Religion and Spirituality Essay -- Religious Christianity Essays

Religion and Spirituality Since the dawn of human life, people have eternally been searching for the purpose of existence. Humans are innately curious beings, and are blessed to have the capabilities of higher thought processes. Humans use these thought processes to ponder the question of existence. Unfortunately, the exploitation of man has not brought the human race any closer to actualizing its purpose on earth. In fact, this issue is such that the more one feels he or she understands it, the more questions concerning it arise. This problem perpetuates itself by the confusion of religion and spirituality, and the roles they hold in society. As the human race evolves, it feels the need to designate structure to its world. As a means to provide structure, man creates both systems of hearty order, as well as systems of belief. The purpose of the two systems is to explain unknown phenomenon while creating an environment where societies merchant ship grow. Humans do t his because they have an innate drive to both explain the unknown in addition to perpetuating a society that holds common beliefs and values. One tidy sum define these two systems as religion and spirituality. The problem lies in the fact that these two systems are so closely intertwined that oftentimes they are confused as being synonymous. However, this is most definitely not the case. On the contrary, religions purpose is to create social structure and congruency. Religion is driven by social purpose, and can be exploited. In fact, a small part of every religion serves a selfish purpose rather than an honorable one. Religions purpose is completely different from the purpose of spirituality. Spirituality, on the other hand, deals with personal beliefs about ... .... Vol. 7. 230-282. 1971.Crusade. Encyclopedia Britannica. Howerth, Ira. What is Religion? International Journal of Ethics. 1983. Jihad. Encyclopedia Britannica. Mathur, D.C. The Concept of deed in the Bhagvad-Gita. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 1974.McClenon, James. Human Evolution and the Origin of Religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 345-357. Sept. 1997Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. Religion and Society. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 1972. Rosengren, Karl. The soak of the Empty Cell. Current Anthropology. Vol. 17. 1996. Stewart, Gutherie. Religion What is it? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 412-419. Dec. 1998.