Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief.
In the larger sense, religion is a communal system for the coherence of belief—typically focused on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion can also be described as a way of life.
The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures. "Organized religion" generally refers to an organization of people supporting the exercise of some religion with a prescribed set of beliefs, often taking the form of a legal entity (see religion-supporting organization). Other religions believe in personal revelation and responsibility. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system," but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.
Show new selections
Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars referred to the myths and studied them in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and, in general, on the ancient Greek civilization.
Greek mythology consists in part of a large collection of narratives that explain the origins of the world and detail the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. These accounts were initially fashioned and disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; the Greek myths are known today primarily from Greek literature.
Greek mythology has had extensive influence on the culture, the arts and the literature of Western civilization and remains part of western heritage and language. It has been a part of the educational fabric from childhood, while poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.
[[Image:|center|300px|A depiction of Jesus and the Sacred Heart]]
The Sacred Heart is a religious devotion to Jesus' physical heart. This devotion is predominantly used in the Roman Catholic Church and represents divine love for humanity. It also stresses the central Christian concept of loving and adoring Jesus.
edit
Selected religious figure
Allah is the Arabic language word referring to " God", "the Lord" and, literally according to the Qur'an, to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" in the Abrahamic religions. It does not mean "a god", but rather "the Only God", the Creator deity featuring in the Quranic creation myth, and it is the main term for the deity in Islam. However, "Allah" is not restricted to just Islam, and used by Christians and Jews according to geographic region.
Allāh is found in the Qur'an and in Arabic translations of both the Tanakh and the Gospels and even in the Indonesian translations of the Bible. Christians believe that Allāh is ath-Thaluth al-Muqaddas - The Holy Trinity,
- ...that the Qur'an is the only book that has been completely memorized by Muslims (hafiz) all around the world for nearly 14 centuries?
|
Zilu (an impetuous disciple of Confucius) asked how one should serve ghosts and spirits. The Master said, "Till you have learnt to serve men, how can you serve ghosts?" Zilu then ventured upon a question about the dead. The Master said, "Till you know about the living, how are you to know about the dead?"
|
The Pali Canon is the standard scripture collection of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. It was not printed until the nineteenth century, but is now available in electronic form. However, the English translation, by the Pali Text Society, is not yet complete. The Canon was written down from oral tradition in the last century B.C.E. Most scholars give it some sort of pre-eminence among sources for early Buddhism. It is composed in the Pali language, and falls into three general categories, called pitaka (piṭaka, basket) in Pali. Because of this, the canon is traditionally known as the tipitaka (tipiṭaka; three baskets). The three pitakas are as follows.
1. Vinaya Pitaka, dealing with rules for monks and nuns.
2. Sutta Pitaka, discourses, most ascribed to the Buddha, but some to disciples.
3. Abhidhamma Pitaka, variously described as philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, and so on.
According to the scriptures a council was held shortly after the Buddha's death to collect and preserve his teachings. It is traditionally believed by Theravadins that most of the Pali Canon was recited orally from this time, with only a few later additions. There are wide differences of opinion among scholars as to what extent the teachings may be traced to the historical Buddha himself.
edit
Associated Wikimedia
|
