Statement of faith

While this belief can become corrupted or tainted, at its core, followers of a faith all share this one belief. Religions do not call their followers to be forceful or violent, but rather to be open-minded, accepting, and peaceful. The characteristics of Pi Patel demonstrate how religions should interact with one another. With those…

Vatican I adopted two documents: Dei Filius, which was on faith and reason, and Pastor Aeternus, which was on papal infallibility. By approving of Dei Filius, the council affirmed the validity of the Revelation, the connection between faith and reason, and the Church’s spiritual authority in matters related to the faith. A short excerpt from a translation of Cardinal Henry Edward Manning’s pastoral letter ‘The Vatican Council and It’s…

faces. Guess they don’t have a reason to reprimand me for my love of God, however unorthodox it was. This first experience in interfaith conversation was messy and left me saddened as they couldn’t see the beauty of each religion with the essence of faith and belief. Me and my family continued with our walk-in silence, unusual silence, each of us thinking about what had just happened. (726…

I grew up going to church with my parents. My earliest memories are from hanging around the church in Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Growing up, I would hear about this Jesus guy and I would ask questions about him. Hearing about the resurrection was amazing to me and I found it very interesting that he would die for the bad things I did. It was during a Vacation Bible School that I realized that I needed a savior to forgive me of my sins and the only way I could see this happening was by…

Author’s inspirations are often expounded upon through the symbolism and literary techniques they use during the developing process of their novels. In Harvest, Crace exhibits ambiguous connotations of religious ideals towards the reader, juxtaposing the novel’s characters’ distant religious relationship in effort to alluding the demise of a society with a lack of religion. As each religious aspect is insinuated upon, its then that the reader can distinguish the realization that the characters…

1. Faith In general, people think development wholesome action by suttas chanting, praying, ceremonial worshiping, offering water, fruits and flowers to Buddha, or engaging in volunteer works. Of course, all of these wholesome work of earning merit is the initial step of gearing one’s mind to spiritual path and somewhat transform mind, but it’s not a sufficient way. For instance, the chanting of Suttas, praying and worshiping help one to develop faith in a religion. However, developing the true…

novel Thinks… David Lodge addresses topics of religion, faith and death by examining the main characters’, Helen and Ralph’s, differing views on the subjects. Helen, though having had a Catholic upbringing, is not a firm believer in Christianity, yet she still wants to hold onto her beliefs in afterlife and dualism between soul and body. In contrast, Ralph sees such beliefs simply as a way to cope with the fear of death and he scorns Helen’s faith in ”immortal souls”, arguing that human…

East of Eden is a novel written by acclaimed author, John Steinbeck. The story follows two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their intertwined lives in the years between the American Civil War in the 1860s and the Great Depression in the 1930s. Throughout the novel, the author recurrently uses religion through a series of biblical allusions that in turn reflect the context of the novel. In order to explore how context has informed the use of religion in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, one…

Homeless trespassing was an issue that Luis Moctezuma, a pastor of the Huntington Park Mision Evangelica church, and I spoke about few weeks ago. He mentioned homeless people trespassed into the church when no one was around. His was concerned that they were going to destroy the outside of the church. Moreover, they were not going to respect the church and do malicious acts such as drinking alcohol in the backyard. No reports were made because he did not have any evidence of the incidence. Since…

“In a civilized society, diversity in religious orientation should be the reason for celebration, not the cause for hatred and differentiation” (Abhijit Naskar). This quote stated by one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons and best-selling authors speaks the nothing but the truth. However, based on this current age, this quote is not one that is followed. Religious discrimination started long before today, examples of this are the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, European Colonization and…