Faith and Religion

Some religions have existed for thousands of years, whereas others are more recent. Whatever your own belief, you should learn about others so that we can all live together peacefully.

Holy Days and Festivals Calendar (from the BBC)

In human life, there are often times when we think about deep questions such as How did life on earth start? and What happens when we die?

Over thousands of years, ideas that answer some of these great questions have come about and from them, religions have come into being. Religion is a way of organising the answers to some of these questions.

Since no religion can be 'proved' or 'disproved', it doesn't make sense to argue about religion or to bully or persecute people for their religious faith or beliefs. It makes much more sense to learn about other people's religious beliefs so that we don't offend them and so that we can understand some of the things they do, which might otherwise seem strange to us.

Listed below is a brief explanation of some religions found in Nottinghamshire.

Agnostics

Are people who have doubts about the existence of God. They don't believe that God exists, but they don't believe that God doesn't exist, either.

Atheism

Is not a belief, it is the absence of belief in any Gods or other spiritual beings. Some atheists go further and deny that God or other spiritual beings exist.

Baha'ism

Teaches that all religions are divine and that all the great prophets were servants of the same God. They believe that each religion is like a chapter in a book with many more chapters still to be written. Their mission was to bring peace to the world and to unite all religions and races.

Buddhism

Is not a belief in a god but in a force. A little bit of this force is in each of us and it is our duty to get rid of all desires here on earth so that we can be reunited with this force after death and lose all identity in it. This wonderful state is called Nirvana.

Christianity

Is a belief in one God who has a trinity personality as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is believed to be the almighty creator who was involved in the creation of the world and will eventually destroy it. Those who love God will live with him eternally in an afterlife.

Christians believe that they have one life on earth and that they will be judged by God on their death and either sent to Heaven or Hell.

Hare Krishna

Teaches that people should give up their attachment to material things and concentrate instead on becoming more aware of themselves and on developing an inner peace. To help them to do this they must give up meat, alcohol, drugs and gambling.

Hinduism

Is an ancient religion which believes in one supreme God who shows his multiple personalities in over 330 million gods and goddesses. When Hindus worship any of these gods or goddesses they are only worshipping a form of the one god, Brahman.

They believe that humans have to have many lives on earth in order to become perfect enough to go to Brahman, so each soul is reincarnated into a different body determined by the deeds done in a previous life. This is called ka'ma.

Humanism

Is a belief that is not religious and they don’t believe in any god. They believe that human beings are the highest form of life there is and that once you die your soul only lives on through the memories of those that knew.

Jainism

Is an ancient Indian religion which does not believe in any violence to any living thing. Non violence starts with an attitude of mind and is against harmful thoughts as well as deeds. They do not believe in a god but believe that we pass from one life to another and that the universe itself has cycles of existence.

Judaism

Is a belief in one God who is the almighty creator of everything and that he chose ‘special people’ to follow his commandments. Jews may be strict Orthodox or less strict Reform or Liberal. Life on earth is followed by an afterlife. Some Jews believe in reincarnation.

Islam

Began when the prophet Mohammed was visited by the Angel Gabriel who during the course of forty years recited parts of the Koran for Mohammed to remember and have written down. They believe that God is the only God and that Jesus was not the son of God, but one of the prophets of Allah.

The followers of Islam are called Muslims, they are surrendered and committed to the will of God, called Allah.

Mormonism

Mormons believe their church is a restoration of the Church as conceived by Jesus and that the other Christian churches have gone astray. Although members like to be called Mormons, they don't like their church to be called the Mormon Church, it should be called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or The Church of Jesus Christ.

New Age

The New Age movement takes ideas from many different religious traditions. It practices a range of things e.g. healing, astrology, crystals, visualisation, meditation. It suggests that humans are able to contact the spirit world and should try to do so.

Paganism

A group of contemporary religions based on a respect for nature. These faiths draw on the traditional religions of indigenous peoples throughout the world. There are many different groups of Pagans e.g. Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists etc

Rastafarianism

This faith began in Jamaica and is based on the Bible which is mixed with many African beliefs and traditions. They worship Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as their Messiah and leader. People meet to pray to God, called Jah, and to sing and play music.

Shintoism

Nature is divine. This is a religion which focuses on Kami which are spirits or gods in which the force of nature in concentrated. There are about 8 million kami.

Sikhism

Sikhs believe in one god, Sat Nam, who is the creator of everything. Sat Nam treats everyone as equals and expects humans to be kind to each other. He knows when a person is ready to get to know him and allows them to do this by his grace. There will need to be many reincarnations before a human is fit to meet God.

Taoism

Taoists believe there is a force called the Tao running through nature. Gods and demons help or hinder humans to use magic and ritual to harness a power called "Te" in the hope of becoming immortal.

There are other religions and beliefs not mentioned above. This is for reasons of space only. All beliefs are important and should be equally respected.