I chose this topic because so many people have different beliefs across the world and it is important to know that if this belief of people influence their own lives and other people’s lives or not? Those people who act on their beliefs does this action influence themselves and the others or not?
“Belief defines an idea or principle which we judge to be true” (M.D, 2011). A person can base its belief upon matters of faith. A belief can come from different sources, it can come from a person’s own experience, it can come from a person’s culture or religion. A belief sits with a person until they accept it as a truth and adopt it as a part of their individual belief system. Once a person accepts a belief as a truth, they are willing to defend it even if they have insufficient evidence to support them and even when their belief is shown to be false, this is considered to form a part of their belief system.
“Some of the characteristics of the belief system are the personal commitment, existence, effective components, and existence or nonexistence of certain conceptual entities, and many more” (Nescolarde-Selva, 2013). According to this Personal commitment is when the person willingly agreed to fulfil the obligation about his own belief. Existence is when the person experienced that commitment and he only knows a small part of that belief but even though he takes the rest of the belief system in his faith. Existence or nonexistence of certain conceptual entities is that some believe that god, witches, and motherland exist while others don’t.
“The elements of the belief system are values, substantive beliefs, orientation, perspectives, and ideological technology”. (Nescolarde-Selva, 2013). According to this Values are long lasting beliefs about what is important to a person, a belief turns into a value when a person’s commitment to it grows and they see it as being important. Substantive beliefs are based on the contents of religious beliefs such as belief in God or Gods.
According to the previous statement, Orientation is when a person assumes in his thought that something exists while it may not actually exist. The Perspective of the belief system is a set of conceptual tools, the statement such as: Are we friends? Equal? Enemies? Rulers? They are a part of the perspective as a description of the social environment. Ideological technology means to gain ideal values. It is not used to justify other elements of a belief system. Ideological technology may become symbolic and it can cause differences between belief systems and therefore it can cause a source of conflict.
Global Perspective:
Anthropologist Kate refers that “Even in highly secular societies, religion and other belief systems play a huge part in shaping people’s lives”. According to this in religion such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there are rules about what kind of food they should eat, how to care for one’s body and what type of clothes are appropriate. Some aspects of the religious belief system are more influential in a society than others.
According to the previous statement in many parts of the world, there is no distinction between religion and other areas of life, religion is an overriding and unifying force for how people move throughout the world. Every aspect of life exists about religion such as the clothes that the people wear, the foods that they eat and even the hobbies that they take up. Religious belief is not the only worldviews which shape culture, scientific belief system and ethical belief system even shape culture. The Scientific belief system is like for example some of the people say that they believe rain is a result of condensation of water vapour and it is a part of water cycle while others say that they believe it is a gift from the God. Ethical belief system helps us to understand and investigate that which behaviours are moral, or good and which are not. In some cultures, the ethical belief system indicated that it is immoral to eat meat.
National Perspective:
“Portugal has no state or official religion, but the most predominant religion in the country is Christianity”, (Chepkemoi, 2017). According to this the Roman Catholic concepts continue to influence the Portuguese society and culture. The church continues to play an important role, especially in the educational and health systems. Religious involvement and practices increase with age with a younger generation being less involved in the religious activities compared to the older generation.
“81% of the Portuguese consider themselves Roman Catholic Christians with over 18% attending Mass and taking sacrament regularly”, (Chepkemoi, 2017). According to this the celebration of Saints’ Day and other Catholic festivals are very popular, especially in rural areas.
“About 7% of the Portuguese population is an atheist or irreligious people”, (Chepkemoi, 2017). According to this most of the irreligious people in Portugal are the young people. This is because of many religious groups and the inability to choose one out of the many religions, that´s why there is a high number of atheists in the country.
“About 3% of the Portuguese are Protestant Christianity and the rest of the 9% are Muslims, Judaism and other beliefs”, (Chepkemoi, 2017).
Personal perspective:
Everyone has beliefs. And, they certainly affect people’s lives and the lives of others, this is because we act on it and when we act on it those actions affect them. But it can affect them in a good way or in a bad way. 3 years ago, when I used to live in Maputo, Mozambique there was a driver of mine who always used to drop me, my sibling and my cousin to school. Since there is about 17.9% of Muslims in Mozambique according to Miguel Barrientos, it was normal for him to see this religion of ours. Even though it was normal for him, he had a lot of questions about our religion. Once he decided to ask us about our religion.
The first question that he asked was why do we girls put scarfs? Is it because we are forced to use them? So, we said that wearing the scarf is a part of our religion and culture and that we don’t use them because our religion forces us to, but we use them because it is our personal choice and we feel comfortable using them. After this answer, he was assured that we use it willingly. After asking this question he started clearing his doubts about our religion with a certain amount of questions.
One of his questions was that if our religion (Islam) brings peace and love? We answered him by saying that the word Islam itself means making peace. The Prophet commanded us to maintain social solidarity and cooperation, to open our hearts to our fellows, and to help one another always. He said, “Do not cut relations among one another! Do not turn your backs on one other! Do not grow hatred among one another! O God’s servants! Become brothers and sisters!” (Muslim) (In this book the prophet’s word, actions, or habits were collected). Good deeds are actions that are beneficial for people and society, as well as actions that are taken to establish peace and serenity. This concept not only includes offering worship and spending in a good cause but also smiling, establishing friendships, exchanging greetings, and controlling bad feelings such as pride, arrogance, anger, envy and hypocrisy. Thus, essentially, virtuous deeds are acts that purify humankind of aggression and bring them to peace. There is even a following verse in the Qur’an: peace is better (An-Nisaa’ 4:128).
Afterwards, we told him that if he wants to know more about Islam he can go to a Mufti (a Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give rulings on religious matters) and ask him as many questions as he wants to. After clearing all his doubts, he decided to become a Muslim because he was sure that this religion not only brings peace, love and positivity but in fact it is also a way of life.
To conclude I would like to say that everyone has their own beliefs and they can believe in what they want to. No matter what they believe we should always respect them and respect their beliefs.
Possible Scenarios:
“If you are in a situation where you suddenly get exposed to very different thoughts and beliefs which really put your current belief system into question, you are likely to experience emotions such as anxiety and anger”, (Rettig, 2017). In very drastic circumstances, your core belief will get affected.
“Core beliefs are those which are at the very centre of your own sense of self.” (Rettig, 2017). According to this it describes a situation where we are exposed to such a drastically different worldview, that we are forced to start questioning some of the most central assumptions which we had made about life so far.
According to the previous statement when we are facing a situation where our belief system gets disrupted so strongly that we are facing very negative emotions for a long time, we tend to think that there is something wrong with us. Those people who think that something is wrong with them, they start trying to get rid of that emotions. In doing so, they do not open the space for themselves to absorb the new information and therefore continue to have strong, negative feelings for a long period of time.
Possible courses of action:
“What the solution for this? Well, basically it is to let go and to accept this period of confusion and anxiety for what it is,” (Rettig, 2017).
According to the previous statement when we embrace the pain of the process and simply let it be, we give our brain the space to let in the new beliefs into our belief system. This is when real personal growth happens. We can become a completely different person than who we used to be.
Most of the time some questions just rise in our mind thinking that those beliefs that we believe in, is it true? Is there some evidence about it?
If this type of questions about your own belief come in your mind, you should check if it is true, find evidence about it and try to judge ideas against it. By asking questions, discussing and finding reasons about it, you set yourself free by acquiring knowledge and discovering a lot of new things in which you can believe in your belief even more or you can even leave that belief thinking that it doesn’t answer your question.
Conclusion:
After analysing all the perspectives, I concluded that people’s beliefs really influence their own lives and the lives of others. When I was researching about the global perspective, I came to know that the people’s belief influences themselves in so many certain ways such as in the way they dress, eat and even the hobbies that they take up. In the national perspective, I came to know that people shape their own lives and influence other people according to their religions, beliefs and their country’s culture. In my personal perspective, I got to know that how my driver got influenced by our actions and became a Muslim. When I finished writing about my personal perspective I understood that why my driver asked about peace and love because we shouldn’t believe in something so easily, first we should find evidence about it and then see if it generates love and peace and if it does we can believe in it. I would just like to conclude by saying that if you have evidence about your belief and if you see that it generates love and peace you can believe in it because good feelings should be the base of a well-supported belief system.