What is religion?
I will start by defining religion and what it really is to different people i.e the definition varies among Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims. To Christians, religion is defined as an essential set of believes that a group of people living together in a given society or maybe community agree upon(Smith H. & Green J. 2000). Usually, these essential sets of beliefs are normally concerned with the cause, nature, and the purpose of the universe(Calvin E. Calvin J. Anthony T & Lewis F. 2003). Moreover, there is ritual and devotional involvement in observations. This is to say that in religion there is a moral code that governs the behavior of human affairs. This has been so since time immemorial and human beings have shown a natural interest towards faith and worship to any supernatural being or any other being that seems to be superior to him in one way or the other(Brown P. 2001). A man’s religion was basically about trying to soothe and finding favors from his superior being that he gave much respect and even he adored him (Calvin E. et al 2003). As a result therefore rituals were frequently being performed in order to be given lasting life by the supreme being.
This religion based on Christianity, emphasizes creating a personal link or relationship with your superior being and in Christianity the supreme being is God. I personally agree with this because one has to know God and have a good personal-to-God relationship so that in the future if not now you may gain favors from him.
Christians claim that there is much more into Christianity than it is in religion. Therefore a summary of the definition of religion according to Christianity is to completely love the Lord your God and never to forget to love your neighbor also. (Brown P. 2001).
Muslims also have their own definition of religion. To Muslims, religion is one of the many believes that pertains to monotheism and has got Saudi Arabia as its country of origin. It also has people worshiping it and they are called Muslims. But do these Muslims believe in God? Have always asked me but here sources claim that they do believe in the one God that the Christians believe in, it is only that this God has been given a different name which is Allah and this Allah has Mohammad as his prophet. I thought at the beginning it was clear that Muslims and Christians believed in the same God but it seems that is not the case because Christians have so many prophets in their scriptures with the likes of prophet Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and many more. But in Muslims, only one prophet is mentioned. I’m left to wonder if there are many other prophets and haven’t been mentioned up to now. I will agree at this point that the God that both the Christians serve and the Muslims is the same God because both religions believe that this supreme God is not comparable and will never be and they continue that this God has all the powers and authority over the destiny of the human beings believing in him both during life and death also. So if we believe in the same God, then why do we have these different religions each having its own definition? Why not have just one big religion then? Well, this seems not to be the case with Buddhists, because in Buddhism religion is simply an explained theory on the originality of living, issues dealing with moral aspects, and also has a set of essential practices and behavior.(Kaputo J.D power of religion 2001) Therefore Buddhism is a way of practice and spiritual development. So is Buddhism really a religion because to me it doesn’t sound like one? Buddhist say it is a religion and many are times that it is not viewed as a religion and this is because in Buddhism there is no involvement in worshiping of a supreme creator, but all the same it is a religion and they believe that change is possible. Taking a closer look at the definition of religion from the Hinduism point of view, religion is a diversified body characterized by cultural practices that basically originate from India for example the belief in reincarnation and believing that the superior being can exist in many forms and nature. How true is this? It is said that they do get their scriptures from ancient documents well known as the Vedas(Calvin E. et al 2003). Is there any place in the bible or Quran where it’s stated that the dead have to be reincarnated? If not why is it that Hinduism practices this? Then it clearly shows that people might be serving different supreme beings!
Denial of death in major religions
In the modern world, the true meaning of death has been lost and this is evident as some religions view death as a failure. (Smith H.& Green J.2000) You know with such kind of thinking shame and humiliation are usually expressed and mostly felt by the dying people and the people whom they love. This being not enough, the people surrounding a dying person, as also seen by the physician, will view death as a defeat? I ask myself why because no one being will live forever without dying and how Hinduism call it a defeat leaves me wondering, a defeat in what way? And in my opinion, if people continue viewing death as shameful and a great failure both at personal and at the professional level, then trust me there will be no clear and open communication amongst people who are suffering. This is so because no one is completely interested in revealing his or her shortcomings or failures and this is a major reason as to why they’re there is a denial of death in Christianity(Brown P. 2001).
Death and suffering are usually surrounded by silence and this is very evident in the current cultural and in the fields of medicine(Spencer R. Rodman F. & Forester W. 2007). And to the Buddhists who believe that change is possible, they rarely deny death but for the Hindus, I take reincarnation as a way of denying death in Hinduism. They, the Hindus, claim that death has no cultural meaning. This is what has lead to the widespread denial of death in many other religions and especially in the Hindus who insist on reincarnation (Calvin E. et al 2003).
The denial of death can be widely attributed to the widespread of cultural campaigns to deny death and this is usually found in some structures of technology that are widely available in medicine. Since the cultural inclination has broadly spread, I think that there may be some reason that will make you agree with me that death is not always denied as much as many have put it or rather claimed. To start with the topic of death has gained numerous attention from many scholars doing various literature.
These scholars have claimed that during the past time those who have written on the various ways of death denial in the American way have largely contributed to the ever-growing bodies of literature writing. I would say that it appears to me that there is a change in the way the American people relate to death. Christians claim that though there is an evolution in the relationship between how to avoid the ones who are dead and how to accept death, it is still very obvious that there is a need for further contemplation. And through this, as the Muslims put it, people will be more ready and willing to talk about death. Therefore death denial might be a gone case in the future, but how soon? In the primitive societies belonging to the Hindu, many ceremonies were being done in the addition of passing rituals so that the terror of death could be eased(Brown p. 2001). This also enabled individuals to face death courageously, but did this really work? I think the idea of death and the fear that comes along with it is all in the mind and one doesn’t have to go through rituals to ease the mind. Yes, I do agree to some extent that the rituals and ceremonies did create an open environment and also helped in easing the terror of death. Christians do say that such ceremonies and prayers do solace the dying soul and according to them the terror of death will be a gone case. In my opinion again, if death denial is not properly handled it might furiously return. In addition to that, if the traditional beliefs and some of the rituals and meanings scatter it might still return. Our modern rituals do not at all satisfy and they are usually very hollow and what we have as a result is that modern individual lacking stability and life rituals that do not give them meaning (Smith H.& Green J 2000). This has made them increasingly be in a state of confusion when they are both living and also when they are dead.
In the light of my criticism of the modern life foundation, I feel it’s important to ask this question, why is it that there is confusion, impotence, and emptiness in humanity in the current world setting? With Muslims this is so because meanings of life and death in this society that is purely driven by technology is not deep anymore, it has really become shallow. Yes, it’s true because, it is easy to see, nowadays, that people are complaining of how unease they are which translates to the amount of worry that penetrates the culture, and this is seen when one is forced to face the end of life. The argument was taken to the logical extremes by the Buddhists and they asserted that the feared death and the hollowness of life in this century are liable to respond to the emergence of the deadly evil while going after power and greed.
This might not be that true because in my view, in our modern context, there are new ways of death denial that are emerging and they will be becoming very dangerous and also dehumanizing at the same time. (smith H. & Green J. 2000) And even though Christianity claims that the traditional cultures lead to the creation of designed rituals that were meant to deny death at some point, the same rituals were being used by some societies in enriching the lives of the community. I second this agreement because, in the absence of these rituals and meaning systems, modern society detonated onto an irrational path. As a result, people were convinced into believing the lie that in the current cultural context of death denial, the reality surrounding death and suffering is irrelevant to their day-to-day personal lives. (Brown P. 2001) Muslims point out that a modern form of death denial is the evolution of capitalism, and by looking at it critically, death denial prevents us from trying to believe that the dreaded death will not come.
References
Brown P.. Origin of religious thoughts.2001.Westminster John Knox press. USA. Smith H.& Green J. Worlds’ religion.2001.San Fransisco, USA.
Kaputo J. D. power of religion.2001.Macmillan publishers Boston,USA.
Spencer R. Rodman F. & Forester W. Myth in Religion.2007.Cambridge university press. California,USA.
Calvin J. Calvin E. Anthony T. & Lewis F. What is religion.2003.Baywood publishing co. inc. Maryland ,USA.