Research Paper
Due: 12/7/11
Throughout the world there are many different things that individuals tend to believe. Some people believe in luck, crediting everything that happens to them, good or bad, to their fortune. Some believe in karma, always warning colleagues about the things they may do or say to their counterparts, implying that those things may come back to them, possibly in a worse way. Others believe in superstition, which according to the World English Dictionary, is an irrational belief usually founded on ignorance or fear, and characterized by obsessive reverence for omens, charms, etc. For example, when walking with my sister she doesn’t like for something to pass between us as we walk, better known as ‘splitting the pole’; she is superstitious in believing that splitting a pole or tree or any freestanding inanimate object will bring bad luck to either of us. A number of people believe in a higher being. Most times the ‘higher being’ depends on what part of the world in which people live or the culture in which they were raised. Nelson states that Hinduism is best understood as a grouping of diverse Indian religious traditions around a common core of sacred writings; while Buddhism was founded in the North Indian kingdom of Maghda and the Western part of Christianity was headquartered in Rome. In some religions, parishioners believe in monotheism, which is belief in a single higher being, and some believe in polytheism, which is belief and worship of multiple gods. They all believe that someone or something, of a non-human life form, sees all, knows all and has power over all. While believing in this higher being, they practice what they believed to have been said by that higher being and written down by a scribe of some sort. These believers live to attain all aspects of the human relationship to the transcendent, according to Nelson, also known as their ‘religion’.
Believers attach themselves to their