Spirituality
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Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality ; [ 1 ] an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the "deepest values and meanings by which people live." [ 2 ] Spiritual practices , including meditation , prayer and contemplation , are intended to develop an individual's inner life; spiritual experience includes that of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self ; with other individuals or the human community ; with nature or the cosmos ; or with the divine realm. [ 3 ] Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life. [ 4 ] It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world. [ edit ] Definition Traditionally, many religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of religious experience .
Spirituality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religion is a collection of cultural systems , belief systems , and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. [ 1 ] Many religions have narratives , symbols , traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe . They tend to derive morality , ethics , religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature . The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system , but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect [ citation needed ] . Some religions have organized behaviors , clergy , a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity , regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer , holy places (either natural or architectural), and/or scriptures .
Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam ( English / ˈ ɪ z l ɑː m / ; [ note 1 ] Arabic : الإسلام al-ʾislām IPA: [ʔɪsˈlæːm] ( listen ) [ note 2 ] ) is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur'an , a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God ( Arabic : الله Allāh ), and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith ) of Muhammad , considered by them to be the last prophet of God . An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim .
Islam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Israel
The Land of Israel ( Hebrew : אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl , Eretz Yisrael ) is a biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant (also known as Canaan , Palestine , Promised Land or simply the Holy Land ). The belief that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people is grounded in the Torah , especially the books of Genesis and Exodus , as well as the Prophets . According to the Book of Genesis, the land was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites , descendants of Jacob , Abraham's grandson.
History of Zionism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zionism as an organized movement is generally considered to have been fathered by Theodor Herzl in 1897; however the history of Zionism began earlier and related to Judaism and Jewish history . The Hovevei Zion , or the Lovers of Zion , were responsible for the creation of 20 new Jewish settlements in Palestine between 1870 and 1897. [ 1 ] Before the Holocaust the movement's central aims were the creation of a Jewish National Home and cultural centre in Palestine by facilitating Jewish migration . After the Holocaust, the movement focussed on creation of a " Jewish state " (usually defined as a secular state with a Jewish majority), attaining its goal in 1948 with the creation of Israel .Zionism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flag of Israel, the flag was adopted as the symbol of the Zionist Movement in the 1890s. Zionism ( Hebrew : ציונות , Tsiyonut ) is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture that supports a Jewish nation state in territory defined as the Land of Israel . Zionism supports Jews upholding their Jewish identity and opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel as a means for Jews to be liberated from anti-Semitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that has occurred in other societies. Since the establishment of the State of Israel , the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state and address threats to its continued existence and security. In a less common usage, the term may also refer to non-political, cultural Zionism , founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Ha'am ; and political support for the State of Israel by non-Jews, as in Christian Zionism .
The Return to Zion ( Hebrew : שיבת ציון , Shivat Tzion , or שבי ציון , Shavei Tzion , lit. Zion Returnees ) is a term that refers to the event written in the biblical books of Ezra-Nehemiah in which the Jews returned to the Land of Israel from the Babylonian exile following the decree by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great , the conqueror of the Babylonian empire in 538 BC, also known as Cyrus's Declaration . Although the term was first coined after the destruction of the Second Temple (mentioned in the Song of Degrees [ 1 ] ), it was attributed to the event of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile to the Land of Israel after the destruction of the First Temple , following the decree of Cyrus the Great. The biblical meaning of "The Return to Zion", Aliyah , was later on borrowed from the ancient event and was adopted as the definition of all the immigrations of Jews to the Land of Israel and the State of Israel in modern times.
The Return to Zion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christianity (from the Ancient Greek word Χριστός , Khristos , " Christ ", literally "anointed one") is a monotheistic religion [ 1 ] based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings. [ 2 ] Adherents of the Christian faith are known as Christians . [ 3 ] Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God , God having become human and the saviour of humanity . Because of this, Christians commonly refer to Jesus as Christ or Messiah . [ 4 ] The saving work of Christ on the cross is often referred to as the Gospel message, or good news .
Prehistoric religion is a general term for the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. More specifically it encompasses Paleolithic religion , Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion and Bronze Age religion . Intentional burial , particularly with grave goods may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice (the onset of burial itself being a canonical indicator of behavioral modernity ) since, as Philip Lieberman suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life." [ 1 ] [ edit ] Animal worship Picture of a half animal half human being in a Paleolithic cave painting in Dordogne , France which archeologists believe may be evidence for early shamanic practices.
Prehistoric religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The winged sun was an ancient (3rd millennium BC) symbol of Horus , later identified with Ra A solar deity (also sun god/dess ) is a sky deity who represents the Sun , or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the " missing sun " found in many cultures. [ edit ] Solar deities throughout cultures In different religions solar supreme deities carry different names and are associated with different aspects of the cultural universe of the society, but for the most part its raw image remains identical.
Solar deity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Religions of the Ancient Near East - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The religions of the ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic , with some early examples of primitive monolatry ( Mardukites ), Ashurism and Monism ( Atenism ). Some scholars believe that the similarities between these religions indicate that the religions are related, a belief known as patternism . [ 1 ] Especially the Luwian pantheon exerted a strong influence on the ancient Greek religion , while Assyro-Babylonian religion influenced Achaemenid -era Zoroastrianism and Judaism .Mesopotamian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Sumerian and Akkadian ( Assyrian / Babylonian ) peoples living in Mesopotamia (around the area of modern Iraq ) that dominated the region for a period of 4200 years from the fourth millennium BC to approximately the 3rd century AD. [ 1 ] Christianity began to take root among the Mesopotamians in the 1st century AD, and over the next 300 years the native religion largely died out. However, it is known that the god Ashur was still worshipped in Assyria as late as the 4th Century AD and it is rumoured that Ashurism was still practiced by tiny minorities in northern Assyria (around Harran ) until the 17th Century AD. Commonly thought of as a form of paganism , Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic , worshipping over 2000 different deities, [ 2 ] many of which were associated with a specific city or state within Mesopotamia such as Sumer , Akkad , Assyria , Assur , Nineveh , Ur , Uruk , Mari and Babylon .