Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #9: The Incarnation of God: "After viewing 'The Nativity Story', analyzing your chosen Christmas carol, and reading Philippians 2:1-7, reflect on the meaning of Christma..."

The Nativity Story, and Philipians 2: 1-7 both show us Jesus in a human form. He is with nature and takes in sins from the people. In the song Joy to the World, Jesus is looked upon as a hero that came to us and saved us.
In the first verse of Joy to the World the lyrics are

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing

In this verse it describes how the "lord" God has come down to Earth. So we must make room for him in our hearts. The song views him as something that we can keep in our hearts and can be very close to. Jesus' birth is emphasized greatly not only on the first verse but on the next few verses. It keeps mentioning that Jesus has come so we must celebrate. The song represents Jesus' birth as a very commemorative event.

In the story of Jesus Christ, Mary, Joseph, the shepards, and the Persian astrologers were major parts of the story. Mary being the mother became one of the most important people in the story. Joseph the husband had to take care of her and safetly take her to Jerusalem. The shepards and the Persian astrologers emphasized the importance of the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus is described as a very holy person that could perform miracles. He came down from heaven to preach the message of God and let the whole world know of God and Christianity.

What type of god comes to earth as a baby?Why, if Jesus' story is true, would God choose this method of coming to His creation?
I believe that Jesus came as a baby to show that God is pure and clean. A new born baby knows nothing the mind of a baby is pure and clean, there are almost no sins that the baby has committed and the thoughts that a baby has a pure and clean. So I think that Jesus was trying to show how pure and clean he was by coming to Earth as a baby. Also, I believe that God will not choose this method to come because he needs to show his strength in which h can use to lead the world.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives: "Find where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. Research a Western news source on the story and summarize the article fr..."

The event that I chose was the Christian Minister burning the Qu'ran. This event was a very big issue because burning or harming the Qu'ran in any way is a very big insult to the Muslim people. When the Christian Minister in Florida was going to make the "Burn a Qu'ran day" the Muslims were outraged and immediately thought this must be stopped. The Christian Minister eventually called it off and publicly apologized. The Western view for this article is this http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Church-Cancels-Quran-Burning-102571464.html
This article talks about the issue vry broadly, it does not have any specific details. This article only told the readers how the government was trying to put an end to this. And it even says that
"President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and numerous religious leaders around the country spoke out against the planned protest and urged the previously obscure Florida minister to abandon the idea"
Also on the Iran view of this issue, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/141769.html it goes into much more detail than the other article. It also does not ty to package this as if it was nothing, on the other article, they tried to make it seem as nice as possible. However, on his one it describes the exact number of Qu'rans and expresses clearly how much the Muslims were affended. Therefore, by comparing and contrasting I noticed that depending on where the article is written te content of the matter can greatly differ.

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7

Modern Religious Experience: Personal Commemoration- Reflection #7: "Think of an event in your life- past, present or future. You are going to create a commemorative ritual for this event. First, describe the ..."

The Event that I will be creating a commemorative ritual for is Kimchi Fiesta day. Our family has these Kimchi party kind of things every year in the fall. My grandmother gathers people and makes a huge load of kimchi for the family. She has us come over and move the boxes. We taste the kimchi and actually make some.
The commemorative ritual for this event for me will last a week. Kimchi has been a major thing for my entire life. I practically ate it since I was born so I want it to be special.
While I commemorate this event, I will be saying sentences before I eat Kimchi. I will thank my grandmother and rest of the people for creating it and the farmers that grew the cabbage.
The phyisical thing I will be doing for this ritual is that I will be eating Kimchi for one whole week (not only Kimchi but a lot). Also, I will move to my grandmother's house for the weekend and stay with her and have Kimchi.

Reflection #6

         The Greek Myth that our group was assigned to was, Damon and Pythias. Damon and Pythias symbolizes true love and friendship between two friends. Pythias is sentenced to death by King Dionysius, he tells the King that he has settle his personal business and puts his best friend Damon in place of him. Dionysius tells Damon that if Pythias does not return he shall die. Pythias settles his personal affairs and tries to return to his friend, however on the way he meets various obstacles that try to stop his way. Finally Pythias arrives just in time to save Damon, and Dionysius is touched by this and requests them to be his friends also.
          I think this myth tried to answer questions on trust. Trust it something that is not visible and it is something that someone just has to believe in. They have no guarantee of that trust, that trust could be broken. I think this story was trying to teach us that to trust something can be positive towards you. Because, in the story Damon trusted Pythias and actually stayed for Pythias. By trusting Pythias he was able to become friends with the king. It does not say in the story however, the three of them probably became very good friends. So probably Damon would've received many gifts from the King, because he stayed and trusted hi dear friend Pythias.
          I think people should learn to trust people more by reading this story. People tend to not trust people because like I have said before, there is no guarantee that that trust would not be broken. Also, humans usually believe in the things that are right in front of them like facts. However, by reading this story I think that people can see that by trusting someone good comes to them in both directly ad indirect ways.

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #5: Bongwonsa Temple and Nature Walk: "After visiting the Zen Buddhist Temple, Bongwonsa and attempting to see nature as a Taoist, answer this question: What is it about creation,..."

I believe that people seek religion because they have unanswered questions, and they want to find out more about themselves. Nature prompts humans to seek for religion because, since we cannot look into the past, and see what happened. Us human's try to find something that was existing from a while ago. Nature, has been on Earth much longer than humans. By looking at nature, new questions arouse and we want to know more about them. However, since we cannot we seek for religion to understand these questions.
Many people spend their whole lives to seek religion. we do this because, as I have said before, we want to know more about ourselves, and answer the questions that we cannot answer by ourselves. For example, questions like, "What happens when we die?" cannot be answered by looking it up on the internet. We need another source to find out, which is religion. Also, if we believe in After Life, then we need to seek more about the religion to find out more about our before lives, and our after lives. Therefore, humans seek out religion to answer unanswered questions and to know who we truly are.

Meditation Reflection #4

Meditation
Spend 20 mintues in a silent meditation; a place you won't be disturbed, your own "fig tree" as was Buddha's inspiration. In those 20 mintues, notice to where your mind wanders. Can you attain "right thoughts", "right mindfulness" and "right concentration".
Write a one paragraph reflection about this time. Could you empty your mind to seek life's truths? What did you have trouble controlling in your mind? Finally, what inspriation did you receive? Any? If not, why not?

          By meditating I was able to perceive life's truths. When I was meditating I kept having different thoughts inside my head. Sometimes I was able to empty my mind for few minutes, however, other thoughts as, homework, tests, friends, and how to write the reflextion came into my mind. I believe I had the right thoughts. For the majority of the time that I meditated I was able to empty my mind and have no other thoughts. Also, again like the "right thoughts" I was able to have the right mindfulnss because I had a good mind set for meditation. Third, by sitting in my own 'fig tree' I was able to concentrate much better than on the sofa or the living room. My family members did not bother me nor did I get distracted by the thngs around me. I concentrated (for he majority of the time) on my meditation. While meditation, nothing really inspired me. First of all the time was a bit too short. I was not able to do everything in just 20 minutes. Also, while I was meditating, unlike the meditations that we performed in class, I did not have any thoughts to thin about inside my head as I was meditating. So I could not come up with any meditation thoughts, nor did I get inspired by anything.

Gandhi

          Gandhi was a man that sacrificed his entire life for the freedom of India. He expressed his ideas of Hinduism in a non-violence way. He believed that every man on Earth was the same. Gandhi believed that all religions were equal and none were inferior. He said that in the movie he believes in all of the religions and believes that none should be prejudiced. In the movie, India was freed because of Gandhi. However, there was a religious problem in India. The Muslims and Hindus had a disagreement so part of India was Muslim (Pakistan), and part was Hindu. The Muslim part of the land would put up a Muslim flag, and Hindus would put a Hindu flag. However, Gandhi did not have any flags on his pole. This showed that Gandhi did not favor any religion. Even though he was a Hindu, he believed that Muslims were the same. Another belief that he had was non-violence. As I said before Gandhi expressed all of his ideas in a non-viloence way. When the British had closed down the salt making place. People of India did what Gandhi wanted them to do. They just stood in lines and were beaten constantly and never fought back. Another example is when he is beaten for burning the papers that all Indians had to carry. As he burns the documents the British soldiers beat Gandhi, but Gandhi does not fight back, but instead he constantly tries to burn the documents. These two examples clearly shows that Gandhi never showed violence when he was trying to express his ideas. When the protestors showed violence to the soldiers he fasted until the violence stopped. Just by this it is shown that Gandhi did not tolerate any violence.
          The quote that I chose was “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” As Gandhi tried to free and unite India he had to go through many hardships. He was beaten at times and had to go to jail many times. He could've fought back and could've done something that would stop or affend the British. However, Gandhi did not fight back nor did he even say anything offensive. He believed that if India fought back to the British then the British would come back with more and worse punishments and it would end up with much more casualties. Therefore, this quote exemplified the way Gandhi lived out his faith.