The Elements of Founding a Religion

One of the most important elements to founding a religion is having the need for one.  For example, unhappiness with a certain idea often leads to a need for a new religion, which was the case for the Bahais.  For a religioun to work, you also need a group of followers.  If the reason for starting a religion is strong enough, for example, enough of the Bahais were unhappy with the violent ideas to want to start a new religion, therefore there were enough followers.  Another important element in founding a religion is having a good leader.  What does a good leader entail?  Well you need a leader that is passionate about his/her teachings.  You also need a leader who is devoted.  With a strong enough religious ideal, group of followers, and persuasive, passionate leader, founding a religion seems easy, almost.  I think it's really cool how religions develop.  Not only this, but there are so many parallels among various religions.  For example, the Bab's teachings seem to have evolved, or incorporate much of the Islamic faiths' ideas.  These ideas are closely related as well with the teachings in Judaism and Christianity.  While new religions are meant to offer new ideas, they often sprout from existing ones therfore never allowing them to die, leading to a large parallel of ideas.  

Founding a Religion

One of the most important elements to founding a religion is having the need for one. For example, unhappiness with a certain idea often leads to a need for a new religion, which was the case for the Bahais. For a religioun to work, you also need a group of followers. If the reason for starting a religion is strong enough, for example, enough of the Bahais were unhappy with the violent ideas to want to start a new religion, therefore there were enough followers. Another important element in founding a religion is having a good leader. What does a good leader entail? Well you need a leader that is passionate about his/her teachings. You also need a leader who is devoted. With a strong enough religious ideal, group of followers, and persuasive, passionate leader, founding a religion seems easy, almost. I think it's really cool how religions develop. Not only this, but there are so many parallels among various religions. For example, the Bab's teachings seem to have evolved, or incorporate much of the Islamic faiths' ideas. These ideas are closely related as well with the teachings in Judaism and Christianity. While new religions are meant to offer new ideas, they often sprout from existing ones therfore never allowing them to die, leading to a large parallel of ideas.

Rastafari: A Collaboration of Multiple Religions?

This weeks assignment was to watch the following video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCUy48bt3B8 ) and the comment on variuos symbols we find and what it says about Rastafarian beliefs. What I learned from this video is that Rastafarian principles come from a variety of religions. For example, one man named Ancient was taped saying that he wakes up at 3 am, 9 am, noon, and 6 pm for Psalms. (Or at least I think he said Psalms). The Psalms, as we learned, is practiced in the Christian faith, so already we see a bit of Christianity being incorporated into Rastafari. Ancient also explains that it is a daily ritual, which is very similar to the religion of Islam which requires its followers to pray five times a day, which I believe is called Salah. Sabath, which is practiced in the Jewish religion, is also practiced in Rastafari.

To further prove this point, I've included a picture on the left. I typed in "Rastafari" into Google, and this is one of the images that came up. This image shows that Rastafari is a religion about unity, as it so clearly says in the image.

What I find confusing, though, is the white and black hands touching. This suggests equality between races. However, in the youtube video there is a poster of a black "R" over a white "X" which is meant to symbolize "good over evil". This indicates that the white race is evil, so why in this picture are the two races uniting? Also, if white is viewed as evil, how does Rastafari claim to be a religion about unity? This seems ironic.

I didn't know much about Ethiopia at all prior to reading this story. Actually, I didn't really know anything about it except that it was in Africa.

I really liked that the Queen of Sheba ruled Ethiopia for six years, alone. I think it says a lot about the country. I mean, look at our country: Just now, 2009, we have a black a president in office, and a woman running for president.

Religiuosly speaking, I disocvered Christianity and Judaism are faiths heavily centered in Ethopia. Ethiopia plays a role in Christian and Jewish faiths. The fact that their line of kings descended from king Solomon gives a lot of strength to their country. While Jerusalem is often gone to on pilgrimages, not going to Ethiopia is like only understanding part of one's religion. So this story gives a lot of significance not only to Jews and Christians around the world, it also gives an identity to the peoples of Ethiopia.

Learning about a country's past kings is a great way to help you understand their religion. Not only do we understand about religion, but we learn alot about a country's history and values.

Symbolic Numbers

In St. Augustine teachings he explain the significance of why we fast for forty days.  He explains that four is how everything is divided.  For example, the four seasons, or the four different parts of the day.  Four seemed to represent an idea of universality.  Then I googled some websites to find more information on the number four and it's symbolism.

I found what St. Augustine was saying about numbers and their symbolism to be very interesting so I went online to find some other interpretations and their symbolism. Here is the website: http://vic.australis.com.au/hazz/Numbers.html

According to the various websites I googled, four represents the idea of creation.  The fourth verse of the bible reads: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

I think it is interesting the symbolism of numbers, and how in different religions they represent different things.  It says a lot about religion, I believe.  I think it shows the religion is about interpretation, which is where the values come from.