Dualism is defined as the state of being composed of two parts. It often refers to the idea that man has two natures: physical (body) and spiritual (soul). Dualism considers the physical to be evil and only the spirit or soul to be good. We will take a look at how different passages from the Bi...

Body and Soul: Springboards for Love Saint Augustine and Catherine of Siena went through distinctive spiritual journeys in order to reach and experience true love. Confessions, by Saint Augustine, and The Dialogue, by Catherine of Siena, reveal these journeys faced by both authors. To begin wit...

What is a Human Being? There are three main viewpoints in argument on what a human being is. Those viewpoints are empirical, rational and metaphorical. Empiricists base their views on observation and experimentation. Rationalists rely on reason as the best guide for belief and action. A me...

An explicit religious inclination is an experience that expresses itself through the realm of myths. It does not reveal stories that are not true, but rather the truth embodies the myths in a different manner from the doctrines of theology or philosophy. A personal religious experience is the teachi...

In remit to Colonization, a Colonizer uses both good and bad methods to achieve his mission; on the other hand, to seek independence of the Colonizer, the Colonized has to accept some form of compromise for his or her freedom. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the Colonizer – Victor Franken...

HOW ANIMISTIC BELIEFS AND PRACTICES EMERGED IN MODERN RELIGIONS Animism is the doctrine which places the source of mental and even physical life in an energy independent of or at least distinct from the body. Animism can be divided into three categories: Worship of the souls of men and animals, ...

There is a broad based ethical debate taking place within today's medical and scientific fields. This debate primarily centers around the use of science and technology in dealing with human life. In his article "Sporting With Life" Dr. Lester D. Freidman cites the ethical problem in this way. The...

The way Descartes chose to write this piece literature captivated me. Descartes was a very intelligent man who wanted to make sense of the world he lived in. The format he used was unusual. It seems to me that he may have used this format, which is a replication of the book of Genesis in t...

Discovering Fire "After man has mastered the winds the waves and the tides, some day he will harness for God the energies of love, and then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire" (Teilhard de Jardin...

Christianity and communication can never be separated, because the essence of religion itself is communication between man and God. While some religions hold that the gods were discovered like historical artifacts, Christianity holds that the first humans, Adam and Eve, were in direct communicatio...

Religion has been a very important part of cultures here on Earth. Since the formation of human civilizations religion has affected world events. While most civilizations have different religions, many of them have several things in common. Many of the religions have some of the basic beliefs whil...

The Lutheran and Calvinist Reformations are very similar in principle. Martin Luther and John Calvin hold that not mere abuses of the Roman Catholic Church need correcting, but that the Catholic Church itself is wrong in principle. I will discuss the platforms from which religious revolutionaries Lu...

Descartes meditations are based on the epistemological theory of rationalism: that is if someone truly knows something then they could not possibly be mistaken. He provides solid arguments for what his meditations stand for, and how he obtained a clear and distinct perception of "innate" ideas. In h...

When we think of the portrayal of Lucifer in the different texts, films, and religions, there are many things that are common traits. Using two different sources, the movies End of Days (1999, directed by Peter Hyams) and Devil's Advocate (1997, directed by Taylor Hackford), I will compare them to...

The word religion comes from the Latin term 'religio' meaning a type of bond. It suggests a precious connection with the divine Lord. One must reflect on the true aim, goal, and purpose of religion to gain a better understanding of it. 'Religion is not just some dry intellectual idea but rather y...

Hinduism and Christianity The world is filled with many religions and beliefs. Some religions have close similarities and some are extremely different. The world is a complicated place that we as human beings have been trying to understand since our species began on this earth. Religion has...

One might begin by defining religion as a system of beliefs based on human beings' effort to elucidate the universe and natural phenomena, frequently linking one or more divine beings or other mystical forces and also entailing or binding devotees to pursue set religious commitments. Neverthel...

In Europe during the Middle Ages, being dominated by an evil entity was a terrifying possibility, especially for the pious. Emerging science was overshadowed by the Catholic religious conformity attempting to control social and economic upheavals of burgeoning nations claiming divine right. An inten...

Religion in Crime and Punishment: -Raskolnikov's Pilgrimage Towards Salvation- "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"...

Be Fruitful and Multiply in a Barren Body The Old Testament is full of stories dealing with issues of man's relationship with the Supreme Creator of the Universe. It is a hard concept to try to understand a world so much unlike our own, because of the existence of a much more "down to Ea...

The End of The Affair', by Graham Greene, is about the novelist as God, and God as the novelist who gives his characters freewill. Critic David Lodge once said that in Greene's fiction, 'Catholicism is not a body of belief, but a system of concepts which Greene can arrange and dram...

The End of The Affair', by Graham Greene, is about the novelist as God, and God as the novelist who gives his characters freewill. Critic David Lodge once said that in Greene's fiction, 'Catholicism is not a body of belief, but a system of concepts which Greene can arrange and dram...

In the book, Magdalena and Balthasar, Steven Ozment reveals and interprets letters written by a husband and wife in the late sixteenth century. The letters entailed daily life occurrences between Magdalena and Balthasar through a sixteen year period. They explained the joy, hardships, and intima...

The exponential growth of the Cyber society and Cyber culture within the Internet has not gone unnoticed by the "religious community." As I write, church web sites are being published and electronic prayer groups zip by in modems and wire networks across the globe. Even isolated monast...

Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince examines the nature of power and his views of power in the leadership that he observed in his time. Machiavelli discusses power over the people, dictatorial power, and the power with the people. The struggle to retain, hold, and apply one power is human nature and ...