Hill 1
Treasure Hill
Johnstone
English 110-107
August 27, 2018
Concept: Religion
Religion is norms, values, or a way of life to an individual or community. A spiritual guide that governs the way a person lives from day to day by giving that person hope, belief, and reason to exist in this world. Religion can be whatever that person makes of it. Religion can be a person’s assets, family, or other individuals or possessions; it can be many things besides worship to a god. It can be whatever a person deems holy or sacred.
Very often religions unified or divided people. One of the largest religions in the world is Christianity. Its origin is Middle East. Christianity is divided into three branches Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. Christianity is monotheistic religion, which means that people believe in one God. All Christians regard to Jesus as the Son of God, who died to save humans. Christians refer to Bible as holy book. Bible has two parts Old Testament, and New Testament. “In Old Testament described the history, Hebrew Scriptures, and books of law. New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus, and his teachings (Hans p. 58-59).” Very often religions unified or divided people. The other large religion is Judaism. Hebrew believe in one God, who gave them Ten Commandments. This is a question that people have argued over for ages, and is often a support for the common argument that Atheists are immoral because they have no guiding beliefs and no fear of reprisal.
Hill 2
There are generally two thoughts when it comes to where our morals come from and if right and wrong are determined by divine guidance. The first thought is generally when a person believes that their morals are divinely inspired and that the correct morality is laid out in their particular religion’s holy book. The second thought is that we evolved in a way where humans realized that the rules that we generally consider to make up basically morality (murder or stealing for example) are universally beneficial to all. A number of studies have shown associations between attending religious services and living a long time. One of the most comprehensive, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2016, found that “women who went to any kind of religious service more than once a week had a 33% lower chance than their secular peers of dying during the 16-year study-follow-up period (Ducharme 3).” Another study, published last year in PLOS One, found that regular service attendance was linked to reductions in the body’s stress responses and even in mortality–so much so that worshippers were 55% less likely to die during the up to 18-year follow-up period than people who didn’t frequent the temple, church or mosque (Juha 45-46).” You don’t have to become a nun to get these health benefits, however. The simple act of congregating with a like-minded community might deserve much of the credit. Tyler Vander Weele, one of the authors of the JAMA study and a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, states that “factors related to churchgoing–like having a network of social support, an optimistic attitude, better self-control and a sense of purpose in life may account for the long-life benefits seen in his study and others (Weele 2).”
Hill 3
Many people in the world have strayed away from the beliefs in God and this world is slowly falling but no one tends to notice it. Everyone is losing their morals and values that they once had known. Many believe this world has to end soon because of these fouls sins that are
being partaken upon the lands. No one has a sense of identity anymore they go where ever the wind blows. This is why religion is needed to set guidelines in people’s life to help them live morally and not immorally.
Hill 4
Works Citied Page
Ducharme, Jamie. “You Asked: Do Religous Poeple Live Longer.”
Times Magazine, 26 Feb. 2018.
Hans, Schilderman. “The Concept of Religion.”
Brill, 2 June 2018.
Juha Pentikainen. “About the concept of Religion.”
Scientology, May 1996. Scientolgyreligion.org
Weele, Tyler. “What is Religion? How Do You Define Religion?”
Human Religions, May 2016.
