Essays on Religion

... this not philosophically but historically; while its view of the moral life is certain of justification not only by reason but by history.” Thus God is looked at as an ethical personality and is looked to as an example of good and right. In the Old Testament, God's voluntary (voluntary for God) covenant with man must be looked at as the prime example of ethical value. The covenant's requirements is the source of all ethics, morals, laws, and justice in the Old Testament. The Mosaic Covenant is the best example of ethical values and norms in the Old Testament. The Mosaic Covenant has three parts; the Decaloque, the Covenant Code; and the Holiness Code. T ...

... did not know the serpent could be Satan incarnate, nor did she know that her desire to become a goddess would be a sin. The main reason Eve eats the apple is because she wants to become a Goddess. The serpent said that he was a beast and after eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil he became more human like. Eve was enticed by the words of the serpent who said that "If the fruit makes a serpent like a man, it should make men like gods." (Line 710: "That ye should be as Gods, since I as man, Internal Man, is but proportion meet; I, of brute, human; ye, of human, Gods.) Other arguments that the serpent used to manipulate Eve included; 1,) Yo ...

... one of Joseph's brothers, overheard this, and he delivered him out of their hands; he said, "Let us not kill him" (Genesis 37:21). Joseph is not killed by his brothers, but sold into Egypt. The Bible states Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver while the Koran does not tell of a specific amount. After Joseph was sold into Egypt, both accounts tell of how, his brothers had his clothes stained with an animal's blood and told their father that Joseph was devoured by a wild beast. After Joseph was sold into Egypt he became very favored by his master, the Pharaoh. In the Biblical account, Pharaoh so trusted Joseph that he entrusted to him everything. T ...

... church became the origin of American society through the settling of Puritan and Pilgrim societies. The strict line on sex as a sin was followed to the letter. The Puritans and the Pilgrims fled England to create an utopian society of Christian purity in North America. Literal interpretation of the Bible limited many sexual behaviours. Since the middle-ages, the church had outlawed masturbation, anal, oral and external-martial sex. Sex was for procreation only. Many passages in the Bible were used to support this belief and moral system. Then Judah told Onan to sleep with his brother's wife, to do his duty as the husband's brother and raise up issue for his ...

... there.” God does not intentionally inflict despair and heartache on his believers for no reason at all. I think the despair we experience, and how we deal with it, is a test to show our true selves. The Lord does not make us suffer because of what we have done. Through suffering, we become better people and grow as an individual. You find your identity through terrible experiences. I have dealt with serious heartache and do believe that I have grown from it. I have learned how to react to certain situations and how to overcome them. I looked up the word "suffering" in the bible, I was directed to Psalms 73:21-26. It states, “When my heart was griev ...

... the Sacrament of Penance is always to be understood as the primary sacrament for forgiveness of mortal sins after Baptism. To better understand how this can be let us first look at the general background of the development of the Sacrament of Penance. The Sacrament of Penance has it's roots even as far back as the day of resurrection when Christ breathed out the spirit on the disciples and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.' (John 20:22-23). In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians we see Paul developing this teaching of Christ, when he says 'All this is fro ...

... Bible. We have to make the distinction that God is a Spirit apart from other beings. So, how do we make the distinction? There is only one place to get that knowledge. Within the God’s Written word. ”For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” That spirit can be compared with God for man was made in His image. Man’s spirit can not be seen, or felt, weighed or measured. We really can’t explain what a spirit is, in all honesty, because it is mystery that eludes precise definition or description. What is important is that when we confess that God is a Sp ...

... monotheistic religion developed the God of Israel now being seen as the God ruling universal history and the destiny of all nations. I'm not going to delve any further into the history of Judaism. At this point in time I will simply state that there are many differences in between Christianity and Judaism The Jews believe in "anointed prophets," or someone who speaks for God. The majority of Jews rejected Jesus Christ because Jesus claimed to be God. The Jews believe that Jesus was just a prophet and he is not God. The Jews understand God as being set apart from everything else. God is the "wholly other." There are different levels of Jews. ...

... to realize that hi life up to this point had been so empty. He let go any earthly attachments and soon set out to find peace and enlightenment trying to steer away from the cycles of rebirths. He started practicing Yoga and “adopted a life of radical asceticism.” He soon gave up this way of thinking and focused on “a middle path between the life of indulgence and that of self-denial.” After a time of great inner struggle, he began to wander to different places and preach and organized a monastic community know as the sangha. The Buddha started the movement for all different peoples and denied that a person’s spiritual worth is a matter of birth. The B ...

... of both French and German bishops, and of princes as well. Having arranged the matters relating to the Church, the lord pope went forth into a certain spacious plain, for no building was large enough to hold all the people. The pope then, with sweet and persuasive eloquence, addressed those present in words something like the following saying: "Oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains, race beloved and chosen by God, as is clear from many of your works, set apart from all other nations by the situation of your country as well as by your Catholic faith and the honor which you render to the holy Church: to you our discourse is addressed, and for you our ...