Soul And God Essays - Philosophy Of Religion, Soul, Existence Of God

Soul And God Being raised in a Catholic family, I have always been told that my body contains a soul. I have often wondered where my soul is and how it functions. Being asked by my friends questions about the soul, I could not answer because I never really knew myself, so I looked to the writings of the church. According the Catechism of the Catholic Church, written by Pope John Paul II, the soul is not just part of the body, it is the body. "In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to the life or the entire person. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image: "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man. The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature. The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be united with the body at the final Resurrection." That is the belief of my church. Other religion hold different views, are they right? If what I believe is right, then the soul is there, not for Catholics, but for everyone, so that we all have a spiritual awareness and can become closer to God. But what if I am wrong? What if we really do not have soul? How then am I to live my life? What if there really is no God, and religion is just a security blanket for people so that they seem to have some meaning in their lives? How can one justify the existence of God if there is so much evil in the world? What about reincarnation? If we have a soul, then it is supposed to be reunited with the body on the final Resurrection, but then how do certain people have special talents where as others do not? These questions are ones that my personal experiences and beliefs will try to answer. I do not believe that the Catholic Christian religion is the only true religion in this world. If I were to believe this, then I would not be the ideal, loving, open minded person that I am called to be by my beliefs, and by God. I believe that each religion is right for each person involved, depending on where they are located. God calls each person in different ways because all people are not the same, and live in different surroundings. Each culture has certain beliefs based on their cultural pasts, and physical environments. For example, Europe and the Americas are considered to be part of the "Western World." The Western World is modern, destructive, fast paced, and highly independent. That is the way our society has developed, and the religions that we believe correspond to these factors. African religions are different then the European religions, just as Asian and Middle Eastern religions are different then African religions, because they do not have the same pasts. The way that people had lived, their ancestors, helped to develop their religious ideas. Each culture had to have believed in some higher power, and someone (Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, etc.) helped to lead their people into a system that corresponded with their lives, and contributed to bringing some sort of meaning to the society, fulfilling some void that was present. So in a sense, the religions that were created, were created by a certain type of people to fill something missing in their lives, caused by the type of society they were residing in. It was not that the religions created the people, it was that the people created the religions. In line with that idea, religions have also been used to control societies. In their perfect forms, each religion is something good for the individuals involved to look too, but almost all have been manipulated at some point in time (even now) to control the people who believed. In the Dark Ages, for example the Catholic Church used its incredible influence over the uneducated public to gain power. Or