Reflection Paper On Religion

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Religion is a set of practices based on a set of beliefs of a group of people. Basically, religion is beliefs in practice. According to the text, “Jung described religion as something that grew out of the individual’s need to arrive at personal fulfillment when he called individualization” (Molloy, p.12). While I disagree with Jung’s opinion in regards to religion, I do agree that some of the practices in which religion uses comes from that thought process. It is my belief that religion is not simply the practices, but the central belief that those individuals share. In my opinion, in order to have a religion, one must have a group of people that agree upon the same principles or thoughts…regardless to if it is a deity, or there is no deity.
Out of the eight elements, which some scholars believe are the characteristics of a religion they include sacredness. Sacredness is defined as a distinction that is made between the sacred and the ordinary; ceremonies often emphasize this through the deliberate use of different language, clothing, and architecture” (Molloy, p.7). Based on this definition an element of the religion is sacred and has specific qualities to represent its sacredness. It is my belief that a religion does not have to have anything that is sacred. This definition is not defining the religion itself. I believe that a religion does not have to include anything out of the ordinary. Although my religious belief is in monotheism, there are others that believe in polytheism, or atheism. Therefore, in crafting my definition of religion any of these characteristics can exist. Finally, it is my belief that all religions define itself as long as the elements of a community of people that share this belief. A religion must answer age old questions that past and modern-day philosophers continue to ask. The main questions are: Where did we come from? Why do we
Pull out of Chapter 2 other defining characteristics of native religions and, based on Internet research, show how contemporary indigenous spiritual paths are related to these

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