Spirituality: what does it mean to be spiritual, but not religious?

   Spirituality is understanding the universe and the power within oneself. Many people are not religious but believe in the power of spirituality and how that spirituality motivates each of us to experience an out of body experience. However, in context, spirituality is also desired through many materialistic ideas such as objects, social media, etc. that consumes and forces our bodies to react. The idea of being spiritual might not seem as a religion, but many aspects are connected like for example, the commercial we watched in class. We can all say that the commercial does not relate to religion, but looking closely at not only that Ad, but others as well influence our everyday social lives. Imagine for a second your favorite sports team, celebrity, or brand endorses some type of Material. Now, we see that information being broadcast by our favorite celebrity, sports team, etc. and we all have that urge to go out and support whatever it is that they are endorsing even if we don’t necessary need to. In Drescher’s text, one thing that stood out to me was that she says, “mostly absent formally defined public spaces within which to practice their spirituality, the unaffiliated have gathered across various imagined communities of spiritual practices” (99). Here, in my opinion, the unaffiliated may not be religious, but their practices, and coming together as a group that has no specific label, is a religion itself, whether one recognizes it or not. Take for example, the materialistic objects such as Jordan’s or iPhone.  On the release dates for the newest iPhone or the newest Jordan shoes, millions of people flock to the stores, and spend hours in line waiting, but right after the new releases are announces, there are online forum groups where people check for updates daily while conversing with others who share the same interests as they do. This example illustrates how the spiritual part of religion shapes and continues to modify how we desire to live a “happy” life as we continue to worship these materialistic things as a community.  A community for the spiritual does not consist of daily rituals, or going to Sunday services, but consists of everyday interest that are shared rather than labeled with a specific community that becomes the resource for spiritual improvement. Spirituality is not about confirming to some sort of religious beliefs, but about linking each person to one another and creating that feeling of “belongingness” to the universe and to others as well. Music is another resource that spiritual brings a group of people together without having religion involved. For some people church, the bible, and worshipping are their haven, but for others who still want and need that spiritual enhancement, they turn to music as an inspiration. Music, to me, can be very powerful and moving in the same way as worshipping a higher power. For example, my grandmother was very religious, but when I was about ten or so, I would go to church with her, and although I didn’t understand all the aspects of “God”, when they start playing the church hymns and the music started getting louder and louder I could feel something take over my body and I was brought to tears. Still today, music has impact me on a spiritual level, and that is my go to for everything. Music and spirituality, in my opinion does not need no special institution, but allows one to justify their relationship with spirituality without the confinement of rules to follow.  Just as in the clip we watched in class Stigmata, spirituality does not, and should not be based on an institution, but on the principles of finding oneself. Spirituality is the journey of who we are, who we see ourselves as in the future, and our identity, but my only question is: does being spiritual and not religious change people’s viewpoint of a higher power in the universe, or God?

Disney and Religion

From our discussion in class about how Moana shows myths and how Maui is basically the creator of Tahiti, it got me thinking about other Disney movies and how those might show aspects of religion and mythology. Having a young niece and nephew made it easier to have an excuse to watch Disney movies too. Near the end of the movie The Jungle Book, Baloo and was nearly killed. Bagheera then stated near Baloo's unconscious body, "greater love hath no one, than he who lays down his life for his friends." This quote is actually a bible verse form John 15:13. Although later in the scene they find out that Baloo isn't actually dead, rather just knocked out, it still does not take the meaning out of the words. Another example of how Disney displays religion is in Lilo and Stitch. Lilo is a little girl who has already been through some rough times. Growing up without parents, being raised by a sister who is doing all she can to pay for the bills and ensure Lilo is taken care of, and not having many friends because she is "strange" leads to a lonely life for Lilo. One scene in the movie shows Lilo knelled by her bed and having a conversation with who we can believe is God/a higher power. During this conversation she asked for a friend, someone who is angel like and wont leave her. Then shows a scene with Stitch, Stitch comes to Earth and is trying to find where he belongs. Lilo then finds Stitch at an animal shelter and decides to adopt him. They found each other in a bizarre way, however it can be inferred that it was God's intention. The two found where they belong because of each other. Many religious people may argue that that is exactly what religion does for you, it helps you have faith that you belong somewhere. Disney has incorporated religion and mythology in many of its movies, these are just a few examples how it is shown. 

Religion and Celebrity: Defying Labels

Here's an article from 2017 about Lady Gaga (recently in the news again for her Oscar nomination!) that's worth considering for what it shows us about religion in the culture of social media: we don't like what we can't categorize. Lady Gaga has long been an advocate of socially and politically progressive causes, especially LGBTQ+ rights. Lady Gaga has also long made public her devotion to her Christian faith. This makes her tough to place in a single "identity box."

How do audiences and critics respond to this? How should they? Is her Christianity relevant for understanding her music and her image? In what way?

Myth & Creation

What is a myth and how does it affect us as humans? A myth is essentially a story, it explains the creation of a culture or group of people and how they have adapted and progressed throughout history. A myth can also provide insight into the religious beliefs of a culture. As humans we naturally seek answers to explain the unknown, how did we get here, what happened before humankind existed, and where are we going? While many may say that a myth is false, in the religious context a myth although it may contain supernatural elements explains the origin of life for humans and the world around us.
A few years ago I watched a docuseries hosted by Morgan Freeman called The Story of God, throughout each episode, he traveled to different countries and spoke with different cultures and religions to tell the story of God and how religion shapes different parts of the world. The episode Creation, I believe ties closely with our discussions of myth. In this episode, Morgan Freeman asks the questions where did we come from? and what happened in the beginning? This specific episode seeks to link in some ways the questions of creation and myth with both religion and science.



I will include a link to the episode if anyone would like to check it out!

The Story of God with Morgan Freeman

How religion affects our identity and health

How religion affects our identities and health

            

               Whether you know it or not our beliefs affect everything about us. Our beliefs can affect our personal and social identities. Every religion has a specific set of 'rules'  that each must follow by and act with themselves and towards each other. Not all religious individuals are the same, Some go deeper into their religion by doing worships and/or rituals. Others will choose to go to a religious community or culture rather than doing rituals and worships. If you're apart of a religious family they will have a huge impact on your identity. Since religion is important in some families, from the moment you are a child they're feeding your brain with knowledge about religion to hopefully persuade your behavior when you get older. Friends can also encourage the identity behind a person other than their family. Friends with or without religious beliefs can influence others into believing a similar view. Beliefs can influence social and personal identity as the values and  religious beliefs make up our identity. These influences may have a positive or negative impact on our identity depending on how traumatic the experience was. For example if a religious belief in a family is to always be faithful and loyal to your companion and you see that your parents broke up from unfaithfulness this could lead to the child disowning that belief and that may have a negative affect on their identity causing them to change their values. our sense of right or wrong, can or can’t, creates your boundaries and limits that you live by. Many studies have shown relation to religious practice and how they have a positive affect on our health. Religion is used as a coping mechanism to help people get through their tough times. Times that someone has used religious practices to cope with life altering circumstances have been for example during terminal illnesses, cancer, diseases (immune and non immune) are some examples of using religious practice during a life altering event. For some people faith in their religion may affect their ability to cope with the negative events in their life, while if you're not religious you'll likely have a hard time coping with negative events in your life. 

What is Myth for?

Many questions have been talked about Myth. What is for? Why do we have mythical creatures? Why is a myth so big in our society? I have thought about these questions many of times and I have tried to come up with many answers of my own. Mythical people in our society is another way to give little kids or even people that love to learn about and see different things that aren't a regular in our society. Like for instance, my favorite Myth tv show, Dragon Ball Z it's a cool show I grew up watching as a kid wishing I could go super sayian with my powers and travel as fast as they could and even fly from place to place whenever I wanted. Many people have favorite mythical creatures, it's just so interesting to talk about tv shows that are created and all the action that comes with it. It's so interesting to even think how these authors of these mythical characters are even brought upon. In one of the readings, Segal stated, "film stars are modern Gods", I agree with this statement simply because, they've created many mythical characters, planets, cultures, and even certain characteristics. As well created Religion for them and its similar to the way we live as people just more of a made up the story.

Why do we think about Religion so much?

Honestly, why do we think of Religion so much? Is it because the decision you make will determine if your a good Religious person or its just some you're interested in about learning? In today Society we have incorporated Religion in almost everything we do, people think about it every day of our lives. In the reading, "A little history of Religion" Richard Holloway raised a good question about why we think about Religion so much, and he stated, And the biggest thing we think about is the universe itself and where it came from? Is there somebody out there who made it? Many discussions, debates, and arguments about Religion all started with who is the creator of our Universe. Many beliefs are out there saying this and that God is the creator of this Universe and now understanding why we think of Religion so much. The main point comes down to how did everything in this Universe get started, and there are tens of thousands of Religions in the world that has their god and scientist having their beliefs of how it got started.

What is Religion? Religion is a practice for a belief you very strongly stand by. Religion is everyday lives for people. Its one of those things that give people hope and faith in a way, when people are going through tough times they turn to their religion because they feel that praying and doing right by God good things will; come to your life. Religion also to people is a life changer, for example, a man that went to prison and decided to change his life, for the most part when men or women want to change their lives, Religion will be involved. Many people see religion has a helpful tool.

Things more important than Religion...

In America we see a wide variety of different materialistic and idols being worshiped on the daily basis. There’s a difference between being a fan or in love with sometime compared to idolizing and basing your entire world based off of one thing. We tend to see this a lot in our society little do we know. Worship explained means the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. In religion there are several different religious backgrounds each having their own beliefs and gods. There isn’t one religion that’s held over another because we all come from different background. There’s a problem with this because we have the people who worship their religions, and then there’s the people who worship money, fame, social media, cars, sports, and national security. “Here are North America’s seven most popular gods. By “god” I mean something (anything) in our life that commands more loyalty, dedication and devotion than the one true Living God. Not necessarily the highest loyalty, since many of us are functional polytheists, whatever we claim. But sincere and central devotion” (churchplants). Going back to the s=discussion that we had in class a week or so ago, we discussed how people worship Football mire than they do God, and how important the game is to their everyday lives. There people out that that wake up in the morning, eat, and sleep football. Without football they would lose themselves as crazy as that sounds. These worshipers aren’t just non-believers, there are many different religious people that worship other idols instead of God as well. It’s sometimes easy to point the finger at someone else when we see them doing these nonreligious behaviors, but when we do them, we seem to forget that we are doing the same exact sin.

https://churchplants.com/articles/6455-the-top-7-gods-americans-worship.html

Will the Fascination with Good vs. Evil Ever Die?

Why Is the Good vs. Evil Plot Line Still so Popular, and Will the Fascination Ever Die? 

Something that has been a big theme in this class so far and will most likely continue from this point on is the fact that a good portion of the movies that are incredibly popular in pop culture contain the plotline of "good vs. evil." This theme of good vs. evil is something that has been around in the stories and myths of our world for thousands of years, and the fact that it continues to be such a strong plotline in the stories that so many people enjoy today in 2019 makes me think it may never fall out of popularity. Before I started thinking about it a little more in-depth, I had a few questions surrounding this topic:
Why is it that the good vs. evil plotline has continued to be such a popular topic for so many years and will we ever be able to move away from it or will it always be so popular? 

Once I thought about it and did a little bit of digging, the good vs. evil theme is most likely so popular due to society's fascination with justice for wrongdoings. Looking back all the way to biblical times and the stories that they were told during these times, it is obvious that the main theme in them is "If you go against God, you will not prosper and there will be consequences." This theme can also explain the typical good vs. evil plotlines that are so popular in our pop culture today.

Although sometimes you can make the argument that people just like these films or books because they like to root for the bad guys, the main character that is most liked in these pieces of fiction is the good guy character. If you look at what the good guy character's main goal normally is in these pieces, you will most likely notice that the good guy wants to force some type of justice upon the bad guy for whatever bad thing they have done or will possibly do. We even read comics or watch movies today that have the word "Justice" in their title ie. "The Justice League" or another called "The Avengers" whose characters only goals in life are to serve justice for the betterment of others and of society. This strongly relates back to what can be seen within religious mythology from the Bible and other cultural fables in which a character has done something that is considered bad and must be punished for it, usually by somebody else who is considered "good."
Take the story of David and Goliath for example, if you replaced the characters with a superhero and an evil villain instead of a young boy from a small town and a giant man in an opposing army, David and Goliath could sound like something that could be popular in today's superhero-loving pop culture world.
This certain draw towards justice has clearly always been around, and the fact that it still continues to be such an influential theme today, makes me think that as long as the fascination with justice exists, people will have an attraction to the good vs. evil storyline.

Religion and TV

The Role of TV in people's lives

          There have been so many TV shows over the years that have either been successful or died out after the first few seasons. For some people, they treat watching TV as a religion because they will find a show that they really like and either spend all their time watching it or have planned/set days of when they will watch a certain show, just like going to church. For example, the Flash, like we watched in class, is a very good show that continues to entertain people season after season and always draws in more people all the time. Since it does this it proves even more that TV watchers treat TV like religion because they watch so much and know the whole story, then they spread the news to get others to follow it making them one giant group that likes or worships something very much. It may be a stretch to say that TV is similar to religion, but if you compare the two they are in fact very similar in a few ways, some that you may not think about. Another TV show that has a fan base that treats the show like a religion is The Walking Dead. Some of the Walking Dead fans go to extremes to watch or support the show just like religious followers, but it is up to you to decide which is beneficial or not.