Religions and Fundamentalism - Literature review Example

Religions and fundamentalism Religion refers to the attempt or representing beliefs, imagination, feelings, and actions that that emerge in response to direct experience of the spiritual and sacred. Therefore, religion is defined as a set of beliefs regarding the cause, purpose, and nature of the universe, especially in matters of creation, devotions, and ritual observance. In addition, it teaches moral codes governing the behaviors and conduct of human affairs. Precisely, it refers to the relation of people to God or any object they term sacred and supernatural. Religious beliefs are present in every community and express communal values and culture through doctrine, myth, and ritual. The basic element of religion is worship, but other elements such as right belief, code of conduct, and participation in religious events and institutions enrich religious values. This paper will seek to identify conflicting beliefs and practices among some Christians. It will also analyze the Muslim religion on differing issues among its believers. There have been conflicting beliefs in Christianity about the permanence of salvation. The Roman Catholic Church is a member of Christian observers and constantly teaches and beliefs that a believer is saved and delivered from the sinful nature of the world through the sharing of the sacrament. It teaches that salvation and righteousness is lost through commitment of mortal sin. The believe that the holy communion is the source of salvation is a conflict to the fundamentalism who believe that salvation comes from deep within the heart and personal evaluation. Fundamentalism argues that the sacrament is a sign of unity among christens but not source of salvation. In their perspective, sacraments unite Christians with Christ as they obey his commandment. According to fundamentalism, sacrament strengthens believers’ faith, but according to Roman Catholic, it gives salvation. John Wesley, a Methodist, teaches that it is possible for saved Christians to lose faith and join the sinful nature of the world. Another roman empire Constantine agrees with Wesley by putting salvation towards death. The two and their churches teach that baptism washes accumulated away sins (Burbery 203). They teach that, a Christian is free to commit sins and get saved during the end of one’s lifespan to avoid multiple backsliding. They argue that, this minimizes chances of loosing salvation before death because they have all their sins forgiven just before death. However, this is not right according to fundamentalism because death is everywhere and can occur anytime. People can get involved in accident, killed in warfare, or sudden illness. This means that the believer may be caught by death without the baptism therefore, go to hell. Another sect of liberal Christians believes that the permanence of salvation is not important due to universalism belief: God will allow everyone enter into the heaven (Burbery 194). It is important to understand that all the above sects of Christianity believe that there is salvation; the difference is how Christianity is attained, and its permanence. Roman Catholic is a very renowned religious institution because of its position towards marriage. Catholic prefers and recommends marriage between two catholic converts. This means that a non-catholic is not allowed to marry a catholic (Patsavos & Charles 437). This is contrary to other Christian institutions that believe that, through the death and salvation of Jesus Christ, all Christians became one body (Burbery 201). Therefore, Catholics call for people whom intent to marry to make sure that they convert to catholic, and get baptism before marriage. The catholic doctrine dictates that marriage between a catholic believer and a non-believer is impure. In addition, Catholics preach that priests should not get marriage but observe celibacy to serve God and the church with commitment. Therefore, they perceive that other churches who have married clergy do not obey Gods commandments. Catholic believes that an individual cannot serve Christ, as well as the family at the same time with a full commitment (Patsavos & Charles 437). This brings an endless criticism and debate between Christians about Gods commandments on marriage through St. Paul. Catholics believe that only single men and women can teach the word of God with commitment, therefore, despise the sect with married priests. Family planning has been a big debate among Christians, especially with the HIV/AIDS era. The society is the forming elements of the church. With the high level of literacy and civilization, nearly all the society members are aware of the causes and dangers of population increase, as well as those that of HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the community teaches on preventive and control measures on the spread of HIV/AIDS and population in any social forum including the church institution (Burbery 211) However, the Catholic Church has come out vigilantly protesting against the use of condom and other family planning methods. They argue that use of condom increases immorality in the society; therefore, promoting sin. On their issue of family planning, they state that Christians should fulfill Gods commandment, “multiply, and fill the earth”. It is a common belief among all Christians that there is supernatural healing. It is commonly agreed that faith is the greatest ingredient in healing. This translates to that when sick Christians are seeking medical attention from health practitioners, it is always important to believe and trust in the power of healing. This is because positive attitude and thinking gives both the body and soul energy. However, other sects of Christianity have emerged preaching a doctrine that it is only God who can heal (Disney & Larry 285). This sect of Christianity condemns other Christians seeking medical attention from health professionals. They perceive them as non-believers because they doubt God and seek medical attention from a human being. In some extreme, they refer those who go to hospitals as non-believers and idol worshippers because of believing in human knowledge rather than Gods’ supremacy. Because of their strong and unshakeable believe, they do not seek medical attention on any circumstance of life. This has led to severe suffering to some of its members due to dangerous illnesses such as cancer, kidney failure, and home deliveries (Disney & Larry 283). The other major Christian portion condemns this practice since it is very humiliating and causes a lot of suffering and eventually death. Many of these Christian sects face the wrath of law and rejection by the community. This is because of their negligence of human rights and failure in their responsibilities. The Sabbath day is a major phenomenon in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Christ’s resurrection and appearance to his disciples brought to existence the Lord’s Day (Harris 19). Christ resurrected on a Sunday. The bible generally describes Saturday as the Sabbath day. However, due the resurrection of Christ on Sunday, majority of Christians observes Sunday as the holy Lords day. On the other hand, the seventh day Adventist still observes Saturday as the worship day. There have been arguments between the seventh day Adventist and other Christian sects on the correct day of worship. Just like Christianity, Muslim is a major religion in the world, mostly practiced in the Middle East. Muslims worship in the mosque because they perceive it as holy and pure residence of their god; Allah. Just like any other religion, there has been differing believes and practices among Muslims. This leads to a deferent perception of life and social acquaintances. There exists a Muslim sect on the opinion that government should be a totalitarian Islamic caliphate. This group of Muslims belief that good governance can be achieved if all the people and leaders convert to Islam. This sect doe not acknowledge that other people have a right to worship their God. Precisely, they feel that everyone should convert to Islamic (Rahman 118). In addition, Sunni Islamists believe that there is only one right way of doing things; that is through global denomination. This sect differ from other Islamic sects who belief that every individual has aright to choose the denomination to belong. Due to these two different believes Muslims keep on arguing on the best way of relating with other non- Muslim communities. All Muslims belief in holy war whereby, they have a common understanding that any Muslim who dies in a course of fight on religious issues, is bound to go to heaven; however, the Muslim society has internal disagreements on wars and conflicts emerging from these beliefs (Their 351). For example, Osama bin laden has been a staunch Muslim and an international terrorist. A portion of Muslim believers claims that Osama’s actions were right and will eventually go to heaven. They belief that Osama was a victorious Muslim due to his commitment to war and fight for his religion. On the other hand, another sect of Muslims was against Osama’s terror action claiming to be malicious and have no religious base. They condemn the number of deaths Osama caused injuries and wasted resources. They argue that, everyone has a right to live, own property, and worship, therefore, Osama’s actions were against human rights. In the recent days, terrorism and bombings have been on the rise. These actions are associated with the Muslim religion. There is a common belief among belief among Muslims on wars and pleasing their Allah. The increased suicide bombings are originating from Muslim countries targeting their rivals (Their 351). This causes loss of lives and has been condemned by a portion of Muslim as evil deed. In addition, Christians are also condemning terrorism and bombings referring them uncouth and devilish. Therefore, some Muslim communities have joined Christians in condemning terror actions (Mamdani 766). However, Christian beliefs and Muslim beliefs and practices are quite different. This means that there are minimal similarities between their religious practices because their mode of worship is different. Conclusion It is agreeable that all Christians believe in the holy bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they constitute their faith and actions concerning the morals and practices taught in the bible. However, due to education and general knowledge, many sects of Christianity are coming up with different a perception and interpretation of the bible and Christian life. This has brought about splitting of churches and formation of doctrines to explain the change of behaviors and practices. This diversity of religious perspective and religion is also found in the Muslim religion. Different sects are at conflict when it comes to crucial matters regarding life, Allah, and conflicts (Hwang 7). Some portion of Muslims is antiterrorists while another portion support it believing that it is a joy to Allah when people die in a war. This has been a controversial belief among Muslims. References Burbery, Timothy J. "Ecocriticism And Christian Literary Scholarship." Christianity & Literature 61.2 (2012): 189-214. Disney, Lindsey, and Larry Poston. "The Breath Of Life: Christian Perspectives On Conception And Ensoulment." Anglican Theological Review 92.2 (2010): pp.271-295. Harris, Johanna I. "Lucy Robartess A Meditation Uppon The Lords Day: A Puritan Palimpsest And English Sabbatarianism." Seventeenth Century 23.1 (2008): pp.1-33. Hwang, Julie Chernov. "Terrorism In Perspective: An Assessment Of Jihad Project Trends In Indonesia." Asiapacific Issues 104 (2012): pp.1-12. Mamdani Mahmood. "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective On Culture And Terrorism." American Anthropologist 3 (2002): pp.766. Patsavos, Lewis J., and Charles J. Joanides. "Interchurch Marriages: An Orthodox Perspective." Greek Orthodox Theological Review 45.1-4 (2000): 433-442. Rahman, Noor Aisha Abdul. "The Dominant Perspective On Terrorism And Its Implication For Social Cohesion: The Case Of Singapore." Copenhagen Journal Of Asian Studies 27.2 (2009): pp.109-128. Thier, J. Alexander. "Afghanistan: Minority Rights And Autonomy In A Multi-Ethnic Failed State." Stanford Journal Of International Law 2 (1999): pp.351. Read More