Dying Religions of the World - Research Paper Example

Introduction Religion has been a great part of the human existence and has been known to be in existence since the beginning of the existence of man. It has played a great role in the life of man and the most obvious of all the roles it plays in the life of the human beings, is the creation of a ground or a platform on which humans can socialize. Humans get to attain a sense of belonging through adoption of similar sets of religious doctrines and dogmas which ensures that the people who are organized around a particular religious belief behave in the same manner, believe in the same things and therefore feel they are in some sense related to each other. This assists with identification which causes social cohesion but which has also been known to cause friction between groups that does not believe in the same religious practices. Religion, as defined by Nielsen 2002 is a system of belief in the supernatural which entails the engagement in rituals, adherence to a particular code of principles, and a viewpoint of life (Nielsen 2002 p5). The belief in a deity is a very common feature of religion while the supernatural aspect of religious beliefs indicates that humans have identified their vulnerability and they have realized that there exist forces that are beyond their control. The great numbers of religious beliefs found among the people living in the contemporary world testify of the divergence of religious views found in the world today. The believers of the various religious beliefs have organized themselves into different religious groups hence the emergence of denominations, sects, and sub sects among others which originate from the mainstream religious beliefs. With the proliferation of the religious beliefs, various reactions from the wider society and especially from the believers in the mainstream religion have emerged. For this reason, some of the religions have been welcome while others have been rejected by a wider section of the society leading to hefty persecution by the believers within other religious organizations. Following doctrines taught to the believers in the religious organizations and other factors, there has been a great shift in the trend and the rate of growth within the religions of the world with some religions showing a positive growth while others have displayed negative growth- the number of followers diminishing with time. The following discussion is about the world religions which are dying with time and the causes attributed to their dying. Main body Baháí faith This religion happens to the youngest of the main religions found in the world. It was founded by Siyyid Ali-Muhammad (1819-1850 CE) in the middle of the 19th century who prophesied about the coming of a prophet who was greater than himself. It happened that one of his followers by the name of Mirza Husayn-Ali-i-Nuri (1817-1892), declared himself the prophet spoke of by the founder. He taught on themes that were yet to be experienced by his followers; scientific discoveries, civil rights, equal rights for men and women, democracy, and world peace among others. The believers in this religion practice monotheism and the belief that God has continually sent prophets with a revealed word for the people. Some of the prophets they believe to have been sent by God include Adam, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna and Siyyid Ali-Muhammad among others. This faith has been considered by many Muslims as a disbanded sect that had its base on the Islam faith. They are currently organized into 235 countries and areas within the world and this includes the 2100 ethnic, tribal and racial groups found in the world. The membership was estimated to be approximately 7.4 million globally in the mid 2002. Currently their estimates have been placed at 6million follower worldwide with the largest followers residing in India. This newer figure evidently indicates a decline to the number of followers that practiced it in the year 2002 (Toropov & Buckles 2005p360). The followers of this religion have for a long time acted as targets of heavy persecution by a number of countries with a particular note to Iran. The government of Iran and other fundamentalist Muslims has perpetuated the persecution of the followers of this faith. For example, of 14th of May 1996, the most senior judge found in Iran at the time known by the name Ayatollah Mohamed Yazdi was quoted as saying that Bahaiism did not qualify to be called a religion but should have been recognized as an intelligence establishment which the Islamic governance could not tolerate. Since Iran is an Islamic state governed by the dictates of the Islamic religion, the Bahais have often found themselves under the attack of the Islamic believers particularly for their declaration of the prophet Siyyid Ali-Muhammad to be the latest prophet that was sent by God. This claim contradicts the words of the prophet Mohammed who founded Islam who claimed that he was the last prophet that God could ever send to the world. Since the government doesn’t recognize the religion as one of the protected minority religions in line with Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, members of this religion have been targeted heavily for assassination and judicial murder (Clemen and Babinge 2005p97). Beginning from the time the Islamic theocracy took hold in the year 1979 in Iran, 201 Baha’is had been assassinated while another 115 had gone missing and were believed to have been dead through assassination by the year 1996. Apart from being assassinated, the Baha’i youth who had performed well in their academics and had qualified to join the university were denied this chance on account of their religious beliefs. The youths who qualified for jobs were never given the chance to work but were let to find their own way of dealing with their predicament. Those believers who managed to work for the government or other corporations within Iran retrenched from their work most of the followers of this faith and their pension were denied to them. This was meant to facilitate their suffering due to lack of finances and of ways of catering for the needs of the families these followers had. In essence, it was thought that this form of persecution could make them change their religious beliefs and turn to the Islamic faith. Most of the followers were also arbitrarily arrested, arraigned in courts and made to stay for long periods of time in prison for their faith. To cap the persecution this people suffered from, their personal and their community level owned properties were confiscated by the relevant Iranian authorities all on account of their belief to the faith they testified of. Those school going children whose parents believed in the Bahai religion were often degraded both in schools and in the overall public (Nielsen 2002 p567). This persecution they suffered around the 1996 and before that. As the aim of the Iranian government was to deliberately change the faith of the followers of this religion to adopt the Islamic teachings and faith, the persecutions had the effect of weighing so heavily on the Bahais which made a good number of them to give up on it and join the Islamic faith. The persecution was so strong to the point that the Baha’i believers declined in numbers to avoid any more persecutions. Most of their religious meetings were made in the public during the era of Shaw of Iran but had to hold the indoors once the Islamic theocracy was established since they figured it was dangerous for them to hold them in public any more as the persecution raged on. These persecutions did not pass unnoticed by the outside world; the United Nations decided to send a special rapporteur in February 1996 to investigate the state of religious intolerance that the Iranian government had perpetuated against the Baha’is. During the month of April the same year, the United Nations commission on the rights of humans expressed their concern about the state of religious freedom in Iran for the members of the Baha’i as well as the other minority groups found in Iran. On 16th day of December 2005, the government of Canada decided to submit a resolution to General Assembly of the United Nations expressing what they termed as a serious concern that was stemming from the human rights situation that had found its home in Iran and at the same time heavily criticized the continuing persecution of the Baha’i community in this country (Burrell 2004 p321-324). A new hope dawned on the religious followers of the Baha’i religion on 6th February 2009 when 42 professionals in Iran apologized publicly for their theocratic approach the government was utilizing in persecution of the members who upheld the Baha’i faith. It is hoped that a lasting resolution will be put into place on the persecution of the Baha’i therefore eventually change the situation for them (Brodd, and Sobolewski 2003) Asatru (Norse Heathenism) Asatru has been identified as one of the Neopagan family of religions. It includes a mixture of religious beliefs including recreations of the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and some other ancient religions that are regarded as having pagan roots. Asatruers are also regarded as Heathen and consider themselves as separate from the Neopagan decent. The followers of Asatru have been known to closely follow the original religion practiced by the Norse people at very close quarters. Remains of this religion can still be found in Iceland and Scandinavia. The origin of this religion is not known but it has been known to have covered the whole of northern Europe at one point. Asatruers believe in polytheism believing in three races of deities within the pantheon of the Norse. These deities are regarded as living and involved in the life of the humans. They also include a number of other religious practices within their religion e.g. sacrificing, ritual celebration of drinking, profession also called adoption of the beliefs of Asatru and disregarding other religious beliefs. The conversion of the areas that once had adopted Asatru as their religion to Christianity marked the beginnings of its end within Europe. It was in the year 1000 CE that Iceland undertook Christianity in favor of Asatru being the second last country to do this. The economic prosperity that Christian missionaries taught the Icelandic people to adopt and encouraged them to do so using incentives and the rewards derived from the economic involvement for those who chose to believe in the teachings of the Christian missionaries encouraged the Icelanders to pick Christianity and drop of their hold on Asatru. The revival of this religion had its beginnings with the insistence of an Icelandic poet known as Gothi Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson for the government to recognize Asatru as a lawful religion. The government did so in 1972 and this has led to attempts at revival of the religion in the former Norse countries, in parts of North America and in Europe. Still, its revival has been gagged by the expansion of both Christianity and Islam in the above said areas (Toropov & Buckles 2005p359). Another cause of the ancient disappearance of this religion was the grafting of some of the beliefs of the religion onto the racist beliefs that were adopted by the Nazi in the early 20th century. This practice is still in among the neo-Nazi groups most of which are found in the United States. The current attempts at reviving the religion are facing hostile rejection by the North Americans who are largely persecuting the Asatruers through systems of discrimination and outright violence against them. Druidism The historical origin of druidism is not clear though it is assumed that it had its beginnings in the cultural practices of the ancient Celtic people. The Celts’ ancestors are believed to have been the proto-Indo European culture that made their residence in the Black sea circa in the 4000 BCE. These must have migrated to other parts of Europe. Ancient druidism was based on oral tradition, hence its descend from a generation to another was quite easy to facilitate. Since holy scriptures were lacking, part of the teachings found in druidism survived in the Bardic colleges that were located in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland due to their survival till the 17th century. Other areas that can testify the existence of the traditional druidism include the folk lore, medieval manuscripts and the rituals found among the people. Druidism incorporated polytheism in worship and a number of ritualistic undertakings like baptism and divination. Of great interest in the druid beliefs and practices is the belief in three specialties including the arts associated with the bards, skills associated with prophecy and divination to ovates and idealistic tradition, counseling and judicial tasks associated with the druid (Fowler 2000 p399). The spread of the Christian religion halted the spread of druidism due to its expansionist nature. The pagan gods and goddesses that characterized much of the worship in druidism have been converted to Christian saints. The temple sites used for worship were owned up for the building of cathedrals while the sacred springs and wells were put under good care and associated with saints. Druidism was already destroyed by the 7th century CE but it is thought to have survived deeply underground for most part of the former Celtic lands. Evidence indicates that it did however survive in some areas that appear isolated and they include Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Evidence of its survival to the 20th century in these areas still exists. Druidism still exists to date with parts of the North American populations attempting to revive it in the process of attempting to get back to their roots and desiring to get back to the practices that once defined their religious beliefs. All the same and like in the case of Asastra, the presence of the major religions like Christianity and Islam has impacted negatively on the rejuvenation of druidism today (Huston 2001p23). Conclusion Religion has had a very long history that may date back to the origins of man. Religion has had the history of enrichment where the believers drew religious points to utilize from a number of religious beliefs thus coming up with their own comprehensive religion e.g. paganism. At the same time, some religions have faced extinction due to the aggressive forces of newer religions with expansionist predispositions. In this sense therefore, some of the religions that were able to hold on through time and ages are now being faced by the threat of dying out. Some reasons have been attributed to the possible extinction of these religions which include the effect of the major expansionist religions of the world among others. This has been the major threat of some of the earliest religions which somehow fail to survive the pressure exerted by the new religions. It is quite interesting that some individuals have decided to take up the revival of some of the old religions. The results of this undertaking can only be left to imagination. References Brodd, J. & Sobolewski, G. (2003) World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery‎. Oxford University Press p237 Burrell, J. (2004) The Religions of the World: A sketch of the enormous Religious arrangement‎. McGraw hill p321-324 Clemen, C. & Babinger, F. (2005) Religions of the World: Their Nature and Their Histor. Macmillan press ‎p97 Fowler, D. (2000) World religions: a preamble for students. Sage pub P399 Huston, S. (2001) the Worlds Religions‎. Sage pub p23 Nielsen, J (2002) Religions of the World. Chicago University Press ‎p5, 567 Toropov, B. & Buckles, L. (2005) the absolute Idiots channel to World Religions‎. Prentice hall. P359, 360 Read More