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In our lives whether you have a religion or not you practice a religious ritual. It could differ from blowing out birthday candles, or saying good luck to someone. In a website it explains the act of blowing out candles being around since ancient times. It is said that the smoke from the candle sends the Gods your wishes or dreams. There are so many different ways that religion impacts society. With marriage, abortion, certain music, and superstitions. Religion is everywhere and in some ways it affects how the government decides things. People tend to be very biased towards their religion. The government can sometimes base their opinion on what their belief is instead of what's best for society as a whole.

https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/news/local/2020/11/11/blowing-out-candles/6121942002/

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One of the most common birthday traditions is making a wish and blowing out candles.

This tradition has been around since ancient times. Many of those ancient cultures believed that the smoke from the candles carried a person's wishes and prayers to the gods. That tradition carried on, pretty much intact, to most parts of the modern world.

This tradition comes with lots of fond memories, but you might also remember a time when you watched your little brother blow out the candles and shower the cake with tons of spit. Everyone probably enjoyed the cake anyway - you were all family and friends, right? Let's take a look at the science of blowing out those candles.

Blowing out the candle

What actually happens when you blow out your candle?

Some believe the carbon dioxide from your lungs suffocates the flame. However, this is not true. Carbon dioxide will extinguish a flame but, when you breathe air out, it actually contains more oxygen than carbon dioxide. So that's not it.

Some believe you are cooling the candle to below its combustion point. However, your breath is hotter than the surrounding air, so that's not it either. What actually happens is the force of your blown air pushes the flame away from its fuel source. The flame gets disconnected from its fuel, and then the flame goes out.

Spitting out the candle

No - nobody actually spits so much to cause the candle to go out. At least we hope not. However, it is true that when we blow out a candle, quite a bit of moisture comes out with our air. Is this anything to be concerned about?

Scientists from the Canadian Center of Science and Education designed a set of scientific tests to see if we really spread germs or bacteria when we blow out candles. They were very careful to create a scientifically accurate test with controls, single variables, multiple trials, a test that was repeatable. It had everything a good scientific test should have.

The studies showed that cakes with candles that were blown out contain nearly 15,000% more bacteria than cakes that did not have candles blown out. It also showed that a typical sample of air associated with blowing out candles has about 2,000 moisture particles in it.

These moisture particles are very small, but can carry bacteria and viruses with it. Because these particles are so small, many of them float around the room for 30 minutes before settling. And some of the really small particles have been found to float around a room for up to 30 hours before settling.

Coughing, sneezing and speaking also expel many moisture particles in the air, but these particles are much larger than the particles associated with your breath. The larger particles settle on surfaces much quicker than the particles associated with blowing out a candle.

Should we stop blowing out candles?

Let's not overreact! When stories like this come out, there tends to be shock because we forget how often we come in contact with bacteria every single hour of the day. We have trouble understanding or realizing the incredible numbers of bacteria around us at every moment.

Should a person that is not feeling well blow out candles on a cake? Probably not. However, a typically healthy person should continue to blow out those candles. If not, how are all those wishes going to come true? We have to make wishes!

Also, despite what a lot of people think, research has shown that most bacteria and viruses will not survive the saliva in our mouth or the acid in our stomachs. You actually have a very low chance of getting sick from sharing a drink, kissing, etc. It's the bacteria and viruses that make it into your nose and eyes that really have a greater chance of making you sick. So unless you plan on shoving the cake in your nose or eyes - blow out those candles and have that piece of cake!
Mike Szydlowski is science coordinator for Columbia Public Schools.
1. Why does a candle go out when you blow on it?

2. Why doesn't the carbon dioxide in your breath suffocate the flame?

3. How do we know that the birthday cake study provided accurate results?

4. Why might a cake surrounded by people talking contain more bacteria than a cake that just had candles blown out on it?

5. Why is it unlikely that you will get sick after eating a piece of birthday cake?

LAST WEEK'S POP QUIZ ANSWERS

1. If you see dead leaves stuck to a single tree branch in winter, what might be true about the tree?

The tree branch likely died suddenly because it did not go through the normal leaf cutting process.

2. What makes leaves fall off of trees?

Special cells determine when it is time for the leaves to cut and cuts them loose from the tree.

3. Why do trees want to lose their leaves in the fall?

If a tree keeps its leaves in the winter the water in the cells will freeze and cause the cells to die. The tree branches will also become too heavy in snow.

4. Is fall the only time cells cut leaves loose? Why or why not?

No. If the tree becomes stressed during a drought, it may start to cut the leaves loose in order to conserve moisture.

5. Evergreen plants do not lose their leaves in winter. How are they not damaged?

Evergreen trees protect their cells by producing a type of chemical antifreeze that keeps the cells from freezing.

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One of the most common birthday traditions is making a wish and blowing out candles.

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We can never simplify or give an exact definition of religion. There are so many ways for us to interpret and define it, so no matter how much we try we can never do those things. When we talk about religion we also talk about spirituality, but oddly enough they aren't the same thing. We often view and relate religion to our lives. For some people not everyone's religion is everything to you. That isn't a bad thing, but it tends to persuade a lot of things. If you are strong in your belief sometimes you base your entire view on that. Which is why a lot of people don't except same sex marriage, abortions, sometimes even other peoples religions. Sometimes in our heads we think that our belief is the best belief and have a negative view on others. What I am saying is not all true. I have others in my family who are Mennonite and when my mom left the church and became Christian it was a big deal in my family. My grandma doesn't like same sex marriage, as well as abortions. She also thinks that if I do not accept Jesus into my heart I am going to Hell. I on the other hand am Christian and I was raised to believe love is love, and our body is our choice. I am different from my grandma because she says her way is straight from the Bible and is the right way, but there are so many different ways to interpret things. I don't think either way is a bad thing at all. I think it's perception for a lot of things in life and religion.

Down here it talks about spirituality and religion.

https://thereflectivepen.com/spiritual-not-religious/

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I often wonder what people mean when they say "I am spiritual, but not religious." I think of myself in those terms.What does spirituality mean?What are the similarities and differences? Can a spiritual person be religious? Can a religious person be non-spiritual? (Photos by Malcolm-Lightbody and David-Clode on Unsplash)

My seminary education failed to define these terms satisfactorily, which may have resulted from my difficulty understanding the language of theologians and philosophers. I find their writings are lengthy and obtuse treatises that lead to circular theories about the existence and nature of God.

Courses I took in homiletics, hermeneutics, and apologetics never moved me an inch closer to being a better person, with the possible exception of growing in humility. On my journey from religion to spirituality I replaced their dense texts with writers like Henri Nouwen and Thich Naht Hahn and poets like Mary Oliver and Rumi.

SPIRITUALITY VS RELIGION

In general, spirituality answers the question "How do I stay connected? How do I live?" A spiritual person may look for meaningful connections with something bigger than themselves and often focuses on inner growth. They may or may not use any of the names for the Holy, like 'God' or 'Allah', but when I talk to a person who defines themself as 'spiritual' I know they are sensitive to something bigger than themselves. Perhaps "Higher Power." I call it "Mystery".

On the other hand, religion is based on tradition and uses sacred texts to define what is right and wrong.People seek connection with God/Allah/Elohim through rites and rituals.

Although spirituality and religion are not the same, I find myself dwelling in the overlap - a space that includes ethics, experiences of awe, personal practices of meditation, and service to others. For some, including myself, there is richness and comfort in this place where religions meets spirituality.

SOME SIMPLE PRACTICES IN THE OVERLAP

LECTIO DIVINA & VISIO DIVINA

Lectio Divina means 'holy reading.' Originally a monastic practice dating back many centuries, it remains relevant to many people today.

In a nutshell, it is a process of reading a short text several times and listening for a single word or idea to 'chime' in one's heart. Then that word is used in meditation and contemplation, drawing a person deeper towards Mystery (God, Higher Power, the Universe).

'Lectio' originated in Eastern Orthodoxy using ancient Biblical texts in a five step process to connect with God. The same process can be practiced with any written words. - words from holy books of other religions, poetry, or prose to bring us into awareness of the Holy.Because the goal is not intellectual understanding, it is not a 'study' of any text.We discover words and phrases as portals into 'Mystery.'( Photos by Rachid-Oucharia on Unsplash)

A variation of Lectio Divina is 'Visio Devina', a similar practice using images instead of words.

A SIMPLE CREATIVE PRACTICE FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH

USING IMAGES AND QUOTES

Suppose exploring dense theological texts does to you what it does to me, but you want to grow spiritually. In that case, I encourage a practice of collecting quotes and/or images that resonate with you.

If you are not a photographer, you can still access thousands of free photos on several sites. My favorite is Unsplash.com , but you can find others by searching for "free stock photos."

There is no cost to use them, but it is nice to acknowledge their creators if you publish stock photos publicly such as on social media. (Caveat - although you can find images on Google, these are generally not licensed for public reuse.)

I keep a small notebook to write down quotes as I read. But another excellent source of quotes is Goodreads.com/quotes . There you type in a topic and voila! Profound comments by persons famous and not so well-known.

I often use quotes in a process adapted from Lectio Divina as described above, or as prompts for journaling. Quotes and images combined make inspirational collages. I encourage anyone who hasn't tried it to play with a program called and see what you come up with.

When it comes to service as part of one's spirituality, I suggest a practice of sharing positivity with others. It is effortless to create postcards on Canva to send to friends who need encouragement or to share on social media. We live in a time when the gift of inspiration and motivation is one that reaches through the barriers of social distancing. A card may be just what someone you know needs right now.

I love to use quotes for creative inspiration. They can be seeds that bloom into drawing, painting, or writing for you. And they make great topics for group discussions - even by Zoom!

A FEW QUOTES FOR CONTEMPLATION

"The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge, and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises." (Leo Buscaglia)

"There's something overwhelming about being in raw nature. It's got an aura about it that is really kind of majestic and spiritual." (Christopher Lloyd)

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

HOW TO USE QUOTES AND IMAGES AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

When sitting with words of a poet, writer, or mystic as in the above quotes, my process includes many questions that I write in my journal. They might look like this -

What are the seeds I carry? How much cultivation needs to happen for them to sprout?

Where have I seen "raw" nature Christopher Lloyd talks about?

Why does my experience of humanity overshadow my spiritual experiences so often?

Because I like to write, my answers may become an essay, a poem, or a prayer.

I have a friend who is an artist, and she thinks in color and shape. A response to the questions she asks may emerge as an abstract painting or a collage.

You may even discover a song or a rhythm within a quote arising from your questions. It's time to pull out your guitar or drum and let them sing.

I share these ideas as models to help you in the process of exploring your spirituality through creative processes if you haven't done so before. Some other articles you may enjoy are " What is Morning Practice" and " How to Find the Time for Spiritual Practice."

If you already practice Lectio (or Visio) Divina, 'Devotions,' meditation, or another practice that sustains your spirit, please feel free to share in the comments below.

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Taking a look at spirituality and religion, the places they overlap, and the practices that support them.

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To study religion we also study the different cultures, practices, rituals, the history of it all. There are so many different things that go into it. We look into all the different ways a religion has come together. If you think of it a person's faith and belief help shape who we are as people. We believe in something for the most part and it gives us peace of mind. My dad told me once about how he struggled with faith. He didn't understand how a God could be out there and see all the harm that is going on in the world and not do anything about it. How could so much bad happen and nothing changes. Someone told him to look at his children and tell me how you could create something as perfect, and beautiful as that. They were driving in Texas at the time and he told me he watched one of the most beautiful sunsets happen. The person that was with him looked at him and said " look around at how beautiful this is. You can't look at how perfect and beautiful this is and not think that there is someone out there for us." It changed my dad's perspective and when he told me that story mine also. I think that we get so caught up in facts that we don't look at the facts around us. My dad's belief and faith was changed after that and anytime he struggles with his faith he looks around at all the good God did for him.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2019/01/08/photos--fiery-sunset-spotted-across-texas-sky-

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AUSTIN, Texas - With a winter chill in the air, all eyes were on the Texas sky with a fiery sunset Monday night.

Viewer-submitted pictures have been pouring into the Spectrum newsroom of the colorful sunset that looked like a watercolor painting.

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PHOTOS: Fiery Sunset Spotted Across Texas Sky

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Viewer submitted pictures pouring into Spectrum Newsroom

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Everyone thinks that Christopher Columbus was this amazing guy. Actually he killed thousands of Indians and forced them to become like them. They weren't allowed to speak their language, rituals, they couldn't have their own beliefs. They had to become catholic like the rest of Great Britain. It ended up breaking the power of the church, but at what cost. The faith and reason for this is wrong. Christopher Columbus and Great Britain used absolutism thinking that being catholic was the only way, but they were wrong.

https://pparihar.com/2015/10/11/myth-of-discovery-of-america-and-barbaric-invasion-of-columbus/

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Original story
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Christopher Columbus Did NOT Discover America

The Spanish Conquest of the Americas, preceded by its "discovery" by Christopher Columbus (or Cristóbal Colón as he was known by the Spanish Crown) resulted in mass assimilation, raping, slaughtering, enslaving, and intention to wipe out all evidence of a native population of between 50 and 100 million indigenous people from the land - the greatest genocide in recorded history. These well-documented atrocities include:

Forced hard labor.

Abducting and selling children into the sex trade as young as nine-years-old.

Mass raping of women and children.

The amputation of limbs if slaves were not producing 'enough'.

Labelled as hostile savages if not in complete compliance with their oppressors. Buried alive or burnt alive if you were resistant to the conquerors demands.

Offering cash rewards for the scalps of men, women, and children as proof of murder.

Intentionally spreading smallpox disease, an early means of biological warfare.

Forced removal from homes and land onto small reservations with barren, unlivable conditions.

Death marches of more than one-thousand miles to these reservations in which, if you were unable to continue the walk, you were left for dead and unable to assist dying family members.

On these same reservations "reserved" for the indigenous people, once this land was deemed valuable, the reservation agreement was broken and they were forced to move once again. All 370 treaties signed between the U.S Government and Indian nations have been broken by the United States.

Public execution of those who did not follow orders. Children were murdered by slamming them against stone and tree trunks, while pregnant women's bellies were sliced open on public display, as a warning to those who did not comply.

These same mass murderers become labeled as heroes after sweeping through villages and slaughtering unarmed civilians.

Systematically kidnapping children and forcing them to a boarding school system in which they are beaten, forbidden to speak native language, brainwashed into becoming "Americanized", and often molested.

Not entitled to the rights of citizenship in their own land until 1924.

Not included in the initial civil rights act; did not receive equal legal protections/rights until 1968.

Not allowed to practice their own 'religion'/spirituality until 1978.

In the 1970's the attendance at these brutal boarding schools peaked and it was not until 1975 that the United States Government emphasized reduction in boarding schools with most of them finally closing in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2007, there were still 9,500 American Indian children kept in boarding schools.

Traditional lifestyle mocked and ridiculed in mass media and in the classroom - socially acceptable to discriminate against.

Altered their history by ignoring and denying the truth for the past four centuries.

These were the policies of our government, the United States of America, as well as the the Spanish Crown and the Pope of the Catholic Church. These atrocities weren't conducted by aliens from outer space; no, they was done by aliens from the east, who entered an occupied land with force to subjugate and exterminate the civilizations that had existed for at least 30,000 years (some estimates are as high as 200,000 years). And although they became icons of the national myth, only a small proportion of colonists were actually pilgrims and puritans, who arrived in the 1620s.

In fact it was The American HolocaustThousand-mile death marches, concentration camps, forced assimilation, mass killings by starvation and the deliberate introduction of disease, the forced adoption of culture and 'beliefs'... Does this all sounds familiar?
In John Toland's book " Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography ", he comments on the Furor's admiration of the American Genocide:

"Hitler's concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the Wild West; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination - by starvation and uneven combat - of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity."He was very interested in the way the Indian population had rapidly declined due to epidemics and starvation when the United States government forced them to live on the reservations. He thought the American government's forced migrations of the Indians over great distances to barren reservation land was a deliberate policy of extermination. Just how much Hitler took from the American example of the destruction of the Indian nations is hard to say; however, frightening parallels can be drawn. For some time Hitler considered deporting the Jews to a large 'reservation' in the Lubin area where their numbers would be reduced through starvation and disease."

Discover, Invasion, or Conquer?

Discover is defined as finding something in the course of a search.

Invade is identified as an armed force or its commander entering a country/region so as to subjugate or occupy.

Conquer means to overcome and take control of a place or people by use of military force.

The word discover could be applied if something was actually found, but the problem is that Columbus' so-called "discovery" had belonged to someone else for at least 30,000 years. For perspective, it has only been 2014 years since the "birth of Christ". That means the first indigenous people first settled the Americas 27,986 years prior; whereas Europeans have only been here for 522 years.

The most interesting part about the definition of the word invade is the term "subjugate", and the fact that Columbus used this exact word upon his first encounter with the Taino people of the north-east South American continent:

"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." ~ Christopher Columbus's log

Interestingly enough the term subjugate is defined as "bringing under domination or control, especially by conquest", while conquest is simply the act of conquering, which is interlocked with the definition of subjugate. By Columbus' own words, it is therefore indisputable that the land and people of the North American continent were taken control of by military force. In fact, the exact term used in world history is "The Spanish Conquest."

Despite the fact that numerous other nations already knew of the Americas, Columbus' voyage may have initially been a "discovery" mission. But clearly, upon his first impression of the people of this land it quickly turned to an "invasion". Following Columbus' death, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizzaro continued the tasks of conquering the Americas.

Now, before you disregard this article as a wacky, conspiracist, anti-American post, please understand that this is more about seeking the other side of the story. It is about viewing the landing of Columbus's ships on May 12, 1492 from the perspective of the occupants of that land - the Taino and Arawaks perspective.

"When your people came to our land, it was not with open arms, but with Bibles and guns and disease. You took our land. You killed us with your guns and disease, then had the arrogance to call us godless savages. If there is a Heaven and it is filled with Christians, than Hell is the place for me."

Columbus's Early Life

Born as Cristofor Colombo (Italian name; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo; and American/English: Christopher Columbus) was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. He grew up working on ships and began sailing at age 10. After delivering goods to northern Europe in 1476, upon his return his ship was burnt by a group of French sailors and he swam to shore in Portugal. He remained in Portugal and started working for the Kingdom, which had the finest fleet in the world at this time.

During the middle ages, the kingdoms of Europe made their wealth by trading with Asia. But in 1453, the Turkish Empire cut off all land routes between Europe and Asia and the race to find a sea route to Asia soon began. Columbus sailed along the coasts of Africa, trading with the colonies and learning of the currents and wind patterns of the Atlantic. In 1487, another Portuguese sailor, Bartholomeu Dias made his way around the southern tip of Africa and located the eastern coast; giving strong belief to a quicker route to Asia by sea.

Columbus had already believed the world was smaller than that of the common-held belief of this time. Once Dias' made this discovery, Columbus's desire to sail west intensified as he had been seeking sponsorship for a trip across the Atlantic as early as 1484.
(Please note that nobody in the 15th century believed that the world was flat. This is an outright lie perpetrated by the American school system. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras first theorized that the earth was a sphere nearly 7,500 years before Columbus was born. Aristotle, 4th century B.C., added more proof to this theory by observing the motion of the stars. As historian Jeffrey Russel Burton once stated, "With extraordinary few exceptions, no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat." Except, of course, Christopher Columbus.)
Columbus was rejected funding by Portugal, twice by Italy, Spain, England, and France. However, upon the Spanish kingdom conquering Granada they were more willing to fund his voyage of three ships and 80 men. Struggling to find a crew, Queen Isabella released prisoners early to join the voyage along with other criminals, conquistadors and pig farmers. These men that did not fear dying at sea, as it was for more appealing than what life had in store for them in Spain. Following Spain's capture of Granada, there were also some unemployed former-military men that were sent along on Columbus's voyage.

So, in August of 1492, after eight years of trying to make a voyage around the world, Columbus set sail seeking the riches of Asia.

First Voyage

"Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their extermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass." ~ American sociologist, historian, and author James W. Loewen, from the book Lies My Teacher Told Me.

The first voyage to the so-called "new world" was highly unsuccessful, despite the credit and admiration it has since received. After weeks at sea, with a disgruntled crew of men, Columbus gave an ultimatum to find land in the next two days or head back to Spain - dated October 10, 1492. As unfortunate fate would have it, two days later Rodrigo de Triana was the first to spot an island, which is the modern-day Dominican Republic, located between Haiti and Puerto Rico. However, with a large payout at stake, Columbus claimed that he actually spotted the light the night before - hence, claiming the lifetime pension from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Columbus claimed the land for Spain and renamed it San Salvador although it had been occupied for thousands of years by the Taino, Arawak, and Lucayans (all extremely hospitable peoples, per many written accounts). Early estimates believe there were up to three million indigenous people living in the Caribbean; whereas more recent studies believe that number to be closer to eight million.

As written in his journals upon his first encounter with the Taino:

"These people have no religious beliefs, nor are they idolaters. They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons."

Columbus quickly captured a handful of Taino to help guide him to find gold, while putting many into forced labor and sent thousands back to Spain to be sold as slaves (although most of them died on the journey back across the Atlantic).

"As soon as I arrived in the Indies, in the first island which I found, I took some of the natives by force, in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts. And so it was that they soon understood us, and we them, either by speech or by signs, and they have been very serviceable."

Merry Christmas - 1492 Style

After a few weeks exploring around Cuba, Columbus made his way back toward Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic). On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria shipwrecked before making it to land. The Arawak Indians saw the men struggling and their chief ordered all his men - including the chief himself - to swim out to sea and help the settlers to safety.

The Arawak invited the settlers into their home. Columbus wrote of the kind hospitality of the Arawaks:

"They are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts."

With not enough room on the two remaining ships, Columbus left 39 men behind to settle a fort in which he called La Navidad.

When Columbus returned to Spain, his stories of the new world impressed the King and Queen - mostly due to his large exaggerations of the amount of gold present in the Caribbean. The Spanish royalty granted him another voyage, but this time with 17 ships, 1200 men, plus livestock, and weapons.

Columbus consistently wrote about the kindness of the people that he encountered on his first voyage and shared this with the Kingdom of Spain:

"They are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone....""[The natives] brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things... They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

Catholic Conquest

On May 4, 1493, the beginning of the Spanish Conquest took place with the approval of Pope Alexander VI. The Pope stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered", claimed and exploited by Christian rulers. He declared that:

"... the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of the souls be cared for and barbarous nations overthrown and brought to faith itself."

Disregarding the sovereignty of non-Christian populations, this philosophy became known as the "Doctrine of Discovery" and became the basis for all European land claims in the Americas, and continued with the United States western expansion into the 1800's. As a United States Supreme Court case in 1823 stated, "the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands." Essentially, this doctrine stated that the American Indians had no right to their land, and it was not until 1924 that "Native Americans" were allowed citizenship on the land "discovered" out from under them. (I use the term Native Americans to highlight the irony of not being granted citizenship to their native homeland until 450 years after the Europeans took their land and tried to wipe out their civilization.)

Following his first voyage, Pope Alexander VI granted the "new world" to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, claiming:

"We of our own motion, and not at your solicitation, do give, concede, and assign for ever to you and your successors, all the islands, and main lands, discovered; and which may hereafter, be discovered, towards the west and south; whether they be situated towards India, or towards any other part whatsoever, and give you absolute power in them."

Later, as word of the mistreatment of the natives reached the Spanish Kingdom, Queen Isabella finally made a "stand": she proclaimed that the Natives shall be given the opportunity convert to Catholicism before being forced into slavery. (Wasn't that kind of her?!)

Sadly, claiming slaves of anyone non-Christian was not a new trade. Back in 1455 the Pope issued a statement allowing Portugal to enslave any and all non-Christians. Columbus himself got started in slave trading back in 1480's as he sailed along the West coast of Africa, picking up slaves for the Portuguese kingdom. Then, on his third voyage, Columbus was the first to bring African slaves to the new world in the Dominican Republic (Hispaniola), claiming that "one African slave is equal to four Indians."

By 1514, the Spanish Conquistadors carried with them an ultimatum entitled, "The Requirement," in which the Indians were forced to accept "the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world." The Requirement warned the natives the consequences for non-compliance:

"We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do all the harm and damage that we can."

Second Voyage

The King and Queen of Spain were eager to fund a second voyage following Columbus's reports of his first trip to the so-called new world. In his largely exaggerated accounts, Columbus shared that:

"Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold... There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals..."

Columbus returned in 1493 to find the fort at La Navidad had burnt to the ground and all 39 men were killed. It was reported that these men apparently had "misbehaved". Of course, by "misbehave" it is meant they raped the native women and children and tried to steal whatever they could get hands on, raising the ire of the native population. In hindsight, leaving 39 recently released criminals behind, with no rules and laws, this outcome should not have surprised Columbus. However the Spaniards retaliated and Columbus forced all natives age 14 or older to work in the mine fields daily, searching for gold. If they refused, they were killed. If they did not meet quotas each month, their hands and arms were amputated.

Many began committing suicide to avoid the tortures of the Spaniards, while others were buried alive for refusing to oblige to Columbus. The Taino were being killed by starvation, worked to death, disease, or murder. The women were given to the Spaniards to do as they chose.

Columbus wrote of the innocence of the Natives and his intent to sell them into the slave trade:

"Naked as the day they were born, they show no more embarrassment than animals... Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

With not enough gold to return to Spain in triumph, Columbus rounded up the best one-thousand Taino he could find. He gave half to the Spanish colonists and took the other half to be sold to the slave trade in Spain. As 250 of the 500 died en route back to Spain, the conquistadors simply tossed their bodies overboard. With much disorder among the colonists at this time, Columbus left his brothers in charge of the islands as he returned to Spain.

Third Voyage

Upon his return, the island was in more disarray than when he left. Columbus embarked on daily beatings, raping, feeding infants to wild animals, and progressing the sex trade of children. Columbus began selling girls as young as nine years old into the sex trade, as accounted in own his writings:

"A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand."

At the same time, a man named Bartolome De Las Casas was aboard the third voyage with Columbus and was the first to speak out about the crimes against humanity in the so-called new world. As word got back to Spain of Columbus's crimes, the King and Queen had Columbus and his brothers arrested and shipped back to Spain.

While settling into Hispaniola in hopes of fortune in the new world, La Casas was a slave owner himself until 1509, after which he started speaking out against the crime. However, he still believed in converting non-Christians to Christianity - but in a peaceful, non-violent way. While this was applauded by the royalty of Spain, it was simply not followed by the Conquistadors. La Casas wrote of these atrocities:

"Endless testimonies... prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives... But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy... And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed [childbirth], not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them head first against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offspring of the devil!"

The Forgotten Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Columbus was arrested, shipped back to Spain and stripped of all his land and titles of "discoverer". However, he did find a way to be released and allowed to explore once again - the promise of gold! He presented gold to the King and Queen - a bribe - and was not only pardoned for his crimes but allowed a fourth voyage.

Christopher Columbus passed away in 1506 always believing he had landed in Asia, with no knowledge that the Americas was an entirely different continent. During the ten years of his four voyages (1492-1502) the population of Taino decreased from an estimated 3 to 8 million inhabitants to less than 50,000. By the mid 1500's that number was reduced to just 500 remaining Taino.

Before the European invasion of the Americas, there were believed to be as many as 80-100 million native people occupying what is now the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only 5.2 million people in the U.S. identified as American Indian and Alaskan Native, either wholly or in part, and out of this total only 2.9 million people identified as solely American Indian or Alaska Native. At the time of European invasion, at least 300 different languages were spoken in addition to numerous "trade languages". The natives of the Americas were not only "living lightly on the land", as is so often claimed, but were engaged in landscaping, building and agriculture, trade and commerce, in addition to sustainable hunting and gathering, and of course, ancient cultural and earth-based spiritual practices - much of which has now been decimated.

Christopher Columbus - a liar, thief, rapist, pedophile, savage, torturer, genocidal murder, brutal conqueror, and pioneer of slavery and sex trades - did not discover anything besides a beautiful, peaceful group of people who had lived sustainably on their land for millennia; who rescued him and welcomed him into their home. Implementing what can only be described as sociopathic imperialism, his thirst for wealth, greed and power wiped out generations of people within a decade. And for his "bravery", we celebrate the day he invaded the land of the people that rescued him.

Columbus Day has been celebrated as federal holiday in the United States since 1971. Then, on 9th October 2002, President George W. Bush issued a presidential proclamation celebrating "Columbus' bold expedition [and] pioneering achievements" and directing that "the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of Christopher Columbus." Of course, noticeably missing from his recounting of history was any mention of invasion, violence, slavery, rape, religious persecution or genocide - a history that our nation proudly celebrates each Columbus Day.
Further reference:
"The people who are citizens of the U.S., these are your treaties. They aren't just the Indians' treaties. No one gave us anything. No one was dragging any land behind them when they came here. This was our land... As native American peoples in this red corner of Mother Earth, we have no reason to celebrate an invasion that caused the demise of so many of our people, and is still causing destruction today." ~ Suzan Shown Harjo, the Morning Star Institute, a national Native American rights organization.

Read more here. for original story.

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Myth of discovery of America and barbaric Invasion of Columbus

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Original story o Christopher Columbus Did NOT Discover America The Spanish Conquest of the Americas, preceded by its "discovery" by Christopher Columbus (or Cristóbal Colón as he was known by the Spanish Crown) resulted in mass assimilation, raping, slaughtering, enslaving, and intention to wipe out all evidence of a native population of between 50 and 100 million indigenous...

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Relativism against absolutism. With relativism you have your own facts and I have mine. It's when anything goes and it ends up creating chaos. Absolutism is when there is pure objective and the absolute truth with a capital T. It is one sided and you don't have great communication. Nobody wants to think they are wrong so they don't listen to what anyone else has to say. The issue is if nobody wants to say they are wrong how can we explore other options? How do we know what is right and what's wrong. Nobody believed gravity was a thing until proven. Nobody believed in Thomas Edison, they thought he was weird and crazy for trying to create electricity. Our issue is we can be so closed minded that we don't realize we could be wrong. Think of how many world issues that could be solved if we listened to one another. So think about how if we listened to one another's on God/ Gods, how far we could get. For so long Jews were killed because Nazi's believed that their faith was the best and only good one. So they used absolutism and look what happened. With relativism we have communication. We listen to one another and we can get our points talked about. That's how I think of it anyways. I think the different sides could almost signify two different sides of war.

Probably isn't the best way to explain it or talk about it, but that's how I see it. What does relativism and absolutism mean to you?

https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-light-bulb#:~:text=More%20than%20150%20years%20ago,workday%20and%20jumpstarted%20new%20businesses.

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More than 150 years ago, inventors began working on a bright idea that would have a dramatic impact on how we use energy in our homes and offices. This invention changed the way we design buildings, increased the length of the average workday and jumpstarted new businesses. It also led to new energy breakthroughs -- from power plants and electric transmission lines to home appliances and electric motors.

Like all great inventions, the light bulb can't be credited to one inventor. It was a series of small improvements on the ideas of previous inventors that have led to the light bulbs we use in our homes today.

Incandescent Bulbs Light the Way

Long before Thomas Edison patented -- first in 1879 and then a year later in 1880 -- and began commercializing his incandescent light bulb, British inventors were demonstrating that electric light was possible with the arc lamp. In 1835, the first constant electric light was demonstrated, and for the next 40 years, scientists around the world worked on the incandescent lamp, tinkering with the filament (the part of the bulb that produces light when heated by an electrical current) and the bulb's atmosphere (whether air is vacuumed out of the bulb or it is filled with an inert gas to prevent the filament from oxidizing and burning out). These early bulbs had extremely short lifespans, were too expensive to produce or used too much energy.

When Edison and his researchers at Menlo Park came onto the lighting scene, they focused on improving the filament -- first testing carbon, then platinum, before finally returning to a carbon filament. By October 1879, Edison's team had produced a light bulb with a carbonized filament of uncoated cotton thread that could last for 14.5 hours. They continued to experiment with the filament until settling on one made from bamboo that gave Edison's lamps a lifetime of up to 1,200 hours -- this filament became the standard for the Edison bulb for the next 10 years. Edison also made other improvements to the light bulb, including creating a better vacuum pump to fully remove the air from the bulb and developing the Edison screw (what is now the standard socket fittings for light bulbs).

(Historical footnote: One can't talk about the history of the light bulb without mentioning William Sawyer and Albon Man, who received a U.S. patent for the incandescent lamp, and Joseph Swan, who patented his light bulb in England. There was debate on whether Edison's light bulb patents infringed on these other inventors' patents. Eventually Edison's U.S. lighting company merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company -- the company making incandescent bulbs under the Sawyer-Man patent -- to form General Electric, and Edison's English lighting company merged with Joseph Swan's company to form Ediswan in England.)

What makes Edison's contribution to electric lighting so extraordinary is that he didn't stop with improving the bulb -- he developed a whole suite of inventions that made the use of light bulbs practical. Edison modeled his lighting technology on the existing gas lighting system. In 1882 with the Holborn Viaduct in London, he demonstrated that electricity could be distributed from a centrally located generator through a series of wires and tubes (also called conduits). Simultaneously, he focused on improving the generation of electricity, developing the first commercial power utility called the Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan. And to track how much electricity each customer was using, Edison developed the first electric meter.

While Edison was working on the whole lighting system, other inventors were continuing to make small advances, improving the filament manufacturing process and the efficiency of the bulb. The next big change in the incandescent bulb came with the invention of the tungsten filament by European inventors in 1904. These new tungsten filament bulbs lasted longer and had a brighter light compared to the carbon filament bulbs. In 1913, Irving Langmuir figured out that placing an inert gas like nitrogen inside the bulb doubled its efficiency. Scientists continued to make improvements over the next 40 years that reduced the cost and increased the efficiency of the incandescent bulb. But by the 1950s, researchers still had only figured out how to convert about 10 percent of the energy the incandescent bulb used into light and began to focus their energy on other lighting solutions.

Energy Shortages Lead to Fluorescent Breakthroughs

In the 19th century, two Germans -- glassblower Heinrich Geissler and physician Julius Plücker -- discovered that they could produce light by removing almost all of the air from a long glass tube and passing an electrical current through it, an invention that became known as the Geissler tube. A type of discharge lamp, these lights didn't gain popularity until the early 20th century when researchers began looking for a way to improve lighting efficiency. Discharge lamps became the basis of many lighting technologies, including neon lights, low-pressure sodium lamps (the type used in outdoor lighting such as streetlamps) and fluorescent lights.

Both Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla experimented with fluorescent lamps in the 1890s, but neither ever commercially produced them. Instead, it was Peter Cooper Hewitt's breakthrough in the early 1900s that became one of the precursors to the fluorescent lamp. Hewitt created a blue-green light by passing an electric current through mercury vapor and incorporating a ballast (a device connected to the light bulb that regulates the flow of current through the tube). While the Cooper Hewitt lamps were more efficient than incandescent bulbs, they had few suitable uses because of the color of the light.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, European researchers were doing experiments with neon tubes coated with phosphors (a material that absorbs ultraviolet light and converts the invisible light into useful white light). These findings sparked fluorescent lamp research programs in the U.S., and by the mid and late 1930s, American lighting companies were demonstrating fluorescent lights to the U.S. Navy and at the 1939 New York World's Fair. These lights lasted longer and were about three times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. The need for energy-efficient lighting American war plants led to the rapid adoption of fluorescents, and by 1951, more light in the U.S. was being produced by linear fluorescent lamps.

It was another energy shortage -- the 1973 oil crisis -- that caused lighting engineers to develop a fluorescent bulb that could be used in residential applications. In 1974, researchers at Sylvania started investigating how they could miniaturize the ballast and tuck it into the lamp. While they developed a patent for their bulb, they couldn't find a way to produce it feasibly. Two years later in 1976, Edward Hammer at General Electric figured out how to bend the fluorescent tube into a spiral shape, creating the first compact fluorescent light (CFL). Like Sylvania, General Electric shelved this design because the new machinery needed to mass-produce these lights was too expensive.

Early CFLs hit the market in the mid-1980s at retail prices of $25-35, but prices could vary widely by region because of the different promotions carried out by utility companies. Consumers pointed to the high price as their number one obstacle in purchasing CFLs. There were other problems -- many CFLs of 1990 were big and bulky, they didn't fit well into fixtures, and they had low light output and inconsistent performance. Since the 1990s, improvements in CFL performance, price, efficiency (they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescents) and lifetime (they last about 10 times longer) have made them a viable option for both renters and homeowners. Nearly 30 years after CFLs were first introduced on the market, an ENERGY STAR® CFL costs as little as $1.74 per bulb when purchased in a four-pack.

LEDs: The Future is Here

One of the fastest developing lighting technologies today is the light-emitting diode (or LED). A type of solid-state lighting, LEDs use a semiconductor to convert electricity into light, are often small in area (less than 1 square millimeter) and emit light in a specific direction, reducing the need for reflectors and diffusers that can trap light.

They are also the most efficient lights on the market. Also called luminous efficacy, a light bulb's efficiency is a measure of emitted light (lumens) divided by power it draws (watts). A bulb that is 100 percent efficient at converting energy into light would have an efficacy of 683 lm/W. To put this in context, a 60- to 100-watt incandescent bulb has an efficacy of 15 lm/W, an equivalent CFL has an efficacy of 73 lm/W, and current LED-based replacement bulbs on the market range from 70-120 lm/W with an average efficacy of 85 lm/W.

In 1962 while working for General Electric, Nick Holonyak, Jr., invented the first visible-spectrum LED in the form of red diodes. Pale yellow and green diodes were invented next. As companies continued to improve red diodes and their manufacturing, they began appeari

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From incandescent bulbs to fluorescents to LEDs, we're exploring the long history of the light bulb.

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What is imagination in religion? It could be interpreted in many ways. Religion is belief but it's also imagination. Nobody has seen God they have heard about him. They heard stories but nobody knows what God looks like. Some say he's black, some say he could be a woman. That is left to the imagination of people with their religion. With art it is from the imagination. It is a feeling and a way to express yourself. There are many different paintings that describe different times of religion. For example the last supper by Leonardo da Vinci He painted Jesus or Joshua eating one last dinner with his disciples. The religious imagination is as much a part of us as the literary imagination, scientific imagination, our political imagination… they are all dimensions of being human.

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Last Supper, Italian Cenacolo, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26:21-28, in which Jesus declares that one of the Apostles will betray him and later institutes the Eucharist. According to Leonardo's belief that posture, gesture, and expression should manifest the "notions of the mind," each one of the 12 disciples reacts in a manner that Leonardo considered fit for that man's personality. The result is a complex study of varied human emotion, rendered in a deceptively simple composition.

Subject

The subject of the Last Supper was a popular choice for the refectory walls of monasteries and convents in 15th-century Italy, whereby nuns and monks could have their meals in the presence of Jesus' final repast. Leonardo's version appears neatly arranged, with Jesus at the centre of an extensive table and the Apostles to his left and right. He wears the traditional red and blue robes and has a beard, but Leonardo did not imbue him with the customary halo. Some scholars have proposed that the light from the window behind him serves this role or that the implied lines of the pediment above the window create the illusion of a halo. Other scholars have argued that the missing attribute may also suggest that Jesus is still a human being, who, as such, will endure the pain and suffering of the Passion.

The scene is not a frozen moment but rather a representation of successive moments. Jesus has declared his forthcoming betrayal, and the Apostles react. Philip, who stands in the group to Jesus' left, gestures toward himself and seems to say, "Surely not I, Lord?" Jesus seems to reply, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me" (Matthew 26:23). Simultaneously, Jesus and Judas, who sits with the group to Jesus' right, reach toward the same dish on the table between them, an act that marks Judas as the betrayer. Jesus also gestures toward a glass of wine and a piece of bread, suggesting the establishment of the Holy Communion rite.

Jesus' serene composure, with his head and eyes lowered, contrasts with the agitation of the Apostles. Their varying postures rise, fall, extend, and intertwine while remaining organized in groups of three. James the Greater, to Christ's left, throws his arms out angrily while the disbelieving Thomas, crouched behind James, points upward and seems to ask, "Is this God's plan?" His gesture anticipates his later reunion with the resurrected Christ, a moment that was often represented in art with Thomas using his fingers to touch Christ's wounds from the crucifixion to quell his doubts. Peter, who is identified by the knife in his hand that he will later use to sever the ear of a soldier attempting to arrest Jesus, moves toward the mild-tempered John, who sits to Jesus' right and appears to swoon. Judas, gripping the purse that contains his reward for identifying Jesus, recoils from Peter, seemingly alarmed at the other Apostle's quick action.The rest of the Apostles appear to whisper, grieve, and debate among themselves.

The meal takes place within an almost austere room so that the viewer focuses on the action taking place in the foreground. Dark tapestries line the walls on either side, while the back wall is dominated by three windows that look out on an undulating landscape recalling Milan's countryside. Leonardo represented the space by using linear perspective, a technique rediscovered in the Renaissance that employs parallel lines that converge at a single vanishing point to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. He placed the vanishing point at Jesus's right temple, thus drawing the viewer's attention toward the main subject. Although linear perspective seems like a systemized method of creating the illusion of space, it is complicated by its reliance on a single vantage point. Any viewing position other than the vantage point reveals a slightly distorted painted space. Later, scholars discovered that the vantage point for the Last Supper is about 15 feet (4.57 metres) above ground. Leonardo likely chose this relatively high height because the painting's bottom edge is 8 feet (2.44 metres) above ground and using a vantage from the floor would have meant viewers would only have been able to see the underside of the table, not the action taking place above. Consequently, the painted space of the Last Supper always appears sightly at odds with the refectory space. It is one of many visual paradoxes scholars have observed about the painting. They have also noted that the table is far too large to fit in the depicted room, yet it is not large enough to seat the 13 men, at least not along the three sides where they are placed. The scene, so seemingly simple and organized, is a puzzling resolution to the challenge of creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface.

History

The wall painting was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan and Leonardo's patron during his first extended stay in that city. The Sforza coats of arms appear with the family's initials on the three lunettes above the mural. Leonardo likely began working on the painting in 1495 and, as was his manner, worked slowly with long pauses between sessions, until he finished in 1498. Because of Leonardo's notorious perfectionism, true fresco painting was not ideal, as the process requires that an artist apply paint quickly to each day's fresh plaster before the plaster dries and bonds the pigment to the wall. Instead, Leonardo tried an experimental technique using tempera or oil paint on two layers of dry preparatory ground. His compromised process meant that the pigments were not permanently attached to the wall, however, and the painting began to flake within a few years. It continued to deteriorate, suffering from the steam and smoke of the monastery's kitchen, soot from the refectory's candles, and the dampness of the location.

In the ensuing centuries, the painting sustained additional damage. In 1652 a door was cut into the north wall, removing Jesus' feet and loosening the paint and plaster. Several restorations followed, with heavy-handed retouches and the application of varnish, glue, solvents, and the like. The painting endured additional irreverence when Napoleon's invading troops used the refectory as a stable. After a flood in the beginning of the 19th century, mold growth damaged the painting further still. During World War II the painting suffered its greatest catastrophe, when an Allied bomb caused the roof and one wall of the refectory to collapse. The painting survived, but it was exposed to the elements for several months before the space was rebuilt.

After centuries of maltreatment, the Last Supper underwent an extensive and controversial 20-year restoration that was completed in 1999. Restorers worked in small sections to remove previous retouches, layers of grime, and coats of varnish while adding beige watercolour to the parts that could not be recovered. When the restored painting was revealed, many critics argued that the restorers had removed so much of the painting that very little was left of Leonardo's original work. Others, however, commended the recovery of such details as the Apostles' expressions and the food on the table.

Legacy

The painting, despite restoration efforts, remains fragile, so, in an effort to slow its deterioration, visitors are allotted 15 minutes to view the mural in small groups. Although some of Leonardo's celebrated artistic qualities-luminous colour, soft modeling, and studied facial expressions-have been lost, viewers can still witness his skill in depicting a sequential narrative, his considered approach to creating an illusion of space, and his interest in representing human psychology in expression, gesture, and posture. Since the Last Supper's completion, when it was declared a masterpiece, the mural has garnered the praise of such artists as Rembrandt van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens and such writers as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It has also inspired countless reproductions, interpretations, conspiracy theories, and works of fiction. The Last Supper's delicate condition has not lessened the painting's appeal; instead, it has become part of the artwork's legacy.
Alicja Zelazko

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Last Supper | History, Technique, Location, & Facts

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Last Supper, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498. It was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Learn more about the painting's history, subject, technique, and restoration.

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A big part of religion is rituals and symbols. Without them religion wouldn't be as significant to people as it is now. Symbols and rituals are the very foundation, very core of what constitutes determinate religions. All the confessional religions traditions throughout the world have these incredible symbolic expressions. Symbols and rituals are intricately connected, you can't separate them from one another; rituals are a performative and repetitive act around symbolic expression. In some religions when they do it ritual it cleanses their souls, it represents purity, and in some cases people perform rituals as a way for them to send their wishes and hopes to God or Gods. Every ritual has a person to a person or religion which is why it is so important. Who do you think discovered rituals and deemed them a necessary for a certain religion?

https://www.britannica.com/topic/religious-symbolism/Relation-of-religious-symbolism-and-iconography-to-other-aspects-of-religion-and-culture

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Relation to myth and ritual

The symbol has a long-established relationship with myth (sacred stories that define the human condition and humanity's relation to the sacred or holy). Often containing a collection of symbolic forms, actions, expressions, and objects, myths describe gods, demons, people, animals, plants, and material objects that are themselves bearers of symbolical meanings and intentions. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a myth and a coherent complex of symbols brought together in story form. Examples are myths of cosmogony (origin of the world), theogony (origin of the gods), and anthropogony (origin of human beings). The details and contexts of religious teaching, dogma, and theology also produce or form symbolic values or refer to traditional symbolic representations. Symbol structures and pictorial representations are brought into connection with dogma and theological statements-e.g., the Buddhistic karma-samsara (law of cause and effect and reincarnation) theory and the bodhisattva (buddha-to-be) theory or the Christian teaching of the Last Judgment, punishment of sin, hell and purgatory, and eternal reward (Paradise). In worship, individual actions and objects used in the ritual are given a symbolic meaning that transcends their immediate practical purpose. Magic, in its ritual, also uses various formations of symbols, pictures, and symbolical actions that may be seen as parallels to the distinctively religious use of symbols.

Relation to meditation and mysticism

The spiritualization of religious experience in forms of meditation and mysticism assimilate and rework the existing symbols and pictures of an older historical period of religion, giving to some symbols a higher value and placing others in the centre of focus. At the same time it develops new forms the appearances of which stem especially from the visionary experiences of the mystic and from the need for a suitable means of expression and from the objects of meditation training-e.g., holy sounds and words (om), the lotus flower, the vajra (ritual object shaped like a thunderbolt), and the wheel in Buddhist meditations or the ladder, the heart, and the letters IHS (the first three letters of the Greek word for Jesus) in Christian mysticism. In contemplation, colours, forms, sounds, signs, and pictures become ways and means of penetrating to the centre of the mystical union. Jakob Böhme 's work is characteristic of the development of an especially rich mystical language of symbols. Mysticism supplies conventional and customary religiosity with new pictures and symbols.

Relation to the social realm

The field of symbolism and iconography shows a strong interdependence that existed between religion and other areas of culture that were later to become autonomous and profane (or secularistic). The social domain under the influence of religion develops its own symbolism for expressing its values and objectives. Conversely, religion often draws its symbols and pictorial forms from the social, political, and economic domains. Persons (e.g., king, father, mother, child, slave, brother) and conditions and structures in society and the state (e.g., government, a people, family, marriage, occupation) all receive meaning as symbolical and pictorial motifs in myth and cult. Examples of such motifs are throne, crown, sceptre, standard, arms, instruments, the figures of the father, mother, and child, and symbols of familial relationships. The morals, law, administration of justice, and the customs and habits of a society contain religious symbols and symbolical actions, as in the anointing of a king and in the administering of the oath or ordeal or in the observance of traditions and customs associated with birth, marriage, and death.

Relation to the literary and visual arts

Religious symbols and pictures may be identical with, related to, or similar to those of language (metaphors) and to pictorial expressions in prose and poetry. They are related in allegory, parable, fairy tales, fables, and legends in which they can appear in a form that is closely related to that of religious symbolism. Religious symbols are used in the plastic arts, in architecture, and in music. Symbols also have been developed in those arts and then introduced into religion. A few examples of such symbols are house, room, door, column, sound, harmony, and melody (as when Christ was viewed as the "new melody" in the words of St. Clement of Alexandria, a 2nd-century philosophical theologian). Here, also, the interdependence and the continual reciprocal influence of religion and culture may be observed.

Sufism: Symbolism in Sufism

Relation to other areas of culture

The formation of religious symbols and pictures has been stimulated by numerous other areas of human culture-such as the philosophy of nature, the natural sciences (especially botany and zoology), alchemy, and medicine (including anatomy, physiology, pathology, and psychiatry). In the works of Jacob Böhme, alchemy (e.g., the elements, fire, salt, sulfur, mercury, tincture, gold, essence, the philosopher's stone, and the transmutation) found an all-inclusive symbolical use; and in the works of Robert Fludd, an English physician and mystical philosopher of the 16th and 17th centuries, medical, cosmological, alchemical, and theosophical (esoteric religious) symbols were fused together (e.g., the contrast of light and darkness and the idea of the human being as a microcosm). Symbols, also religious and mythological (such as signs of astral gods for the planets in astronomy), have achieved new importance in the conceptual presentations of distinctively scientific systems-e.g., in physics, cosmology, psychiatry, and psychology. Even spaceships bear symbolic or mythical names. Psychoanalysis and depth psychology have reevaluated the role of the religious symbols and have used them in interpreting psychological processes, such as in the works of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung interprets religious processes as symbolic ones and emphasizes the growing of individual and social symbols in the unconscious. According to his interpretations, many of the symbols, transforming the archaic libido into other functions, come out of dream experiences in a kind of intuition or revelation. Important symbols are duality (male-female, animus-anima), trinity, and quaternity.

Changes in symbolical relations and meanings

Symbols emerge and disappear and change in their value and function. Although symbols have a tendency to be normative, stable, and to have a fixed meaning value, the demise of old symbols and the genesis of new ones or changes in the meaning of existing symbols nevertheless occur. Many ancient Christian symbols (e.g., the fish) had long lost their recognition value or had been pushed into the background. With the renewal of ancient Christian symbolism in modern times, they have had a reevaluation. The triangle and the eye as recently used in Christianity are relatively new symbols for God. The old and formerly very meaningful religious symbolism of the axe and hammer has almost disappeared. The symbolism of kingship and sovereign authority has, on the other hand, been maintained in religious language and in the religious conceptual framework, although the political structures from which it originated have disappeared or lost their relevance. The disintegration of individual symbols and the change in the emphasis on the role of symbolism in general are partly consequences of cultural, intellectual, social, and economic transformations.

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Religious symbolism and iconography - Rituals, Art, Beliefs

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Religious symbolism and iconography - Rituals, Art, Beliefs: The symbol has a long-established relationship with myth (sacred stories that define the human condition and humanity's relation to the sacred or holy). Often containing a collection of symbolic forms, actions, expressions, and objects, myths describe gods, demons, people, animals, plants, and material objects that are themselves bearers of symbolical meanings and intentions.

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In symbols there is one thing that stands out the most and is the most important. Vitality is the power to organize and configure a world of meaning. It is what makes a symbol so meaningful. Symbols always have a deeper meaning. A symbol isn't something you take literally. You once told us that "Greek mythology was a part of a religion, but some of the symbols and narratives lost that power and vitality; people think it's just a literary piece, they don't draw from it in a religious sense or Greek religion. God is three in one. People literalize the trinity thinking God is legitimately 3 separate people but he is only one with three persons; father son and holy spirit. The word God itself is a symbol because it points to a mystery." You stated that God was a symbol because of the mystery that followed. Nobody has ever seen God or heard from him directly. We like to think that when we pray to him he answers them, and he listens to us. We will never know if that's what happens until we die. Only then can we truly discover if there is a Heaven and Hell. God is a symbol because he represents a religion. We have never seen him, but we believe in him blindly.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780761830351/God-as-Symbol-What-Our-Beliefs-Tell-Us#:~:text=In%20the%20broadest%20sense%2C%20God,to%20approach%20him%20for%20answers.

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Although this work is written from a Christian viewpoint, it also presents the symbolic visions of the non-believer. The symbolic examination of God helps us to uncover what it means to be human, ...

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There are many ways to define rituals. One way could be how we do the same thing everyday whether it's taking out the trash, brushing our teeth, taking a shower,etc. Those are all rituals. Or we could go for a ritual that is based more on religious beliefs. For example praying to God before dinner, bathing in the ocean in the new year to show purification. There are so many different rituals that other religions do for their God or Gods. "Ritualizing is an inherent aspect of human nature- it is the performative act by which we give expression to values, conviction, beliefs, and feelings through a repeatable sequence of action in symbolic form." That is how you defined rituals to us. Rituals can be a way to show our values, conviction, beliefs, and feelings to a God or Gods. Rituals are in most of the things we do and half the time we don't even realize it. You told us in one of the first weeks of school that whether you are religious or not you do something that is a ritual, or something that is of faith. I never knew that blowing out the candles on a birthday cake had a religious factor, but it does. There are five rituals that you talked to us about. They are intentional rituals, rituals of initiation, rite of passage, healing rituals, and death rituals. Out of all of them I think healing or death is the most interesting.

https://northstarbehavioral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Rafferty-Healing-Rituals.pdf

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Can science and religion go together? Science is a fact like knowledge or an understanding of something. There are different areas of science that you can learn about have knowledge over. Religion on the other hand is faith, worship, prophecies, or practices of a stronger power. That could represent God or Gods to some people and religion. In the 19th century some scholars believed that there was a huge conflict between the two of them. They believed that as scientific knowledge advanced, it would eventually replace religious beliefs.They believed that as scientific knowledge advanced, it would eventually replace religious beliefs. They are two completely different things in some areas. Science is more fact based and religion is a belief. What is your take on this? Do you disagree and think that later in time science will prove that religion is a real thing, or do you think there is a possibility that science takes over religion entirely?

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2020/08/26/on-the-intersection-of-science-and-religion/#:~:text=Over%20the%20centuries%2C%20the%20relationship,at%20odds%20and%20entirely%20separate.

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Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project

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Over the centuries, the relationship between science and religion has ranged from conflict and hostility to harmony and collaboration, while various thinkers have argued that the two concepts are inherently at odds and entirely separate.

But much recent research and discussion on these issues has taken place in a Western context, primarily through a Christian lens. To better understand the ways in which science relates to religion around the world, Pew Research Center engaged a small group of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists to talk about their perspectives. These one-on-one, in-depth interviews took place in Malaysia and Singapore - two Southeast Asian nations that have made sizable investments in scientific research and development in recent years and that are home to religiously diverse populations.

The discussions reinforced the conclusion that there is no single, universally held view of the relationship between science and religion, but they also identified some common patterns and themes within each of the three religious groups. For example, many Muslims expressed the view that Islam and science are basically compatible, while, at the same time, acknowledging some areas of friction - such as the theory of evolution conflicting with religious beliefs about the origins and development of human life on Earth. Evolution also has been a point of discord between religion and science in the West.

Hindu interviewees generally took a different tack, describing science and religion as overlapping spheres. As was the case with Muslim interviewees, many Hindus maintained that their religion contains elements of science, and that Hinduism long ago identified concepts that were later illuminated by science - mentioning, for example, the antimicrobial properties of copper or the health benefits of turmeric. In contrast with Muslims, many Hindus said the theory of evolution is encompassed in their religious teachings.

Buddhist interviewees generally described religion and science as two separate and unrelated spheres. Several of the Buddhists talked about their religion as offering guidance on how to live a moral life, while describing science as observable phenomena. Often, they could not name any areas of scientific research that concerned them for religious reasons. Nor did Buddhist interviewees see the theory of evolution as a point of conflict with their religion. Some said they didn't think their religion addressed the origins of life on Earth.

A volunteer prepares lamps for prayers at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a festival celebrating Buddha's birthday, known as Vesak Day in Malaysia. (NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Some members of all three religious groups, however, did express religious concerns when asked to consider specific kinds of biotechnology research, such as gene editing to change a baby's genetic characteristics and efforts to clone animals. For example, Muslim interviewees said cloning would tamper with the power of God, and God should be the only one to create living things. When Hindus and Buddhists discussed gene editing and cloning, some, though not all, voiced concern that these scientific developments might interfere with karma or reincarnation.

But religion was not always the foremost topic that came to mind when people thought about science. In response to questions about government investment in scientific research, interviewees generally spoke of the role of scientific achievements in national prestige and economic development; religious differences faded into the background.

These are some of the key findings from a qualitative analysis of 72 individual interviews with Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists conducted in Malaysia and Singapore between June 17 and Aug. 8, 2019.

The study included 24 people in each of three religious groups (Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists), with an equal number in each country. All interviewees said their religion was "very" or "somewhat" important to their lives, but they otherwise varied in terms of age, gender, profession and education level.

A majority of Malaysians are Muslim, and the country has experienced natural migration patterns over the years. As a result, Buddhist interviewees in Malaysia were typically of Chinese descent, Hindus were of Indian descent and Muslim interviewees were Malay. Singapore is known for its religious diversity; a 2014 Pew Research Center analysis found the city-state to have the highest level of religious diversity in the world.

Insights from these qualitative interviews are inherently limited in that they are based on small convenience samples of individuals and are not representative of religious groups either in their country or globally. Instead, in-depth interviews provide insight into how individuals describe their beliefs, in their own words, and the connections they see (or don't see) with science. To help guard against putting too much weight on any single individual's comments, all interviews were coded into themes, following a systematic procedure. Where possible throughout the rest of this report, these findings are shown in comparison with quantitative surveys conducted with representative samples of adults in global publics to help address questions about the extent to which certain viewpoints are widely held among members of each religious group. This also shows how Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists as well as Christians around the world compare with each other.

One of the most striking takeaways from interviews conducted with Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists stems from the different ways that people in each group described their perspectives on the relationship between science and religion. The Muslims interviewed tended to speak of an overlap between their religion and science, and some raised areas of tension between the two. Hindu interviewees, by and large, described science and religion as overlapping but compatible spheres. By contrast, Buddhist interviewees described science and religion as parallel concepts, with no particular touchpoints between the two.

A similar pattern emerged when interviewees were asked about possible topics that should be off limits to scientific research for religious reasons. Many Muslim interviewees readily named research areas that concerned them, such as studies using non-halal substances or some applications of assisted reproductive technology (for example, in vitro fertilization using genetic material from someone other than a married couple). By contrast, the Hindus and Buddhists in the study did not regularly name any research topics that they felt should be off limits to scientists.

Muslims frequently described science and their religion as related, rather than separate, concepts. They often said that their holy text, the Quran, contains many elements of science. The Muslims interviewed also said that Islam and science are often trying to describe similar things. "The research in science are related to the Quran. There are similarities between religion and what is explained by science," said one Muslim woman (age 25, Malaysia).

The Muslims interviewed offered a wide variety of opinions about the nature of the relationship between science and religion, and whether the two are harmonious or conflicting. Some described science and Islam as compatible overall. For example, one Muslim man said that both science and his religion explain the same things, just from different perspectives: "I think there is not any conflict between them. ... In my opinion, I still believe that it happens because of God, just that the science will help to explain the details about why it is happening" (age 24, Malaysia). Others qualified their statement by saying that science is compatible with religion, but the actions of individual scientists can be problematic. "Actually, science and religion don't conflict with each other - it's humans' opinions that conflict," said one interviewee (Muslim man, age 36, Malaysia).

I think there is not any conflict between them. ... In my opinion, I still believe that it happens because of God, just that the science will help to explain the details about why it is happening.

Still others described the relationship as conflictual. "I feel like, sometimes, or most of the time, they are against each other. ... Science is about experimenting, researching, finding new things, or exploring different possibilities. But then, religion is very fixed, to me," said one Muslim woman (age 20, Singapore). Another interviewee said scientists typically do not consider the views of religious people when conducting their research. "Scientists, whatever they do, they don't ask for opinions from people well-versed in religious matters," said another Muslim woman (age 39, Malaysia).

When asked, many of the Muslims interviewed identified specific areas of scientific research that bothered them on religious grounds. Some of the areas mentioned by multiple interviewees included research that uses non-halal substances (such as marijuana, alcohol or pigs), some pregnancy technologies that they considered unnatural (for example, "test tube babies" or procedures that use genetic material not taken from a husband and wife) or cloning.

Representative surveys of Muslims in countries around the world find variation in the share of Muslims who see any conflict between science and religion, although this share is less than half in most countries surveyed. The 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor asked respondents if "science has ever disagreed with the teachings of your religion." Across 51 countries that have large enough samples of Muslims that their views can be broken out separately and analyzed, a common response is that science has "never disagreed" with Islamic religious teachings.

Similarly, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2011 and 2012 that examined the views of Muslims found that, in most regions, half or more said there was no conflict between religion and science, including 54% in Malaysia (Muslims in Singapore were not surveyed). Three-in-ten Malaysian Muslims said there is a conflict between science and religion; the share of Muslims around the world who took this position ranged from a high of 57% in Albania to a low of 14% in the Palestinian territories.

Malaysian Muslims offer prayers on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan at the National mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2016. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images)

Hindu interviewees generally see science and religion as compatibly overlapping spheres

The predominant view among Hindus interviewed in Malaysia and Singapore is that science and Hinduism are related and compatible. Many of the Hindu interviewees offered - without prompting- the assertion that their religion contains many ancient insights that have been upheld by modern science. For instance, multiple interviewees described the use of turmeric in cleansing solutions, or the use of copper in drinking mugs. They said Hindus have known for thousands of years that these materials provide health benefits, but that scientists have only confirmed relatively recently that it's because turmeric and copper have antimicrobial properties. "When you question certain rituals or rites in Hinduism, there's also a relatively scientific explanation to it," said a Hindu woman (age 29, Singapore).

While many of the Hindu interviewees said science and religion overlap, others described the two as separate realms. "Religion doesn't really govern science, and it shouldn't. Science should just be science. ... Today, the researchers, even if they are religious, the research is your duty. The duty and religion are different," said one Hindu man (age 42, Singapore).

Asked to think about areas of scientific research that might raise concerns or that should not be pursued for religious reasons, Hindu interviewees generally came up blank, saying they couldn't think of any such areas. A few mentioned areas of research that concerned them, but no topic area came up consistently.

The sense that Hindus generally see little conflict with science aligns with survey findings to date. In three of the four countries in the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor with large enough samples of Hindus for analysis, majorities said that science had "never disagreed" with the teachings of their religion, including two-thirds of Hindus in India - which is home to the vast majority of the world's Hindus. In Singapore, however, Hindus expressed more ambivalence: About half (48%) said science has not disagreed with the teachings of Hinduism, while nearly four-in-ten (38%) said that it has.

Buddhist interviewees see science and religion as operating in parallel domains

Buddhist interviewees described science and religion in distinctly different ways than either Muslims or Hindus. For the most part, Buddhists said that science and religion are two unrelated domains. Some have long held that Buddhism and its practice are aligned with the empirically driven observations in the scientific method; connections between Buddhism and science have been bolstered by neuroscience research into the effects of Buddhist meditation at the core of the mindfulness movement.

One Buddhist woman (age 39, Malaysia) said science is something that relates to "facts and figures," while religion helps her live a good and moral life. Another Singaporean Buddhist woman (age 26) explained that, "Science to me is statistics, numbers, texts - something you can see, you can touch, you can hear. Religion is more of something you cannot see, you cannot touch, you cannot hear. I feel like they are different faculties."

To many of the Buddhist interviewees, science and religion cannot be in conflict, because they are different or parallel realms. Therefore, the Malaysian and Singaporean Buddhists largely described the relationship between science and religion as one of compatibility.

Science to me is statistics, numbers, texts - something you can see, you can touch, you can hear. Religion is more of something you cannot see, you cannot touch, you cannot hear. I feel like they are different faculties.

Indeed, even when prompted to think about potential areas of scientific research that raised concerns for religious reasons, relatively few of the Buddhists mentioned any. Among those who did cite a concern, a common response involved animal testing. Buddhist interviewees talked about the importance of not killing living things in the practice of their religion, so some felt that research that causes harm or death to animals is worrisome.

The tenor of these comments is consistent with survey findings from the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor. Majorities of Buddhists in all 10 countries with large enough samples for analysis said that science has "never disagreed" with the teachings of their religion. This includes 59% of Buddhists in Singapore. (In Malaysia, 55% of Buddhists said the same. However, these results should be interpreted with extra caution because there were just 129 Malaysian Buddhists in the survey sample.) Far smaller shares of Buddhists in these countries see a conflict between science and their religion's teachings.

Surveys among Christians find wide variation in perceptions of conflict between religion and science though more see at least some conflict than do not

For comparison, representative surveys of Christians around the world also find widely ranging views about whether religion and science have ever disagreed or are generally in conflict. The 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor survey finds wide variation in Christians' views on this issue. The U.S. stands out, along with several southern European nations, for its relatively high share of Christians reporting that science has disagreed with the teachings of their religion (61%). By contrast, 22% in Singapore, 18% in Sweden and 12% in the Czech Republic say the same.

Pew Research Center surveys asked a similar question in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Latin America. Christians in these regions tilt toward saying that "there is generally a conflict between science and religion." A median of 49% of Christians in Central and Eastern Europe say there is generally a conflict, and a median of 39% say there is not. The median view on this question in Latin American was similar (50% to 40%).

In a U.S.-based Pew Research Center survey, a majority of Christians (55%) said that science and religion are "often in conflict" when thinking in general terms about religion. When thinking about their own religious beliefs, however, fewer Christians (35%) said their personal religious beliefs sometimes conflict with science; a majority of U.S. Christians (63%) said the two do not conflict.

Such findings broadly align with Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher P. Scheitle's analysis in "Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think," which finds that many U.S. Christians see little conflict between science and their faith.

This survey also provides a window into the kinds of things that Christians see as a conflict between science and religion. In an open-ended question included on the Center's survey, respondents who said science conflicted with their personal religious beliefs were asked to identify up to three areas of conflict. Christians most commonly mentioned the creation of the universe, including evolution and the "Big Bang" (cited by 38% of U.S. Christians who saw a conflict between science and their religious beliefs). Respondents also mentioned broad tensions including the idea that man (rather than God) is "in charge," beliefs in miracles, or a belief in the events of the Bible (26%). Others cited conflict over the beginning of life, abortion, and scientific technologies involving human embryos (12%) or other medical practices (7%).

Evolution raised areas of disagreement for many Muslim interviewees, who often said the theory of evolution is incompatible with the Islamic tenet that humans were created by Allah. Evolution is also a common, though by no means universal, friction point for Christians. By contrast, neither Buddhist interviewees, followers of a religion with no creator figure, nor Hindu interviewees, followers of a polytheistic faith, described discord with evolution either in their personal beliefs or in their views of how evolution comports with their religion.

Some Muslims interviewees see origination of humans from the prophet Nabi Adam as at odds with evolution

When asked about the theory of evolution, Muslim interviewees generally talked about conflict between the theory of evolution and their religious beliefs about the origins of human life - specifically, the belief that God created humans in their present form, and that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve. "This is one of the conflicts between religion and Western theory. Based on Western theory, they said we came from monkeys. For me, if we evolved from monkeys, where could we get the stories of [the prophet] Nabi? Was Nabi Muhammad like a monkey in the past? For me, he was human. Allah had created perfect humans, not from monkey to human," said one Muslim man (age 21, Malaysia).

Islamic views on evolution

"Nonsense. I believe that Nabi Adam is the first human in the world. Before Nabi Adam was created, other living things such as dinosaurs and so on were also created. The theory of human evolution from apes to human is very different from the teaching in Islam."
- Muslim man, age 24, Malaysia

"That theory to me is absurd. People might be saying that during time of Mesopotamia, the people there hunch and bow, with appearance looking like an ape. Maybe that is why one says we come from apes. But, for me, I believe that we come from Adam and Adam came from heaven."
- Muslim woman, age 36, Malaysia

"Our ancestors are not monkeys. Maybe there's similarity in the DNA, but in Islam the first human is Adam. He's not a monkey."
- Muslim man, age 35, Singapore

Others emphasized that evolution is only a theory and has not been proven true. "It's just a theory, because there is no specific evidence or justification. ... Just because the DNA [of humans and primates] has a difference of a few percent, that doesn't mean we are similar," said a 29-year-old Singaporean Muslim man. Still others said that Charles Darwin developed this theory in order to get famous and did not put adequate thought or research into his theory.

However, a handful of Muslims said they personally believed that humans were descended from primates via the evolutionary process, even though they believed that this deviated from Islamic teaching. "Monkeys can crawl. After that, stand, stand, stand, then become human, right? Yes, I think so. I think, yeah, that one I believe. ... [But] religion says all humans in the world come from God. A bit of conflict," said a 44-year-old Muslim woman from Singapore. Another Muslim woman (age 39, Singapore) said she was open to the concept of evolution, even though her religion tells a different story. "According to religion, we don't originate from monkeys. But being that we may be related, the possibility is there," she said.

A Pew Research Center survey of Muslims worldwide conducted in 2011 and 2012 found a 22-public median of 53% said they believed humans and other living things evolved over time. However, levels of acceptance of evolution varied by region and country, with Muslims in South and Southeast Asian countries reporting lower levels of belief in evolution by this measure than Muslims in other regions. In Malaysia, for instance, 37% of Muslim adults said they believed humans and other living things evolved over time.

In the U.S. context, a 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that views of evolution among American Muslims were roughly split: 45% said they believed humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 44% said they have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

In Hinduism we have something like this as well, that tells us we originated from different species, which is why we also believe in reincarnation, and how certain deities take different forms. This is why certain animals are seen as sacred animals, because it's one of the forms that this particular deity had taken.

Hindu and Buddhist interviewees emphasize the absence of conflict with the theory of evolution

Evolution posed no conflict to the Hindus interviewed. In keeping with thematic comments that Hinduism contains elements of science, many interviewees said the concept of evolution was encompassed in their religious teachings. "In Hinduism we have something like this as well, that tells us we originated from different species, which is why we also believe in reincarnation, and how certain deities take different forms. This is why certain animals are seen as sacred animals, because it's one of the forms that this particular deity had taken," said a 29-year-old Hindu woman in Singapore. When asked about the origins of human life, many Hindu interviewees just quickly replied that humans came from primates.

Decorations for Diwali, the annual Hindu festival of lights, in Singapore's Little India area. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Buddhists interviewed also tended to say there was no conflict between their religion and evolution, and that they personally believed in the theory. Some added that they didn't think their religion addressed humans' origins at all. "I don't think Buddhism has any theory on the first human being or anything. For Buddhism, we don't really have a strong sense of how the first human came along," said a Buddhist man in Singapore (age 22).

Hindu views on evolution

"I don't think evolution has anything to do with religion, nothing to do with Hinduism. That was just adaptation. For example, apes to men. It was just adaptation that people eventually changed over time."
- Hindu man, age 26, Singapore

"The concept (of evolution) is the same. The Hindus say it in a different way, and modern science says it in a scientific way."
- Hindu woman, age 27, Malaysia

Buddhist views on evolution

"[Buddhism says] we are all made out of the atoms and molecules, not that we are created by God. Like Christians believe that we are created by God, but no, I as a practicing Buddhist do not believe in that."
- Buddhist woman, age 60, Malaysia

There is limited global survey data on this issue. However, Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that 86% of Buddhists and 80% of Hindus in the U.S. said that humans and other living things have evolved over time, with majorities also saying this was due to natural processes.

Surveys of Christians globally find that majorities in most publics surveyed accept the idea that humans and other living things have evolved over time

Pew Research Center surveys conducted in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America find that a majority of Christians in most countries in these regions say humans and other living things have evolved over time. An 18-country median of 61% of Christians say this in Central and Eastern Europe, while a median of 30% say instead that humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. The median views on this issue are similar in Latin America (59% and 35%, respectively).

Views of American Christians are about the same as those global medians: 58% in a 2018 Pew Research Center survey said that humans and other living things have evolved over time, while 42% said they have always existed in their current form.

People's responses to questions about evolution can vary depending on how the question is asked, however. Specifically, a 2018 Pew Research Center survey focusing on beliefs about the origins of humans found more white evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants and Catholics expressed a belief in evolution when given the option to say that humans evolved with guidance from God or a higher power.

Such differences in how Christians see the issue of evolution are broadly consistent with an analysis by Fern Elsdon-Baker and her research completed with colleagues in the UK and Canada, which suggest that people's views on evolution can be nuanced, depending on the exact questions asked.

Two areas of potential conflict with science cut across religious groups. Interviewees from all three groups raised concerns about scientific research that interferes with nature in some way or that causes harm to animals.

In discussing scientific research using gene editing, cloning and reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist interviewees raised the idea that such practices may go against the natural order or interfere with nature. As one Buddhist man simply put it: "If you have anything that interferes with the law of nature, you will have conflict. If you leave nature alone, you will have no conflict" (age 64, Singapore). Similarly, a Muslim woman said "anything that disrupts or changes the natural state" goes against religious beliefs (age 20, Singapore).

When probed about potential areas of scientific research that should be "off limits" from a religious perspective, individuals from all three religious groups talked about the need to consider animal welfare (and sometimes human welfare) in scientific research. This idea occasionally came up when interviewees were asked for their thoughts about cloning and gene editing; others mentioned animal welfare concerns at other points of the interview, along with the need for ethical treatment of living things in general. Buddhists and Hindus in particular emphasized the need to "do no harm" when probed about characteristics that make someone a good follower of their religions.

When we do scientific research, we just have to ensure we did not endanger other living things, including animals and humans. We don't bring harm to any of the people, that is the basic moral value.

A few interviewees thought one other topic should be off limits to scientific exploration: research aimed at core beliefs such as the existence of God, the heavens or holy scripture.

Interviewees were asked to talk about their awareness of and views about each of three specific research areas in biotechnology - new technologies to help women get pregnant, gene editing for babies, and animal cloning. People had generally positive views of pregnancy technology such as in vitro fertilization, although Muslim interviewees pointed out potential objections depending on how these techniques are used. Views of gene editing and cloning were more wide-ranging, with no particular patterns associated with the religious affiliation of the interviewees.

Individuals from all three religions generally approved of pregnancy technology and in vitro fertilization

The first scientific development raised for discussion involved technologies to help women get pregnant. Interviewees often volunteered that they were familiar with in vitro fertilization, commonly referred to as IVF, which is an assisted reproductive technology. Individuals who expressed positive views about IVF mentioned things pertaining to the help it brings to people trying to conceive in modern times. Some even surmised that IVF itself or the knowledge to develop it was a gift from God.

Buddhists and Hindus on IVF

"I don't think my religion would have any comments on [IVF and surrogacy]. I think Christians would have more comments on it. Like the very staunch Christians, they think that they can't do this and that. They are very specific."
- Buddhist woman, age 26, Singapore

"It's a good thing. Some couples don't have the chance to get babies. With these technologies, people are finding happiness."
- Hindu man, age 24, Malaysia

Muslims accept pregnancy technologies, with conditions

"You cannot use another person to carry your baby, but people want their own flesh-and-blood baby. So, [IVF] is a really good opportunity. Because otherwise people usually just adopt, and it's not their flesh and blood. They don't want that."
- Muslim woman, age 24, Singapore

"In my opinion, IVF does not have any conflict with the religion because it helps to continue the descendants and it involves the correct and qualified person. ... The man should be the person who is qualified and marry the woman, and the wife should be the person who is qualified to receive the fetus from the man."
- Muslim man, age 24, Malaysia

"For that particular woman to perform this scientific procedure, the company that executes this procedure must make sure that the woman has a certificate of marriage, meaning legitimately married. I think it is that simple. If she is not married, but she wants (to perform this procedure), I don't think the company should do it. It is immoral."
- Muslim man, age 36, Malaysia

Even among supporters of these technologies, one common sentiment was that people were either unsure of where their religion stood on this issue or thought that other people - those who were older, more conservative or more religious - might be against it. "I think the old-timers are having a bit of a difficult time with being OK with [IVF]. The young generation, my generation, and the ones younger are OK with this," said one Hindu man (age 26, Singapore).

Some Hindus and Buddhists noted that they were comfortable with pregnancy technologies themselves, but said that there is pushback from other religions, particularly Islam and Christianity. For instance, when asked about IVF, one Buddhist man said, "Oh, wow, that's a very good question. Controversy, right? I heard about such before, I think, especially coming from Christianity. But, my personal take, I feel it is fine. It's still trying to get the balance of being a believer of a religion vs. overly superstitious or believing too much in that religion that you forgo the reality of life going on" (Singapore, age 37). Another noted that Buddhism and Hinduism don't have the same staunch views on IVF as Muslims. "In Buddhism, we don't have this type of restriction. It's totally different from other [religions], if I'm not wrong. If you talk about Muslims, there is. If you talk about Hindus, I think also they don't," he said (age 43, Singapore).

Muslim interviewees tended to accept technologies to facilitate pregnancy. However, some Muslims emphasized that they would only be OK with these technologies if certain criteria were met - specifically, if the technologies were used by married couples, and with the couples' own genetic material. "IVF is fine with me because it uses the couple's egg and sperm and the mother's body. You need help inseminating the egg, that's all," said one Muslim man (age 59, Singapore). Some Muslims also expressed concern about surrogacy in particular; they said Islam prohibits bringing outside parties into a marriage, and that surrogacy is effectively having a third person enter the marriage. A few other Muslims in the study mentioned the need to consult edicts or talk with leaders in the religious community before they would be able to be fully supportive, a common practice for many controversial issues in Islam.

Opinions varied widely on gene editing and animal cloning

Interviewees, regardless of their religion, said the idea of curing a baby of disease before birth or preventing a disease that a child could develop later in life would be a helpful, acceptable use of gene editing. But they often viewed gene editing for cosmetic reasons much more negatively.

Views on gene editing vary depending on how it is used

"I think science and technology aims to help the people. If you modify the baby, it is not good for them. The baby might also not want what the parents edited. In terms of the treatment of diseases, I think is good, as you can cure the baby."
- Buddhist man, age 23, Malaysia

"I like one half of it, the other half I don't like. The half that I like was eliminating the diseases. The part where you can make the eye color and all that? I wouldn't say I'm against it, but I'm definitely not up for it."
- Hindu woman, age 40, Singapore

Muslims' concerns with "playing God"

"Cloning, to put it simply, you're delving into an area where you're playing God. It is concerning because if it's taken as something that's normal, it means that humans can do things that previously no one could do. That means we could create ourselves. That goes against the beliefs that I have, because as a Muslim, while we have the ability to do certain things, it does not mean that we should do those things."
- Muslim man, age 29, Singapore

Several interviewees brought up the idea of not agreeing with gene editing out of fear that people might want to Westernize their children. For example, some repeated the concern that gene editing would be used to create babies with blond hair and blue eyes. "In terms of the diseases, I think it is acceptable. If they want to change the hair or eyes color? We are not European people," said one Muslim woman (age 47, Malaysia).

Views of cloning were similarly conditional. Individuals from all three religions remarked on their disapproval of cloning for humans. But interviewees generally found animal cloning to be a much more acceptable practice. Many people interviewed envisioned useful outcomes for society from animal cloning, such as providing meat to feed more people, or to help preserve nearly extinct animals. For example, a Hindu woman said, cloning "is a good idea because some of the animals, like tigers, are on the brink of extinction, so I think it is good to clone before they are extinct" (age 27, Malaysia).

Many of the issues raised about gene editing and cloning mirrored each other. Some of the concerns were based on religious traditions and values. For example, primarily Muslim interviewees mentioned that cloning could interfere with the power of God, who should be the only one who can create.

Cloning, to put it simply, you're delving into an area where you're playing God.

To the extent Hindus and Buddhists in the study expressed religious concerns pertaining to gene editing and cloning, they generally brought up the idea that these scientific methods might interfere with karma or reincarnation. (Some interviewees also mentioned the potential of IVF to interfere with karma, but they were generally less concerned about this.) One Buddhist woman, talking about gene editing, said: "Sometimes the person is born with sufferings, and it is because maybe previously he had been doing some evil things" (age 45, Singapore). When asked about cloning, a Hindu man expressed similar views. "For Hinduism, we believe that how we look like, how we are, our hands and our legs, it's because of our past life. So, for example, they will always say that if I am handsome and I'm smart, it's because in my past life I actually was a nicer person to people. Because of karma, because of reincarnation, I was born back into the better person" (Hindu man, age 25, Singapore).

Pew Research Center surveys in the U.S. survey find a strong relationship between levels of religious commitment and views on biotechnology developments, including gene editing. In a 2018 survey, majorities of U.S. Christians, including white evangelicals and other Protestants as well as Catholics, said if the development of gene editing for babies entailed embryonic testing, it would be taking the technology too far. A common finding in Center surveys of Americans on emerging biotechnology issues such as gene editing for babies and animal genetic engineering is that public opinion depends on the use and effects of emergent technologies for society.

Not all aspects of science are seen through a religious lens. Regardless of their religion, the people we spoke with overwhelmingly described investment in scientific research, including medicine, engineering and technology, as worthwhile. Malaysians and Singaporeans alike broadly shared this feeling.

Support for investment in scientific research

"I think it is very, very worth investing because the research is not just gathering information and data, but indirectly it creates job opportunities for the future. These would be very useful for the future and it can directly help a country to develop."
- Muslim man, age 33, Malaysia

"For me, engineering and technology investment is worthwhile because we want to be comparable to other advanced countries."
- Muslim man, age 21, Malaysia

"It's never enough [investment], because the more we do, the better results we'll get. ... Maybe one day there would be a cure for cancer in a very easy way. Maybe they will be able to detect mental illnesses through scans. If that is possible through research, it will be a breakthrough for a lot of people."
- Hindu man, age 38, Singapore

On scientific research and national prestige

"If we do something that no other countries have been doing, we can make good money out of it and we can be a pioneer in that field. A lot of Malaysians have been contributing their ideas to other countries, but not to their own country. ... So why not we do it for our own country, and get a name for Malaysia, and get famous."
- Hindu woman, age 29, Malaysia

In both countries, interviewees described government investment in science as a way to encourage economic development while also improving the lives of everyday people. People often were particularly enthusiastic about government investment in medicine and spoke of its potential to improve their country's medical infrastructure and care for an aging population.

But others expressed some hesitation about government investment because they felt their government wasn't doing a good job of ensuring that the research produced meaningful results, or because they thought the research didn't benefit the public directly. "If there's results, then it will be worthwhile. ... I don't think [there are results] because I've never heard anybody say 'Wow, Singapore has discovered a new drug,'" said one Buddhist woman (Singapore, 26). Some interviewees also said they supported government investment in medical research, but that they thought the private sector could take care of investment in engineering or technology.

Malaysians also mentioned that a sense of national pride or prestige could come from government investment in science and the subsequent achievements. For example, one Buddhist woman (age 29) said research on medicine and technology could help Malaysia "become famous compared with other countries." A Hindu man, 24, said he hoped the government would increase its spending on engineering and technology, because it would provide more jobs and show that Malaysia is a high-achieving country. He said more investment would "[help] a lot of people to achieve their dreams. You are putting Malaysia in the top table." Another Malaysian man expressed a similar sentiment, saying: "For me, engineering and technology investment is worthwhile because we want to be comparable to other advanced countries" (Muslim, age 21).
We appreciate the thoughtful comments and guidance from Sharon Suh, Ajay Verghese and Pew Research Center religion experts including Besheer Mohamed, Neha Sahgal and Director of Religion Research Alan Cooperman on an earlier draft of this essay. We greatly benefited from Mike Lipka's editorial guidance, graphic design from Bill Webster, and copy editing from Aleksandra Sandstrom.

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Cary Lynne Thigpen, Courtney Johnson and Cary Funk

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On the Intersection of Science and Religion

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Over the centuries, the relationship between science and religion has ranged from conflict and hostility to harmony and collaboration, while various thinkers have argued that the two concepts are inherently at odds and entirely separate.

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What is indigenous religions? It is a broad or diverse belief system. They are more connected to the natural world. Native Americans would be considered someone who could believe to have an indigenous religion. They are very connected with the world and nature around them. They use the resources the world gives them and in return they protect their land. They are known for their rituals. Most importantly their culture is one of importance, and incredibly interesting. They have a shaman who heals them spiritually or physically. Native Americans can be very traditional people. Over the years it has evolved, but in many cases they still keep it traditional by hunting their own food, making their own homes out of wood, their rituals, etc. These traditions and lives they live in are interesting and there is something about it that is peaceful. To me reading and watching how they live it gives me a sort of comfort. When I say this I mean being so in tune with nature. When I take a walk it gives me peace and relaxes me, but to do what they do and live like that everyday is a satisfaction I don't know I will ever live. I grew up in a world full of electronics which is a good and bad thing. I tend to rely on them a lot more than I should so I don't spend as much time enjoying nature. Learning about them was one of my favorite things to talk about in this class.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American-religion

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Native American religions | History, Beliefs, Tribes, Culture, & Facts

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Native American religions, religious beliefs and sacramental practices of the indigenous peoples of North and South America. Learn more about Native American religions, including the beliefs and practices of various peoples as well as historical changes and current issues.

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If you could meet someone from the dead who would it be and why? I would like to meet Martin Luther King Jr. Some people might say Jesus or dead family members but I would say him. I think he is someone we need today. He was a person of inspiration and someone who didn't want war or fighting. He wasn't afraid to speak his mind and I would really love to talk to him. He might be able to bring me more closure than most people. I have a lot of questions and I don't know if he will be able to answer them, but I do know he was an amazing person and it was a shame how we lost him. My point on asking that question is because in some rituals it is believed that you can talk to your ancestors. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a relative of mine, but I still would want to talk to him. In some cultures when you perform the ritual you would give them an offering. It is a way for you to show respect and gratitude. In a way you are honoring them and who they used to be to you and the world. Some believe that you are dead physically, but when someone needs you then you will be there to guide and help them. Would you try a ritual to be able to talk to your ancestors and establish a connection to them?

https://ancestralvoices.co.uk/communicating-with-your-ancestors/

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Our most frequently asked question is 'How can I connect with my ancestors?' The reality is you already are but not conscious of it. It is easy to get caught up in the belief of separation due to death, not knowing a family member or being removed from your ancestral home and culture.

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Buddhism is in the top 5 most popular religions. Siddhartha Gautama is known as the awakened one. He had two choices in life: become the king or become a world teacher. He went to the village and was shown the death and suffering that was happening in the world. He was taught how to purify himself spiritually to distract himself from the world around him. With all the troubles around him he had questions and lots of them. All of them went unanswered which he didn't like. In Buddhism there are four noble truths. They were to live is to suffer, suffering comes to desire, to end suffering, is to end desire, and to release from suffering is possible and can be attained by following the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path was the right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right work, right effort, right meditation, and right contemplation. I think this is a good way to look at things. There can never be a good thing in life if there is never bad. There are bad things all around us everyday, but we choose to look at things differently and can choose how to see the world.

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Buddhism Beliefs and Practices

Some key Buddhism beliefs include:

Followers of Buddhism don't acknowledge a supreme god or deity. They instead focus on achieving enlightenment-a state of inner peace and wisdom. When followers reach this spiritual echelon, they're said to have experienced nirvana.

The religion's founder, Buddha, is considered an extraordinary being, but not a god. The word Buddha means "enlightened."

The path to enlightenment is attained by utilizing morality, meditation and wisdom. Buddhists often meditate because they believe it helps awaken truth.

There are many philosophies and interpretations within Buddhism, making it a tolerant and evolving religion.

Some scholars don't recognize Buddhism as an organized religion, but rather, a "way of life" or a "spiritual tradition."

Buddhism encourages its people to avoid self-indulgence but also self-denial.

Buddha's most important teachings, known as The Four Noble Truths, are essential to understanding the religion.

Buddhists embrace the concepts of karma (the law of cause and effect) and reincarnation (the continuous cycle of rebirth).

Followers of Buddhism can worship in temples or in their own homes.

Buddhist monks, or bhikkhus, follow a strict code of conduct, which includes celibacy.

There is no single Buddhist symbol, but a number of images have evolved that represent Buddhist beliefs, including the lotus flower, the eight-spoked dharma wheel, the Bodhi tree and the swastika (an ancient symbol whose name means "well-being" or "good fortune" in Sanskrit).

Founder of Buddhism

Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism who later became known as "the Buddha," lived during the 5th century B.C.

Gautama was born into a wealthy family as a prince in present-day Nepal. Although he had an easy life, Gautama was moved by suffering in the world.

He decided to give up his lavish lifestyle and endure poverty. When this didn't fulfill him, he promoted the idea of the "Middle Way," which means existing between two extremes. Thus, he sought a life without social indulgences but also without deprivation.

After six years of searching, Buddhists believe Gautama found enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. He spent the rest of his life teaching others about how to achieve this spiritual state.

When Gautama passed away around 483 B.C., his followers began to organize a religious movement. Buddha's teachings became the foundation for what would develop into Buddhism.

In the 3rd century B.C., Ashoka the Great, the Mauryan Indian emperor, made Buddhism the state religion of India. Buddhist monasteries were built, and missionary work was encouraged.

Over the next few centuries, Buddhism began to spread beyond India. The thoughts and philosophies of Buddhists became diverse, with some followers interpreting ideas differently than others.

In the sixth century, the Huns invaded India and destroyed hundreds of Buddhist monasteries, but the intruders were eventually driven out of the country.

Islam began to spread quickly in the region during the Middle Ages, forcing Buddhism into the background.

Types of Buddhism

Today, many forms of Buddhism exist around the world. The three main types that represent specific geographical areas include:

Theravada Buddhism: Prevalent in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Burma

Mahayana Buddhism: Prevalent in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam

Tibetan Buddhism: Prevalent in Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Bhutan, and parts of Russia and northern India

Zen Buddhism is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that's practiced in many of the same areas. It emphasizes simplicity and meditation-the word "zen" means meditation-in lieu of religious scripture, ceremonies or doctrines.

Nirvana Buddhism is closely related to Theravada Buddhism, but the concept of nirvana is also central to many paths of Buddhism. The term nirvana means "blowing out," as a candle is blown out, thus ending all attachment and desire to achieve a state of pure enlightenment.

Each of these types reveres certain texts and has slightly different interpretations of Buddha's teachings.

Some forms of Buddhism incorporate ideas of other religions and philosophies, such as Taoism and Bon.

Dharma

Buddha's teachings are known as "dharma." He taught that wisdom, kindness, patience, generosity and compassion were important virtues.

Specifically, all Buddhists live by five moral precepts, which prohibit:

Killing living things

Taking what is not given

Sexual misconduct

Lying

Using drugs or alcohol

Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths, which Buddha taught, are:

The truth of suffering (dukkha)

The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)

The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)

The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)

Collectively, these principles explain why humans hurt and how to overcome suffering.

Eightfold Path

The Buddha taught his followers that the end of suffering, as described in the fourth Noble Truths, could be achieved by following an Eightfold Path.

In no particular order, the Eightfold Path of Buddhism teaches the following ideals for ethical conduct, mental disciple and achieving wisdom:

Right understanding (Samma ditthi)

Right thought (Samma sankappa)

Right speech (Samma vaca)

Right action (Samma kammanta)

Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)

Right effort (Samma vayama)

Right mindfulness (Samma sati)

Right concentration (Samma samadhi)

Buddhist Holy Book

Buddhists revere many sacred texts and scriptures. Some of the most important are:

Tipitaka: These texts, known as the "three baskets," are thought to be the earliest collection of Buddhist writings.

Sutras: There are more than 2,000 sutras, which are sacred teachings embraced mainly by Mahayana Buddhists.

The Book of the Dead: This Tibetan text describes the stages of death in detail.

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is the leading monk in Tibetan Buddhism. Followers of the religion believe the Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a past lama that has agreed to be born again to help humanity. There have been 14 Dalai Lamas throughout history.

The Dalai Lama also governed Tibet until the Chinese took control in 1959. The current Dalai Lama, Lhamo Thondup, was born in 1935.

Buddhist Holidays

Every year, Buddhists celebrate Vesak, a festival that commemorates Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death.

During each quarter of the moon, followers of Buddhism participate in a ceremony called Uposatha. This observance allows Buddhists to renew their commitment to their teachings.

They also celebrate the Buddhist New Year and participate in several other yearly festivals.

Sources

Buddhism: An Introduction, PBS.
Buddhism, Ancient History Encyclopedia.
The History of Buddha, History Cooperative.
Demographics of Buddhism, Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs.
Religions: Buddhism, BBC.
Buddhist Scriptures, Georgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs.
The Noble Eightfold Path: Tricycle.
What Is Zen Buddhism and How Do You Practice It? Lion's Roar.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Buddhism - Definition, Founder & Origins

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Buddhism is a religion that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama ("The Buddha") more than 2,500 years ago in India. With about 470 million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of the major world religions.

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Islam means to surrender or submission. In some cases that could be a bit drastic, but I remember in the video about how those are the two words to describe this religion. You have to give yourself over to Allah. Almost to be a slave to him which could be considered bad because of what has happened in the past. It just means to submit your mind and body. The terms for the people who believe in this is Muslim. Their book is Shahada and another word for that is declaration of faith. They only have one God and their God is Allah. They do have a messenger and their name is Muhammad. He would tell others about Allah and all about their faith. He was the only one in "contact" with Allah. They had prophets in Islamic belief as well as of course the messenger Muhammad. Islamic beliefs helped us with advancing in science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. Without Islamic beliefs who knows where we would be in our day of age now.

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Origins

In Hellenistic times and in late antiquity, scientific learning in the eastern part of the Roman world was spread over a variety of centres, and Justinian's closing of the pagan academies in Athens in 529 gave further impetus to this diffusion. An additional factor was the translation and study of Greek scientific and philosophical texts sponsored both by monastic centres of the various Christian churches in the Levant, Egypt, and Mesopotamia and by enlightened rulers of the Sāsānian dynasty in places like the medical school at Gondeshapur.

Also important were developments in India in the first few centuries ad. Although the decimal system for whole numbers was apparently not known to the Indian astronomer Aryabhata (born 476), it was used by his pupil Bhaskara I in 620, and by 670 the system had reached northern Mesopotamia, where the Nestorian bishop Severus Sebokht praised its Hindu inventors as discoverers of things more ingenious than those of the Greeks. Earlier, in the late 4th or early 5th century, the anonymous Hindu author of an astronomical handbook, the Surya Siddhanta, had tabulated the sine function (unknown in Greece) for every 3 ³/ ₄ ° of arc from 3 ³/ ₄ ° to 90°. ( See South Asian mathematics.)

Within this intellectual context the rapid expansion of Islam took place between the time of Muḥammad's return to Mecca in 630 from his exile in Medina and the Muslim conquest of lands extending from Spain to the borders of China by 715. Not long afterward, Muslims began the acquisition of foreign learning, and, by the time of the caliph al-Manṣūr (died 775), such Indian and Persian astronomical material as the Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta and the Shah's Tables had been translated into Arabic. The subsequent acquisition of Greek material was greatly advanced when the caliph al-Maʾmūn constructed a translation and research centre, the House of Wisdom, in Baghdad during his reign (813-833). Most of the translations were done from Greek and Syriac by Christian scholars, but the impetus and support for this activity came from Muslim patrons. These included not only the caliph but also wealthy individuals such as the three brothers known as the Banū Mūsā, whose treatises on geometry and mechanics formed an important part of the works studied in the Islamic world.

Of Euclid's works the Elements, the Data, the Optics, the Phaenomena, and On Divisions were translated. Of Archimedes' works only two- Sphere and Cylinder and Measurement of the Circle-are known to have been translated, but these were sufficient to stimulate independent researches from the 9th to the 15th century. On the other hand, virtually all of Apollonius's works were translated, and of Diophantus and Menelaus one book each, the Arithmetica and the Sphaerica, respectively, were translated into Arabic. Finally, the translation of Ptolemy's Almagest furnished important astronomical material.

Of the minor writings, Diocles' treatise on mirrors, Theodosius's Spherics, Pappus's work on mechanics, Ptolemy's Planisphaerium, and Hypsicles' treatises on regular polyhedra (the so-called Books XIV and XV of Euclid's Elements) were among those translated.

Mathematics in the 9th century

Thābit ibn Qurrah (836-901), a Sabian from Ḥarrān in northern Mesopotamia, was an important translator and reviser of these Greek works. In addition to translating works of the major Greek mathematicians (for the Banū Mūsā, among others), he was a court physician. He also translated Nicomachus of Gerasa's Arithmetic and discovered a beautiful rule for finding amicable numbers, a pair of numbers such that each number is the sum of the set of proper divisors of the other number. The investigation of such numbers formed a continuing tradition in Islam. Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (died c. 1320) gave the pair 17,926 and 18,416 as an example of Thābit's rule, and in the 17th century Muḥammad Bāqir Yazdī gave the pair 9,363,584 and 9,437,056.

One scientist typical of the 9th century was Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī. Working in the House of Wisdom, he introduced Indian material in his astronomical works and also wrote an early book explaining Hindu arithmetic, the Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation. In another work, the Book of Restoring and Balancing, he provided a systematic introduction to algebra, including a theory of quadratic equations. Both works had important consequences for Islamic mathematics. Hindu Calculation began a tradition of arithmetic books that, by the middle of the next century, led to the invention of decimal fractions (complete with a decimal point), and Restoring and Balancing became the point of departure and model for later writers such as the Egyptian Abū Kāmil. Both books were translated into Latin, and Restoring and Balancing was the origin of the word algebra, from the Arabic word for "restoring" in its title ( al-jabr). The Hindu Calculation, from a Latin form of the author's name, algorismi, yielded the word algorithm.

Al-Khwārizmī's algebra also served as a model for later writers in its application of arithmetic and algebra to the distribution of inheritances according to the complex requirements of Muslim religious law. This tradition of service to the Islamic faith was an enduring feature of mathematical work in Islam and one that, in the eyes of many, justified the study of secular learning. In the same category are al-Khwārizmī's method of calculating the time of visibility of the new moon (which signals the beginning of the Muslim month) and the expositions by astronomers of methods for finding the direction to Mecca for the five daily prayers.

Mathematics in the 10th century

Islamic scientists in the 10th century were involved in three major mathematical projects: the completion of arithmetic algorithms, the development of algebra, and the extension of geometry.

The first of these projects led to the appearance of three complete numeration systems, one of which was the finger arithmetic used by the scribes and treasury officials. This ancient arithmetic system, which became known throughout the East and Europe, employed mental arithmetic and a system of storing intermediate results on the fingers as an aid to memory. (Its use of unit fractions recalls the Egyptian system.) During the 10th and 11th centuries capable mathematicians, such as Abūʾl-Wafāʾ (940-997/998), wrote on this system, but it was eventually replaced by the decimal system.

A second common system was the base-60 numeration inherited from the Babylonians via the Greeks and known as the arithmetic of the astronomers. Although astronomers used this system for their tables, they usually converted numbers to the decimal system for complicated calculations and then converted the answer back to sexagesimals.

The third system was Indian arithmetic, whose basic numeral forms, complete with the zero, eastern Islam took over from the Hindus. (Different forms of the numerals, whose origins are not entirely clear, were used in western Islam.) The basic algorithms also came from India, but these were adapted by al-Uqlīdisī ( c. 950) to pen and paper instead of the traditional dust board, a move that helped to popularize this system. Also, the arithmetic algorithms were completed in two ways: by the extension of root-extraction procedures, known to Hindus and Greeks only for square and cube roots, to roots of higher degree and by the extension of the Hindu decimal system for whole numbers to include decimal fractions. These fractions appear simply as computational devices in the work of both al-Uqlīdisī and al-Baghdādī ( c. 1000), but in subsequent centuries they received systematic treatment as a general method. As for extraction of roots, Abūʾl-Wafāʾ wrote a treatise (now lost) on the topic, and Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) solved the general problem of extracting roots of any desired degree. Omar's treatise too is lost, but the method is known from other writers, and it appears that a major step in its development was al-Karajī's 10th-century derivation by means of mathematical induction of the binomial theorem for whole-number exponents-i.e., his discovery that

During the 10th century Islamic algebraists progressed from al-Khwārizmī's quadratic polynomials to the mastery of the algebra of expressions involving arbitrary positive or negative integral powers of the unknown. Several algebraists explicitly stressed the analogy between the rules for working with powers of the unknown in algebra and those for working with powers of 10 in arithmetic, and there was interaction between the development of arithmetic and algebra from the 10th to the 12th century. A 12th-century student of al-Karajī's works, al-Samawʿal, was able to approximate the quotient (20 x ² + 30 x)/(6 x ² + 12) as

and also gave a rule for finding the coefficients of the successive powers of 1/ x. Although none of this employed symbolic algebra, algebraic symbolism was in use by the 14th century in the western part of the Islamic world. The context for this well-developed symbolism was, it seems, commentaries that were destined for teaching purposes, such as that of Ibn Qunfūdh (1330-1407) of Algeria on the algebra of Ibn al-Bannāʿ (1256-1321) of Morocco.

Other parts of algebra developed as well. Both Greeks and Hindus had studied indeterminate equations, and the translation of this material and the application of the newly developed algebra led to the investigation of Diophantine equations by writers like Abū Kāmil, al-Karajī, and Abū Jaʿfar al-Khāzin (first half of 10th century), as well as to attempts to prove a special case of what is now known as Fermat's last theorem-namely, that there are no rational solutions to x ³ + y ³ = z ³. The great scientist Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040) solved problems involving congruences by what is now called Wilson's theorem, which states that, if p is a prime, then p divides ( p − 1) × ( p − 2)⋯× 2 × 1 + 1, and al-Baghdādī gave a variant of the idea of amicable numbers by defining two numbers to "balance" if the sums of their divisors are equal.

However, not only arithmetic and algebra but geometry too underwent extensive development. Thābit ibn Qurrah, his grandson Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān (909-946), Abū Sahl al-Kūhī (died c. 995), and Ibn al-Haytham solved problems involving the pure geometry of conic sections, including the areas and volumes of plane and solid figures formed from them, and also investigated the optical properties of mirrors made from conic sections. Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān, Abu Sahl al-Kūhī, and Ibn al-Haytham used the ancient technique of analysis to reduce the solution of problems to constructions involving conic sections. (Ibn al-Haytham, for example, used this method to find the point on a convex spherical mirror at which a given object is seen by a given observer.) Thābit and Ibrāhīm showed how to design the curves needed for sundials. Abūʾl-Wafāʾ, whose book on the arithmetic of the scribes is mentioned above, also wrote on geometric methods needed by artisans.

In addition, in the late 10th century Abūʾl-Wafāʾ and the prince Abū Naṣr Manṣur stated and proved theorems of plane and spherical geometry that could be applied by astronomers and geographers, including the laws of sines and tangents. Abū Naṣr's pupil al-Bīrūnī (973-1048), who produced a vast amount of high-quality work, was one of the masters in applying these theorems to astronomy and to such problems in mathematical geography as the determination of latitudes and longitudes, the distances between cities, and the direction from one city to another.

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Mathematics - Mathematics in the Islamic world (8th-15th century)

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Mathematics - Mathematics - Mathematics in the Islamic world (8th-15th century): In Hellenistic times and in late antiquity, scientific learning in the eastern part of the Roman world was spread over a variety of centres, and Justinian's closing of the pagan academies in Athens in 529 gave further impetus to this diffusion.