Hmong Religious Beliefs

Religion is a man-made belief that has been around since the beginning of civilization. It can be thought of as the consciousness of men, where it allows different perspectives and philosophies. Each religion has a specific goal for its followers to live by and is backed up with religious documents that support the belief in faith and miracles. The goal of this paper is to explore through topics that have not yet been discussed or mentioned in Philosophy of Religion, the theological and philosophical beliefs of the Hmong, are a minority from Southeast Asia. This paper will explain the background of the people and elaborate on the beliefs of animism and shamanism.
Animism is a religion or belief that all inanimate objects have a soul or guardian …show more content…
To avoid doing wrong to the spirits the Hmong people come up with superstitions that limit their actions such as harming nature, whistling and sighing at certain times or places, cursing out loud, tossing stones into a body of water, touching or grabbing objects off the street, and so on. Superstitions are the basis of the Hmong’s spiritual reality because it underlies the actions that should not be done by an individual. It is to raise awareness in the person and acknowledge them that the world is mysterious, each step taken should be done with precaution. One of the Hmong superstition is that when an individual points his or her finger at the moon, a scar will appear under their earlobe the next morning. To prevent this, the person’s earlobe must be wiped with saliva. The point of this superstition is to create a belief that there is something spiritually connected with objects, and when its offended, something mischievous happens as a result. The Hmong are more aware of the world because of the better understanding that everything is spiritually connected. Animism is the backbone to the Hmong religion and in which gives them the ability to create the spiritual reality that exist