Overview of world religions

This is a cool website if you want to learn more about facts of religions. http://www.religionfacts.com/

Articles of Faith - Joseph Smith (1842)

                  As someone who's relatively new to religions study in general, I am still trying to explore and learn about various aspects of religions, whether it's a cult or a mainstream belief. Religion is not only about tradition, it's also highly related to personal experience and faith. As William James puts it, "religion is the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they comprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the devine. " 


       Like everything else in history, there exist too many misunderstandings and conflicts of interests. Most Americans seem to know very little about Mormonism and it's history. A lot of people have the perception that Mormonism is a cult and about one third of the population think Mormons are not Christians. Are Mormons Christian? While this is a very hard question to answer, I hope the articles of the faith below can be of help.    
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1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

 2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

 3 We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

 4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

 6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

 7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

 8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

 9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

 10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

 11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

 12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

 13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Religious Study 101 - Religions and Politics

For my religious study class, one portion of the course is called media journal assignment. We need to write and blog about an issue of interest in the study of western religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Other topics are surrounding new religious movement, so called Scientology, or the evolution of religion, namely Secularization.

I decided to choose the topic around religions and politics. I wanted to first explore the influence of different religions in presidential elections. Specifically, for politicians, can they really distinguish between church and state? What are their policies to treat people with different religious beliefs on the same ground? From voters' perspective, how big is religion influencing their voting choice? Why are candidates religious beliefs so important to voters? Also, I think it would be interesting to track the poll trend in the past 50 years and analyze the reasons behind the change.

Then I wanted to explore the root of influences on controversial topics, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. What are the similarities and differences among the three religions on those issues?

Stay tuned!