The Religion: Zoroastrianism

When I first showed the name of this religion to my mom, she made the joke about do they worship Zoro, the cape wearing, masking wear and sword bearing hero. :P I laughed, but upon furthur review I sadly found out that Zoro is not in this religion at all...darn! When reading through the chapter of our book about this interesting religion, I found out something that made me go...Ewww....This religion has some weird ways but it is what they believe and I can not judge them. The thing that was the most interesting was that they cleanse themselves with bull urine before they do their prayers and worship. Why would they do that? Is that safe and clear? I am just glad that my religion does not make me cleanse myself with bull urine. :P. Compared to Eastern religions we over here in the West think they ways are odd, but I bet the same can be said for the other way. There is many sites that I found with information on this religion, here they are:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/

http://www.religionfacts.com/zoroastrianism/index.htm  (this is a good site with alot of information)

The Religion: Shintoism

Maybe this is the Western person in me, but some of these Eastern religions are very confusing to me and in some ways I do not understand how some of these religions form. In the Shintoism religion they worship Amaterasu-Omikami whom is a woman. Now in my many religions the religion often worships a man as the sun goddess (example being the Egyptian religion where Ra is a man whom is the sun god.). I wondered why does Shintoism worship a woman as their supreme god when in most religions it is a man. I do like the fact that it is a woman but that is because I am a woman. :P. Just joking, everyone is equal. :).  When I was searching through Google, I found some sites that were useful to help answer the questions of my other members of my religion class. Here they are:

http://death.findyourfate.com/life-after-death/shinto.html   (this one talks about the Shintoism religions beliefs of the Afterlife)

http://www.patheos.com/Library/Shinto/Beliefs/Afterlife-and-Salvation.html   (Note: The patheos website is always helpful and has a ton of information! I recommend it highly!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/places/shrines_1.shtml  (All about the Shrines!)

The Religion: Confucianism and Taoism

Here is much information on the web about Confucianism and Taoism, there is two websites that go into great deal about these religions, I found both of these websites very helpful with many of the questions that I had. Both of these religions have very interesting points about the afterlife that is completely different from what I believe but it is interesting to see what others think. :)

http://www.patheos.com/Library/Confucianism/Beliefs/Afterlife-and-Salvation.html

http://www.patheos.com/Library/Taoism/Beliefs/Afterlife-and-Salvation.html

Exploring Local Religious Expression for Religion Class.

 Ashley Weigand

10/5/11

Comparative Religions

Exploring Local Religious Expression

1) What house of worship did you visit? What religion and denomination(s) or sect(s) does it serve?

a. What time and what day of the week did you visit?

b. Did you go with someone or did you alone?

Living in the small town of Bagdad, Arizona, I did not have many choices as different types of religions, due to the fact that this small town is mostly a Christian town and that is the faith that I follow. But I did happen to find out that my town has a small Catholic Church, and that is the church I decided to go too. The Church is called St Francis Catholic Church and is located on 216 Cook Street. I decided to go to the Church during a Sunday, just like I would if I was going to my Church on a Sunday. I went by myself since the rest of my family was sleeping.

2) What is the setup of the worship space?

a. Are men and women separated? If so, where does each sit?

b. Are people set up in a circle? Are they facing a specific direction?

c. Is the building a small one, or is it very large? How many floors are used for the worship service?

Within the Church everyone sits together, the men and the women are not separated and the children are also among them, until it is time for the children to go off to Sunday School, while the adults stay with the preacher. The people are set up facing straight forwards towards the preacher. Out here in Bagdad everything is small, back where I use to live in Moundsville, West Virginia, my old church doubles in size compared to this one. Though The St Francis Catholic Church is the biggest in the town, it is a large building and there is only one floor to the church.

Describe the décor or items in the building that establish its identity as a house of worship.

d. What types of music did you notice during the service, if any? If you could describe it in a few words, what does it sound like to you?

One thing that I absolutely love about Catholic churches is the glass paintings of angels and other religious people like Mary, Jesus and such. The type of music that they play is songs from the Bible, I always love these songs though I am not the greatest singer in the world, every time I sang these songs as a way to praise the Lord, I always feel a sense of being warm and safe. It is one of the best feelings in the world in my opinion.

3) What is the title of the head celebrant (the priest, preacher, etc)? Is it a man or a woman? Is there more than one head celebrant, or none at all? What is his/her/their role in the service?

Down here in Bagdad the title of the head celebrant is a Bishop, he may also be called Father while a person is confessing their sins to him. The head of this church is a man, I did not get a chance to catch his name due to the fact that he was quite busy with others within the church. Being in Bagdad there was only one head celebrant, I am unsure if in a bigger community or town that there would be more. His role was to preach to the people of the church, to led them in song and pray, to tell the children when it was time to go to Sunday School, and he also listens to the sins/confessions of those who wish to repent in the eyes of the Lord.

4) What is the structure of the worship service? That is, what specific events occur during the flow of the service? Sometimes there is a flyer or schedule provided that details the structure of the service that can help you distinguish what is happening.

The structure of the worship service was very much like that of the Christian religion. You are given a flyer/schedule at the beginning of the service and it is a detailed list of when things should happen, what should be coming up next, there is also little stars beside something’s meaning that this could be changed or it may take longer than estimated.

5) How do the celebrants (congregation members) act during the service (solemn, joyous, quiet/loud, etc.)? Are they expected to sing or talk during the course of the service?

The way that the celebrant acted was like how my pastor acts, he was very passionate about what he said and he wanted to reach out to people, he knew how to get your attention by sometimes being loud and other times speaking softly to make you listen. During the course of the service the celebrant leads the people in song and prayer.

6) If you follow or have followed a specific religious tradition, how does this service differ from those you are familiar with? How is it similar?

There is only a few differences between the Catholic religion and my Christian religion, one thing that differs is that we call our head celebrant pastor or priest instead of Bishop. Also the Catholic religion prays to the Virgin Mother Mary, while within my religion we pray to Jesus, the Son of God. Due to the fact that Catholic is a branch of Christianity there is not many other difference that I could see.

7) In what ways do you see the concepts we’ve been discussing in class reflected in the service you attended. Is there an evocation of the numinous? Are social guidelines or personal rules of conduct taught or demonstrated? Does the worship foster a sense of group identity? Referring to the appropriate chapter in our text (you may have to read ahead a bit for this), does the worldview presented in the text for this denomination match what you observed in this service?

Within the Catholic Church, the teach rules to their other members from the Bible just like the Christian faith. In my opinion, and from what I watched and observed was that the people within the group had a very strong faith and belief and that their worshipping gave them peace and comfort along with giving them an identity. From what I read in our book there is some differences, I think it is a matter of opinion and the person has to actually see and experience the religion before they can truly get a good grasp on it.  

Links:

Location of where I went: http://www.manta.com/c/mmj96ct/st-francis-catholic-church

Map of the site: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1600&bih=695&wrapid=tljp1317954219635051&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=bagdad+az+churches&fb=1&gl=us&hq=churches&hnear=0x80d2e63e3e46f32b:0xf35a06f021c31358,Bagdad,+AZ&ei=62KOTpGODIausQLemvi2AQ&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&sqi=2&ved=0CAQQtgM&iwloc=cids:14298194930232562862

The Catholic Religion:   http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=9935

The Religion: Buddhism.

I must say that there is much about the Buddishm religion that confuses me. The one thing that I am consistently asking myself about this religion, is why do they believe that we humans have no souls nor no selfs? Are we just empty shells to be filled with organs with no soul that defines us each, and makes us our own person? Also, why does Buddishm not have a God or Gods, like many other Eastern religions? This religion was a little difficult for me to understand, and I also felt a sense of being uncomfortable. Though I did not judge a person who believe this, since everyone has an opinion and their own minds. To answer many of my questions I came across a website, that answered the questions I had about Buddishm. http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/footsteps.htm   I will have to share this site with the others in my Religion Class.