Thursday, July 15, 2010

Different Religious Expressions With Figurines

Religion can be a sensitive subject for some. Especially if you and your spouse do not share the same belief system. While not sharing the same religion doesn't condemn a marriage to failure, sharing the same belief is a large part of successful marriages.Many marriages of mixed faith do wonderfully well, but it can sometimes be a hard road learning how to respect each others different belief systems.

Looking into it, many different religions teach that it is not wise to marry someone of a different faith or one who does not believe the same things you do.If you look at it, couples that have different faiths and are both strong in their religious values might just be inviting controversy into their home. Living your religion can sometimes mean cultural differences.There are many traditions that ones religion might follow that the others does not.


Marriage and Different Religions


How will you raise your children? What traditions will you take from each others belief system and how might it affect your children? If these questions are answered well in advance, the tension later on will be quite different than if they are not. If your philosophy in matters of religion does not allow you to respect the beliefs of your partner, then you will have problems.For a lot of people, religion is the cornerstone of their core values, and if you cannot respect each others ideas based on religion, then problems will arise most definitely.

Ultimately the choice to be in a mixed religion marriage comes down to how you can respect each others choices. If that is possible, most likely the relationship can flourish.Before entering in a marriage, it is best to discuss the important aspects of each of your religious beliefs. After all, while religion makes up an important part of many marriages, great communication and mutual respect make up a huge part of it too.
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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Five Similarities Between Religion and Spirituality

When we were children we were asked, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If we based our answer on the creation story in the Bible, we would answer, Chicken. But if we based our answer on our experience in raising chickens, our answer would be, Egg. The same can be said of the answer to the question, Which came first, Religion or Spirituality? In terms of our experience with religious books and discussions, religion came first.

It is only now that more and more people are talking about spirituality and writing about it. In terms of the origin of the reality behind those words or in terms of the object of our understanding, spirituality came first. The spirit was there before there was any religion. God was there before there was anybody to worship him. We can even say that spirituality is an offshoot of religion. For many centuries people professed religion.

Some of them fiercely opposed religions other their own. Christians for many centuries opposed paganism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and any other religion. This has happened also with paganism, Islam, and the rest with respect to the other religions. They too opposed other religions. But more and more people discover that mere religion cannot answer their deeper yearning for a better experience of life. So, they turned to something deeper and better than religion.

They found this in spirituality. Because spirituality in a sense is an offshoot of religion, there is bound to be some similarity between them, just like the similarity between the egg and the chicken. First, both believe in a higher power of some kind. Religion believes in God the Father or Jesus, or Allah, or Brahman, or Tao. Spirituality believes also in this God or it may conceive of God as a universal or primal energy.

Both believe that such being possesses power higher and greater than what we have. Secondly, both religion and spirituality desire to have a relationship with this higher power. Although the nature of the relationship is different in religion than in spirituality, the desire for this relationship is there. Religion connects with this higher power with fear and trembling. Spirituality connects with this higher power with love and affection.

Thirdly, both religion and spirituality have rituals and practices which deepen one's religiosity or spirituality. Religion usually has sacred rites or sacraments. Spirituality has meditation or yoga sessions. Fourthly, both have respect for the sacred, the other worldly. This is not just respect for God. This is respect for the reality that is beyond our senses and reason. When religion pushes this respect to its extreme, it becomes superstition. When spirituality pushes this respect to its extreme, it becomes religious spirituality.

Fifthly, both have fear of failure. In religion this failure is punished by hell fire or repetition of existence or some other worse fate. In spirituality this failure is the inability to realize one's true worth or value and the destiny of a life of meaninglessness. Hell, repetition of existence, non-existence, meaninglessness are forms of punishment for failure, either in religion or in spirituality.
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