Religion and Rituals in Hinduism

As an Indian and as a Hindu it is our inherent nature and attitude to boast over our religion and rituals to celebrate with. We Hindu have several ceremonies to observe in different seasons. Different individuals have also different option and choice to practice his own way for celebrate the rituals. Some people observe one or two day fasting and meditate whole day his/her own respected God or goddess. The whole motive remain behind these activities is to get a desired aspiration and expectation. Some psychologists attribute these activities as some kind of latent psychic disorders and nothing else. Being a Hindu or being an Indian off course a matter to proud and a sacred, ancient religion no question or ambiguity in this fact but where is the sacred flawless unadulterated principle of Hinduism, which took its birth from the cradle of Vedas? Are we celebrating the principles of holy Vedas? Truly and explicitly the answer is wrapped inside a cloth of doubt. The principle and practice of Vedas is mutilated by several prophets and different cult makers in different time. If Veda's basic rule and commandments are constant and ancient, unalterable then why in different time in our history different cults aroused and relinquished? why our Hinduism took different turn in different eras in history? Why several invaders attacked India and successfully full filled their malaise desire of robbery and reign over whole India, which thrashed Indians into the slavery and storm of bankruptcy, misery, grief? Why Indians suffered slavery for different races in our wretched glorious past? Still we are gloating and boasting about our great heritage and culture, why? The bitter truth and atrocious fact is that we got defeated by others due to our foolishness and weakness, and still we didn't take any lesson from the past.

Wedding Gowns, Color And Style Depends On Religion And Culture

A wedding dress or wedding gown is clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown depends on the religion and culture of the participants.

In modern tradition, the color of western-culture wedding dresses is white. Used in this sense, 'white' or 'wedding white' includes creamy shades such as eggshell, ecru and ivory. The popularity of this color can be traced back to 1840 and the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. The Queen chose to wear a white gown for the event. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published and many brides opted for a similar dress in honor of that choice. The tradition continues today.

Prior to the Victorian era a bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes). The white dress came to symbolize purity of heart and the innocence of childhood. Later attribution suggested that the color white symbolized virginity which is false. However it was originally the color blue that was connected to purity.

Religion in America: Toward a Better Understanding of Islam

Religion has so often been a divisive factor in human relations that many people despair of organized religion. But it is often misunderstandings of or an unwillingness to learn more about other religions (fear of contamination?) that leads to religious conflicts. This is especially true in the case of Islam.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are "monotheistic siblings" in that they share a belief in one God and a common ancestry. Father Abraham had two sons: Ishmael, son of Sarah's maid Hagar, was the firstborn but Isaac, son of Sarah in her old age, soon supplanted Ishmael in their father's favor.

At Sarah's instigation, Abraham drove Hagar and Ishmael into the desert where they would have died of thirst but for the intervention of God who promised that Ishmael would not only live, but would become the father of a great nation (Genesis 21: 1-21). It is from Ishmael that people of the Muslim faith trace their ancestry.

Unfortunately, this common ancestry has not been enough to foster understanding and trust between the three siblings and lead to peace. The Jewish state of Israel and her Muslim neighbors have been locked in battle in the Middle East for centuries.

Religion, Science and Education For a Better Society

Human beings have evolved as pattern-seeking animals. We perceive sequences of events and we see shapes and objects seemingly organized in particular ways, and we tend to want to find a reason for that often-apparent level of organization. We see random sequences around us, and we have devised mental mechanisms that allow us to see them organized in patterns. This mechanism helped our ancestors better cope with their natural surroundings and potential dangers such as a pair of menacing eyes staring from within the foliage, but did not equip them with the tools to discern when a pattern actually exists and when those patterns just seem to exist. Thus, we think we see faces on Mars, dogs and dragons in the night sky, or the image of the Virgin Mary on the glass windows of an office building reflecting a distorted image of a nearby tree.

A Look At How Cambodian People Resolve and Prevent Conflict Through Cultural Values

Introduction

Cambodia was once known as one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia, due to her richness in resources and cultural diversifications. Not only masterminding of the world's biggest religious temple, Angkor Wat, but Cambodian ancestors were also peace-oriented, ethical and wisdom engineers. Series of devastating phases, I believe, has helplessly destroyed those cultural pillars.

Today's Cambodia, I believe, is moving on the step toward the betterments. By and large, negative impacts do simultaneously exist with the positive ones. Revolutionary technology has brought better welfares to Cambodian people; on the other hand, it has buried the society of tolerance of Cambodia. With a better outlook, Cambodia would have to pay a much higher price to ubiquitous disputes, compared to bygone Cambodia. A look at Cambodia's history and culture, I think, would reflect and brings in betterments to today's Cambodia.

The Mystical, Religious and Philosophical Culture of the Paleolithic Fertility Cult

Regardless of the diversionary mumbo-jumbo entrapping of magic and religion, the central theory to the shamanic philosophy of the Upper Paleolithic Master of Animals was the solipsistic theory of the God-man: that the world is a dream, the vatic-shamanic personality the dreamer, and, consequently, that the mental states of the shaman are the engine driving the course of events in the real world.

Man had been born with what appears to be a genetically predetermined illusion of centrality with respect to his environment; a psycho-affective predilection which, no doubt, had been fostered by the reality editing behavior of the nursing female. The personal psycho-affective conflicts of the God-king Osiris in historic times, for instance, arose from the conflict between the king and his political rivals. At the cosmic level, the king's travails translate into the conflict between the forces of good and evil, dramatized in the sacred play of the Osirian mystery cult as the conflict between the god Osiris and the devil Seth. The resolution of the shaman's private psycho-affective conflicts translates on the grand cosmic scale into resolution of the thematic good versus evil conflict of history. But "good" is not an absolute defined independent of a personal perspective. The shaman's perspective, however, is the perspective of God, and God is absolute.

Culture in Conflict - The Tragedy of the Discovery of the New World

Of course, everyone "knows" that the discovery of the New World began in 1492. Every
schoolchild learns the sing-song verse "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," in the
first or second grade; but this verse begs the question of whether or not Columbus
discovered America. There are many claims to earlier "discovers" of the New World,
from the Vikings to the English, to the ancient Greeks and the Portuguese. Even more
fundamentally, did any of these purported "discovers" really discover anything - after all,
there was a thriving series of Indian nations already existent in the New World at the time
of Columbus' arrival in 1492. [1]