godIssue
I grew up in a very conservative home, evangelical charismatic, my mother, father and sister. Growing up speaking in tongues was expected of me if I was a spiritually healthy practitioner of our faith. We were also very politically conservative - my parents taught me to not trust homosexuals. We voted Republican. I was in the pro-Life club in high school where we took a public stance against the Gay-Straight Alliance. That was me. I was Bible Boy.
The Hindu faith - what it holds for you and me
Hinduism is easily the oldest existing organized form of religion on the face of the earth. The Hindu faith has about a billion adherents around the world, migration from India having taken it to almost every country on the planet. Hindus are known to be strongly attached to their native social culture and traditional faith; research by the Trinity College, Hartford, in 2008 indicated that a majority of Indian scientists are believers, even with their rocket science and atomic exploits. The number of Hindu gods and men of piety, and the volume of Hindu religious texts would possibly far outnumber the corresponding numbers of all other religions put together, at times even seeming comical.
Religion provides life's foundation
Religion is a topic that can bring people close to form unusually strong bonds and could, as well, result in hatred and animosity beyond limits. So, writing this column is like stepping into a minefield... With that in mind, let me "step in."
'He plays by his own rules': Belief in the face of uncertainty
I think I can say I get it. Christians seem bent on taking a happy marshmallow-Peeps-filled Sunday and instead making it about some grisly execution 2,000 years ago. I think I get the confusion of those outside the church because for the bulk of my life I was not a follower of Jesus and had no interest in it. To me it seemed like a bunch of angry and boring male chauvinists protesting things I had nothing against. Add to that the fact that they hung everything on this very old book that seemed like it had an awful lot of holes.
'Invent the future' through discussion of faith traditions on campus
Virginia Tech, in its mission statement, values "discovery and dissemination of new knowledge" and emphasizes "teaching and learning, research and discovery." Perhaps that's what brought many of us here in the first place, the promise of a university that fosters a sort of marketplace of ideas among its students and faculty.
The outlook that is Freethinking
"Truth springs from argument amongst friends." - David Hume
Baha'i: Keeping the 'oneness of mankind' at the forefront of religious thought
In our lives, we are constantly encountering people from different religious backgrounds. Some say that the confusion and conflict in the world stems from the differences in religion. If we look at religion in a positive light, seeing that they all come from the same source, religion could have the opposite effect on the world, bringing unity and oneness to our planet. Unity is the fundamental teaching of the Baha'i Faith. We believe that all the world's religions come from one God and that the religions are spreading one common message. We seek to unite all the races and peoples in one universal cause, one common faith. The Baha'i Faith is based on the concept of progressive revelation, which suggests that God reveals religious truth progressively throughout time. Baha'is follow Baha'u'llah and believe that he is the promised one of our time whose teachings will enable humanity to build a new world.
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We all know it - Religion is a powerful entity. It fuels hope and promise just as much as it encourages wars and taints the honesty of political leadership. Religion is at its best - in the state it is intent to exist when we each honor the faith we choose individually while respecting the rights of others to worship in their own ways through their own religious beliefs. Religion becomes a terrible and destructive tool the moment any one of us attempts to impose it/convert on others counter to their beliefs. Regrettably this is where the world finds itself today. We would each be wise and far more 'honorable' of the concept of faith if we would respect these differences and stop trying convert the world to one faith or another. Let's honor the lessons of compassion and dignity and turn our backs on the dark side of religion - divisiveness, hatred and violence.
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