Essay On Human Experience In Religion

Scholars study religious tradition in various ways, however there are some basic questions and concepts that are utilized when studying religion. The basic questions and concepts that are used most often refer to the human condition in relation to religious tradition such as: “Why are we here?”, “What becomes of us in the end?”, “What is our final purpose?”, and “What is a human being and how ought we to behave toward one another?” (Portier, “The Great Questions”, 17). Religion and its relationship to the human condition is and will always remain a mystery, however there are clues given in the scriptures of major religions that all have a common thread – humans belong to God and have various purposes according to that God. Humans experience religion most often through experiences, usually extraordinary experiences. Ordinary human experience is the presence of routine; it is daily …show more content…
Muslims believe in the prophet Muhammed and his ability to speak for God, or Allah. The Islamic religious book, the Qur’an, is to Muslims the true word of God, as the Bible is to Christians. The general characteristics of religious experience can also be found in Islam in the revealing of prophesy to Muhammed (“Islam: An Overview”, 1-3). Muslims also believe that humans are servants to Allah, not made in Allah’s image, but special within the greater context of creation. Humans have greater status than the rest of creation due to Allah entrusting humans with the care of the earth (Siddiqui, 15, 17). For instance, the Qur’an includes the same human creation myth as the Bible, but in the Qur’an, Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit is simply a single moment of disobedience, not the creation of original sin as Christians believe (Salih, 2). This difference between the stories highlights the Muslim belief that humans are servants to Allah, not a reflection of