Life Enduring Questions

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Religion offers guidance and seeks to answer many of humanity’s life enduring questions such as: What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose in life? Is there life after death? It is through religion for example Christianity, in which many people are able to gather a strong understanding of these questions and are able to live with a purpose and goal in life. The characteristics of religion; beliefs and believers, sacred texts, rituals and ceremonies and ethics all play an important role in shaping a religion to be both living and dynamic which assists adherents in seeking the answers to life enduring questions. For a religion to be living and dynamic it must be able to adapt to the changing modern society and be present among the lives of the adherents today.…show more content…
The key beliefs within Christianity are; the belief in one God, the Trinity, the Holy Church and Jesus Christ, which are all stated within the Nicene Creed. Key beliefs are learnt from the sacred texts and guide adherents with the ethics, giving direction in life and offers to answer questions that humanity poses. For example, the belief in Jesus Christ and salvation allows Christians to understand the purpose in life and idea of life after death. Coleman (2006) states, “Christianity teaches that there is life after death, and that divine judgement will result in eternal reward or punishment…”(p. 81). Till this day, Catholics believe in the concept that impure souls may go to purgatory to be cleansed suggesting that the belief is living. However other Christian denominations are not in full agreement with the idea of purgatory (Coleman, 2006), implying that the belief is dynamic due to the different interpretations of the concept.
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