI: 43) Thus, the people who were the slave of their inner desires and acted against the commands of the Lord were perished away under heavy rain that covered the whole earth for one hundred and fifty days. In the words of the Quran: "So We opened the gates of the heavens with water pouring down and We caused the earth to gush forth its springs, so the water of the heavens and the earth gathered together according to measure already ordained." (54: 11-12) It took another three months when the water abated from the earth, and Noah sent various birds from the ark in order to seek whether the water had abated or not. As soon as he came to know that he was safe, he opened the window of the ark and thanked the Lord for the safety of himself and his companions. After it, Noah was ordered to come out of the ark along with all the creatures in it. In the words of genesis: "Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (VIII: 15-17) On coming out of the ark, Noah offered altar and praised for the blessings of the Lord. God almighty showered His bounties on Noah and blessed him with the multiplicity of progeny and abundance of edibles in the form of vegetables and meat of the animals and birds. Noah remained alive for nearly three hundred years after the flood and cultivated the land himself along with his sons and companions. He preached them to worship only one God, observe piousness, charity and honesty and remain loyal and committed to the word of God. The next generation which sprang up from the survived believers included God-fearing persons. They worshipped one God and acted according to His teachings. "The Prophet Nuh (peace be upon him) lived for about 950 years.  After this dreadful destruction the people abstained from committing sins for sometime.  Afterwards they began to be loose in their actions." (Islam101.com) BIBLIOGRAPHY Sankarsan Acharya. (2006) Religion, God and Science. (Quoted in prosperity.com/NewsFeed.html) March 17th, 2006 WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT NOAHS ARK: Retrieved in http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_noah1.htm Noahs Time and Ours: And God Saw That The Wickedness Of Man Was Great In The Earth. (Retrieved in http://www.preparingforeternity.com/st010378.htm) The Hebrew. The Psalms Jewish Encyclopedia: (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=318&letter=N&search=noah#2) The Flood: Retrieved in http://www.egwtext.whiteestate.org/pp/pp7.html: 90) The Holy Quran. Chapter 11 Verse 43. The Genesis Chapters V-IX Exodus. Chapter 1: Verses 8-14 Smith, Gerald L. K. A Collection of Sermons and Essays. The Cross and the Flag magazine (Quoted in http://stormfront.org/posterity/ci/smith16.html) Scheib, Ariel. Satan. Jewish Virtual Library (Quoted in www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/satan.html) Read More