Religion and Education Since the beginning of humanity, every civilization shows evidence of some type of religion and educational institutions. These institutions are essential to organized human society. From teaching your grandson to assemble a tomahawk to worshiping the Greek god of war, people display religion and education in many different ways. What does it mean to be religious? It means almost everything because religions deal with the totality of human life and death. For centuries people have searched for the meaning and truth of their own nature and the nature of the universe. The result is religions. We view religions as communities of people who share practices and beliefs, who gather in special buildings to worship, and who have a special lifestyle. More than three-quarters of the world's population consider themselves members of some religion. Religion deals with almost all aspects of human life. It can influence marriage, work and even food. Religion has existed for thousands of years and will continue for many more. There are thousands of religions and thousands of other subdivisions of them. Religions are mainly divided into ancient and modern religions. Not to say that “modern” religions only originated in the last couple of years, they are simply still practiced in current times. Some of the ancient religions include Egyptian, Zoroastrianism, Greek, Roman, Norse, and Celtic. The beliefs of these religions vary greatly, and you could write an article about each of them. Among the main modern religions, Christianity and Islam are the most widespread throughout the world. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism and many others are still practiced throughout the world. Hinduism and Buddhism are mainly practiced in the Far East. Christianity is more common among English-speaking countries. Islam is the main religion on the African continent. There are thousands of variations of the religions I mentioned above. Religion and power have been closely related for the last millennium. Powerful leaders have taken advantage of popular religion. Religion deals with the mind and if a leader controls religion, he also controls the minds of his followers. In the past, priests and church leaders had an important role to learn. Before then only the rich could afford the luxury of education. Everyone in the country pays taxes to support the institution. This money is used to develop schools and pay teachers. In turn, anyone can enroll in the school at no additional cost. This system is based on the theory of equal opportunities. Everyone has the opportunity to learn if they have the desire. In the film School Ties, a boy experiences prejudice at a private religious school. He belonged to the lower class of society and this put him at a disadvantage. People didn't give him respect because of how little his father earns. He was used to attending a public school, so he hadn't experienced the close bonding with his classmates that occurs at private institutions. He did well at first until religion came up. He was Jewish and the school he attended was Catholic. These religions conflict and he has been discriminated against for his beliefs. He lost friends and respect because he believed differently. Whenever people are different, they experience discrimination. This proved to be true in School Ties. This document is the property of NetEssays.Net Copyright 1999-2005