Tuesday, February 26, 2008

What is religion?

Axford Advanced Genie Dictionary definitions are:
"Religion: noun
1. The belief in the existence of a god or gods, and the activities that are connected with the worship of them
2. One of the systems of faith that are based on the belief in the existence of a particular god or gods
3. A particular interest or influence that is very important in your life"
The Encyclopedia of Religion defines religion this way:
"In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels — a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience — varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture."
If you copy this sentence "what is religion" and paste it for instance to search bar of Google site the result will be:
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,760,000 for "what is
religion". (0.24 seconds).
Surveying all of them ordinarily is impossible and not useful for our argument, I don’t want to offer a sheer significantly discussion about religion; rather, as I said before, I'm considering it to find a practical way of better life to this world and in the Hereafter. Most of definer has emphasized, to define religion is too difficult; but, definitions that presented by them are common in some elements: existence of God (s), prophet hood, beliefs, system of faith, supernatural, activities, worship and praying, to be influenced and the Hereafter.
So to be called a complex ideas and acts, religion, it needs to such components otherwise it's just a sect and heresy. Reasoning is coming…..

Sunday, February 24, 2008

introduction

Nowadays, discussion about various religions all over the world is one of the most notable subjects that are on the top of debatable matters in the net, Because all of religions talk about better life in this world and some of them moreover, concentrate also on after here life; Two kinds of matters that everyone who is worry about her/his destiny thinks about them.
Islam as second largest religion in the world, is one of the most debating of all religions; but because of misconceptions about some Islamic thoughts, and misbehaviors by some Islamic radical groups in one hand, and weak information about Islamic ideas on the other hand, today, the world encounter with "Islamophobia" phenomenon.
However, there are some general misconceptions about religion entirely, that cause some people leave the religion completely and become infidel or at least become doubtful about their faiths. For instance features of hell and paradise especially the first one in Abrahamic religions brings in mind that God is a dispiteous abuser. Such matters should be answered by all heavenly religions including; Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I will frame these difficulties generally and try to quote them directly from deferent religions and their answers; then, I will offer my solution according to my religion thoughts; Islam (Shiite).
Before starting to project all of these problems and answering them with reasonable justification, we need to know some facts about word "religion"; what is religion? Are all of religions are same? Is it possible to admit trueness of all faiths? How much kind of religions we have? Many religions claim that there is just one true faith in all over the world; if so, what is destination of other religion followers? Going to hell or something else? Is there any logical criterion for realizing trueness of pretensions? And, there are some other questions that must be answered at first.