Course Objective(s):
• CO3 Explore how religious commitment and ritual offers practical and therapeutic practices for dealing with the dying process and grief
• CO5 Investigate the variables of living, specifically with death, vacuity and loneliness among others.
Learning Outcomes:
• Students will be able to identify grief and bereavement characteristics and processes
• Students will be able to apply appropriate information for societal problems in relation to grief and bereavement
• Explore how religious commitment and ritual offers practical and therapeutic practices for dealing with the dying process and grief
Descriiption:
Click on “Post new thread” and write your answer to this week’s Discussion question in a minimum of 2-3 substantial paragraphs along with two replies of at least a substantial paragraph.
Before you post, please thoroughly edit your writing to ensure it is professional and academic. For more details about the initial post and peer replies are graded, see the RELS LD Discussion Rubric. Be sure to respond to a minimum of two classmates with at least a substantial paragraph as well.
Please pick one of the following questions to answer for the forum this week:
1. In your own words, what is Nonfinite Loss and Ambiguous Loss? Support your answer from the reading.
2. What types of losses are there in death? Explain. Support your answer from the reading.
3. After a thorough reading of our sources this week, in your own words, what exactly is grief? Support your answer from the reading.
4. What do you think of Social Norms and Social Rules in Grief and Loss in Harris Chapter 2?
5. Effects of the Internet on Religion
6. “Man makes religion: religion does not make man. . . . The religious world is but the reflex of the real world. . . . Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” — Karl Marx
7. The Internet has revolutionized God and bereavement to places that were not available before. We can now enjoy a sermon in the comfort of our home instead of entering a sanctuary. For some inside a sanctuary, a sermon can be digitalized to demonstrate a point and allowing other people to view from the comfort of their home. God and bereavement are on twitter, Facebook, Instagram, just to name a few. Congregations check social media sites for events, calendars, times, and more. Some religious institutions have teachings, sacred texts, and blogs on their church websites to connect with God. The Internet has taken God and bereavement to a new level of communication.
8. Religion that was once embedded into a tradition of taking communion, for example, in a sanctuary, is taking on new concepts. The Internet is scattered with sacred spaces for religions. Religion has had to readapt with the onset of the Internet. We can do our banking, shopping, and more on the Internet; religions cannot be left behind. For a religion to be left behind with the Internet is a chance of losing members, not receiving new members, or even to the extreme of closing a church.
The Future of Religion
There are apps for prayer, along with email addresses. Some religions even have online confessionals and funerals. Society has appeared to always have some form of religion and God to explain the unexplainable, to come together to form bonds, for support, to celebrate an event, and more. Some believe God and religion will eventually dissolve, while others believe God and religion will stand the test of the Internet and evolve. As religion evolves with the Internet, we have seen an inclusion and acceptance for wired worship to an in house congregation. Religion has evolved over the centuries. The Internet is bringing forth another evolution for God and religion. People, in most cases, need religious Faith. A God and religion have been part of human history since humans began, and because there is a need for faith and hope to make it through our lives, religion may not face extinction due to the Internet.
God and religion came before science and psychology; therefore, the psychoanalytical theories were built upon the foundations of religion in some form or another. Religion has been somewhat reinvented to keep up with the times in which we are in at this moment. Nothing stays the same change is inevitable, and no matter what shape or form change comes in, it can be hard to adjust.
The Longevity of God
For centuries religion ruled society, controlled dynasties, and Kingdoms; rulers used religious morality as a way of governing, law, and punishment. “Social control is increasingly a matter of law rather than from a consensual moral code, and law becomes increasingly technical and decreasingly moral.” (Livingston). Modernity has unleashed social and cultural forces that have influenced and changed religious beliefs, institutions, and practices. Modern society is witnessing a change in the patterns of religious lives. In the new millennium, we see the rapid globalization of our lives and the ways we see the world. We are confronted with multiple diverse, competing belief systems and values today.
The Internet has revolutionized God and religion to places that were not available before. The Internet has given voices to the unheard, such as women’s roles in the church, death, grief, and more. The Internet has provided that we can stay home to attend a worship service or take it along with us on our phone. God and religion are on social media, reaching the masses. The evolution of the Internet has caused religion to reevaluate and assimilate to the times. The Internet has taken religion to a new level. The framework and the idea of what religion is now will not necessarily be what society believes years down the road.
It appears, based on history, that there will always be some form of belief, God, and religion. It is human nature to seek out an answer for what is not understood and to find meaning and purpose in everything. “Faith in God gives one the mental strength needed to confront the problems of life. Faith in the existence of God makes one feel safe and protected from all the evil influences of the world” (Fisher 5).
A Reflection on Grief
Grief is sorrow. Grief is a genuine acknowledgement to a loss. It is an emotional suffering to the loss that you feel. In some form we have all experienced grief by the loss of a loved one, a pet, during the holidays, loss of a job, divorce, retirement, a disaster – the list is endless. Most people associate grief with the loss of a loved one. Grief has no boundaries on time or comes with a simple set of rules. Everyone responds differently to a death, for example, with their grief. There are five widely accepted stages of grief. The stages of grief do not happen in a specific order and more than one stage can happen at the same time.
Five Stages of Grief
• Denial – this cannot be happening
• Anger – lashing out
• Bargaining – if only, what if
• Depression – sadness
• Acceptance – the loss has occurred and your life has been forever changed
Review the Mayo Clinic’s descriiption of grief for more details. You may experience grief even when it is not a permanent loss. Here the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Pennsylvania addresses these types of loss.
View the Ambiguous Loss Transcriipt
Works Cited
Fisher, Mary Pat. Living religions. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Web.
Livingston, James C. Anatomy of the Sacred. 6th Ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2009.
Image Citations
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