The second major point is found in chapter 4, “A Note on Health, to Which Religion Can be Hazardous,” he crucifies the major world religions for the harm they have done to humanity. Which mentions Muslims’ opposition to polio vaccines, the Vatican’s opposition to the distribution of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ refusal to give their children life-saving blood transfusions, the Roman Catholic Church’s protection of abusive priests, and religious oppression of women and homosexuals. Christopher Hitchens says, “The attitude of religion to medicine, like the attitude of religion to science, is always necessarily problematic and very often necessarily hostile. A modern believer can say and even believe that his faith…
I was very apprehensive when I started reading The Faith by Moynahan, which even has “A History of Christianity” pretentiously written on the side binding; as my Christian friend who I often go to for religious advice said when I showed him the book, “I didn’t know that Brian Moynahan wrote the Bible.” Humankind is notorious for interpreting religious texts to their own best interests, which was even explicitly stated in the The Faith; “Men adjudicated on what was true to the faith, and what merited excommunication from it.” (19) With religion as a scapegoat, we have seen century after century of obstruction and growth; from the Crusades to terrorist acts by the ISIS, extremists are often born from the cherry-picking of religious texts and…
From the beginning Christians tried to push their beliefs on the Native Americans, even though it was no good their beliefs were all so strong and that it was natural. A Swedish Minister gave a great short speech of Christianity, afterwards the Indian orator shared some main aspects of their own religion. The good missionary was appalled and disgusted by the story and called them idle tales. The Indian replied “my brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practice those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?”…
David Bentley Hart, a renowned theologian and philosopher, has accepted the challenge presented by the New Atheist ideals. In Hart’s publication, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies he explains to the reader the falsehood of Atheism and how the rejection of Christianity has negatively impacted humanity. There are four themes that Hart uses to convey this message: Faith and reason in today’s society, Christianity’s influence and misunderstanding throughout the Middle Ages, Christianity’s attempt to shape present culture, and why the rejection of the peaceful religion will cause a negative impact. Within this explanation, both theologians and atheist philosophers are able to explore a true account of how…
People make mistakes. In every area of life, individuals make poor decisions, fail to properly execute actions, and have the wrong perspectives. This litany of errors extends to faith and beliefs as well. Whether likeable or not, the fact is that every person will possess religious beliefs that are incorrect.…
Fredreka Goodgame Mrs. Glover Western Civilization 101 11 April 2015 Christianity: The Great Awakening Christianity is defined as the religion based on the teachings of Jesus the Nazareth; it was developed out of Judaism in the 1st Century C.E. The Great Awakening was an otherworldly replenishment that cleared the American Provinces, especially New Britain, amid the first 50% of the 18th Century. Certain Christians started to disassociate themselves with the created way to deal with love at the time which had prompted a general feeling of smugness among professors, and rather they embraced a methodology which was described by awesome enthusiasm and feeling in petition to God. This new profound reestablishment started with individuals like…
Name: Kenneth Burkhardt Course: Religion 101 Report and Topic: #2 Classic Christianity, Chapters 4-8 Submitted: 9/6/16 908 PM Word Count: 588 Always Believe in yourself “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrew 4:16) In Classic Christianity, Bob George says about “God will hear our prayers, weather we’re worthy to be used by god in ministry” (p 81-83). In this part of the reading Bob George talks about how John John Kennedy walked around the white house with confidence as a little kid, and how everyone knew who he was.…
Depending on the Protestant denomination (some are more favouring of a Christian design), most Protestant churches are plain and simple - Protestants generally don’t use the same statues or pictures or architectural designs as a kind of worship that Catholics use. The removal of these arty displays of worship was suggested around the time of the Protestant Reformation - and the removal was called Iconoclasm. Protestants saw any deviation from the Bible a bad thing or a distraction. There was actually a lot of religious hatred and violence from the Protestants toward the Roman Catholics - who liked to worship through statues and paintings. However, Lutherans and Anglicans were both not as keen on Iconoclasm and their churches allowed anything…
Provisional Title “In God We Trust: Freedom Religion in Public Schools” This title was chosen to examine and understand the extent in which teachers and students can express their beliefs, and the extent to which schools allow religion to be tolerated. I chose the title “In God We Trust” because it is the official motto of the United States, yet it directly correlate’s with the controversy of separation of church and state. As an American citizen we have the right to freedom of religion, but the constitution is vague in what extent freedom of religion is acceptable.…
In my opinion, religion -- although a good concept -- often leads to hatred and prejudice when all it preaches is…
Every human being has the ability to decide what they believe and what they do not. At a very early age, we develop judgement that allows us to choose whether or not to accept certain claims. These assertions may be tempting, but our reasoning allows us to critically analyze the information with respect to all of our previous knowledge. These claims may be faith based, fact-based, or opinion. Without recognizing it, we take every bit of information we gather, analyze it, and decide whether we accept its validity.…
In this summary of Rodney Starks book “The Rise of Christianity” I will discussing chapters 1, 2, and 4, I found the arguments in these chapters most compelling giving the best overview on the rapid expansion of the Christian religion. Chapter 1 explains the rapid growth and conversion rate of the Christian population by providing charts, facts, and statistics about the conversion and growth rate of the Christian population. Chapter 2 explains the class basis of early Christianity giving multiple arguments on the social status of the Christian population. Chapter 4 discusses the Christian and Pagan responses to the massive epidemics and how these tragedies were large factors of the rapid growth and conversion of the Christian population. These…
Christians living in America today are often told about how depraved society can be, and how the world is falling apart. Some remain lukewarm and apathetic while others do their part to try and improve the world. Still others have become bitter towards secularism, believing that the problems in this country stem from a lack of institutional religiosity. Many of these people proclaim that America would be a better place if only schools led prayer and taught the creation story. Yet these people seem to ignore the how it has been proven time and time again that religion and government never mix well, and in the case of the United States they have never really mixed that much at all.…
The missionary movement in Christian History was written by Andrew F. Wall. He went to the West Africa and taught church history and trained them for the ministry in Sierra Leone. This book is the amalgamation of three movements, and the book has three parts. In the first part the author describes about a reflection on the nature of the Christian faith, from the point of view of its historical transmission. In part two, we can study about the Christian faith transmission process of the Africa and the third part is the about of missionary movement from the West as a model of what was happened to both partners the west and Africa as the transmission of faith in Africa.…
A well-taught class is one that provides you with proper knowledge on the subject, while simultaneously putting the subject matter in the larger context of a shared history and current affairs. For centuries religion has been in conversation with almost every academic pursuit created by man. Naturally, the argument of how religion should be taught in schools is part of the argument on the best way for American students to be taught, as it should be. Currently, public schools, especially secondary schools, are merely ignoring religion altogether and have silently agreed to keep it largely outside of academic conversation. However, ignoring religion is a fruitless effort that negatively affects students.…