Beliefs:
All religions acquire a very complex system of beliefs. Beliefs can be defined in many ways. "Belief is an unseen but very powerful world of gods (or one single god), spirits, angels, demons, ancestors and many more." A bundle of the rest of the religious systems centre attention on these unsee beings and powers. "Belief is very important or sacred to people (hereos) from the past of the religious tradition." These are often the creators of these religions or it might be the people closely linked to the creators. "Belief about human nature and the natural world." All religions have definite beliefs about what human beings are, their relationship with the world of the unseen spiritual beings, with each other and the world around us. Also they might see other things such as animals or things as being sacred or less secular. "Belief about salvation and how human beings go about getting in tune with whateverthey see as the centre of their belief systems." The interior may be spiritual being, oneself or even nature.
Sacred Stories:
"Often religions express their beliefs in abstract statements or creed. These particular beliefs are expressed in stories, which are very frequent amongst all religions. Reading those stories helps people gain an insight of a particular religion. The three main types of sacred stories are: myths, legends and parables. Myths are stories that are set 'in the beginning' at that time when the world was not as it is now. These stories consist of things like the creation of the earth, sky, sun and moon, or the origin of humans, plants, animals or very sacred places, or even the way of how evil and death entered the world. "A myth is a very distinctive type of story." Legends on the other hand, are stories about parituclary sacred or important people in the history of a religious tradition. This means that may be inspired by gods in a human form. Legends are stories that describe the events that brought about important changes in that history. However parables are stories about ordinary people that makes you feel about yourself, the way you act and what you believe in.
Religious Experiences:
All religions view an inner experience as being very crucial and some being very emotional. Those experiences are understood to be contacts with gods or spirits or even insights into truth. There are two major types of these experiences being:
Immediate Experience: Which means that the believers understand the experience to be a direct contact with the unseen world. They believe to be in touch with god.
Mediated Experience: Meaning that the believers understand that it is through some person, act or even an object that they are united with the unseen world of the gods or spirits.
Religious Rituals:
Some religions emphasis rituals as being very important and significant while others dont. However, people in all religions come together for different purposes and when they do so, the words spoken and the things they do all seem to follow a certain pattern each time. There are two main types of rituals being:
Rites of Passage (in particular, initiation rites): Associated with the transition from childhood to adulthood. Through these rituals, people become full and responsible members of the religious community.
Rites of Worship or Devotion: Most religions include both communal private acts of worship or devotion. Communal acts are acts of praise or meditation which a large group of believers participate in, whether it'd be in a church, synagogue, temple, mosque or even at a sacred ceremony. While private rights are those ritual acts of worship or prayer in a smaller group such as a family in their homes or even individuals on their own.
Social Structure:
There are three main aspects of the social structure or the organisation of the religion.
Sacred space: Buildings are one of the most visible aspects in religion as they contain many purposes due to the fact that they could be the house of gods, they may mark special and important things or they might simply be places where people gather to perform rituals.
Sacred times: Religions contain periods for work, periods for worshipping therefore every religion has a religiously based calender.
Sacred person: Religions mark out and set aside ritual experts, spiritual guides and leaders. They give different roles according to genders and also group people according to their orders.
Sacred Texts:
Religious writing plays an important part in our society. Writing associated with the history of a particular religion are in fact the ones that are known for their significance. They are called canons. In some religions the text is known for being the actual words of God but in others, the words are of people that are inspired by God. The words on the other hand in every sacred text are very holy, wise and devout people.
Religious Ethics:
Every religion contains a "code of approved moral conduct." What is regarded as morally good or evil is not particulary the same in each religion neither are the same values emphasised in religions. Some practise the believe that it's ok to have more than one wife. Some may allow divorce and remarriage while others are against that. Religious Ethics are "The foundation on ehich believers base their moral codes."
Sacred Symbols:
All religions have many symbols. Some are more important than others though but often one or two stand out above all capturing something of what is most important about that particular tradition. The symbols we are presented with are a visual summary of a whole religion. But obviously every symbol carries a special meaning behind it.
About The Eight Aspects Of Religion
