OCTOBER 6TH

Last class we talk about Religion, there were a lot of history around this topic, some debates and somehow I realized that religion influences a lot the behavior of a person in all aspects of their life.

First, the professor started talking about Babylon because the bible reveals that all systems of religion started in that land , from there he started to talked about Judaism, which is one of the oldest monotheistic religious,Jews believe that God choose Abraham to be the father of a people who would be an example of god behavior and holiness for the rest of the world.Abraham is called Ibrahim by Muslims who see him as the father of the Arab people as well as the Jewish people through his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael (Isma'il in Arabic.Muslims are those who follow the Islamism which began in Arabia and was revealed to humanity by the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that there is only one God. The Arabic word for God is Allah.But continue with judaism,the Jews, under God’s guidance became a powerful people with kings such as Saul, David, and Solomon, who built the first great temple.From then on Jewish worship was focussed on the Temple, as it contained the Ark of the Covenant, and was the only place where certain rites could be carried out.What is called the "Current Era" (After Christ) traditionally begins with the birth of a Jewish teacher called Jesus. His followers came to believe he was the promised Messiah and later split away from Judaism to found Christianity, a faith whose roots are firmly in Judaism.This history of Christianity is focussed on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God.It has been suggested that the work of Jesus Christ and the impact of his death and resurrection would not have made any lasting impact on the world were it not for the missionary work of Paul.He understood the resurrection to signal the end of the need to live under Jewish law.Instead Paul taught of living in the Spirit in which the power of God was made to work through human flesh.He insisted that Gentiles had as much access to the faith as Jews and that freedom from the Law set everyone free.It was this teaching which was essential for the development and success of the early church which would otherwise have remained nothing more than another Jewish sect.Paul established Christian churches throughout the Roman Empire, including Europe, and beyond - even into Africa.Constantine set Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.When Rome fell in 476, it meant that Western and Eastern Christians were no longer under the same political rule and differences in belief and practice arose between them.The split led to the Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church. The Orthodox church does not recognize the authority of the Roman papacy and claims a Christian heritage in direct descent from the Christian church of Christ's believers.Catholics believe that the Pope, based in Rome, is the successor to Saint Peter whom Christ appointed as the first head of His church. He therefore stands in what Catholicism calls the apostolic succession, an unbroken line back to Peter and has supreme authority. Popes can speak infallibly on matters of faith and morals but in practice do so rarely. The professor told us about the church in the middle age and how it turned to be more a business than a religion institution, because they holy name someone to obtain profits from the people, this cause some controversy because Ana defended the church so the professor said he will send some proves of this.In the XVI century the King Henry VIII of England wanted to end his marriage but the catholic church did not allow this, so he broke ties with the pope and the church of Rome, making certain changes in the worship and practice of christians in England. The church in England became Known as Anglicanism. Some classmates said that this was a fake church because was created just under the needs of that king.Then the professor talked a little bit about other beliefs in the world such us the Buddhism which is is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development. Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and do not worship gods or deities.The history of Buddhism is the story of Siddhartha Gautama spiritual journey to Enlightenment, and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.One day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening) Siddhartha became deeply absorbed in meditation, and reflected on his experience of life, determined to penetrate its truth.He finally achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha. The Mahabodhi Temple at the site of Buddha's enlightenment, is now a pilgrimage site.Buddhist legend tells that at first the Buddha was happy to dwell within this state, but Brahma, king of the gods, asked, on behalf of the whole world, that he should share his understanding with others.Here the professor made a connection between Buddhism and Hinduism because Brahma is for both the creator. Hinduism is the religion of the majority of people in India and Nepal. It also exists among significant populations outside of the sub continent and has over 900 million adherents worldwide.Unlike most other religions, Hinduism has no single founder, no single scripture, and no commonly agreed set of teachings.

At the end of this speech we saw the differences between many conceptions of creation, beliefs and cultures around the world that came from a religious point of view.

Bibliography

• The concepts saw in class and some research in http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/