Religion and Beliefs
According to Wikipedia, "religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief."
The definition of belief on Wikipedia is, "a system that can refer to a religion or a world view. A world view is a term taken from the German word Weltanschauung. It is a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it."
In Humanities we studied Religion and Beliefs for our final project. We looked at everything from creation stories to the influence it has had on the world. Our teacher brought in multiple guest speakers who had very highly educated histories in religion and we did very in depth research about the main religions in the world. This was a fascinating project because it made me realize how little of an amount I knew about religion. The following pieces are works that I created for a seminar pre-write, my art piece representing my view towards religion, and the artist statement that went along with it.
The definition of belief on Wikipedia is, "a system that can refer to a religion or a world view. A world view is a term taken from the German word Weltanschauung. It is a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it."
In Humanities we studied Religion and Beliefs for our final project. We looked at everything from creation stories to the influence it has had on the world. Our teacher brought in multiple guest speakers who had very highly educated histories in religion and we did very in depth research about the main religions in the world. This was a fascinating project because it made me realize how little of an amount I knew about religion. The following pieces are works that I created for a seminar pre-write, my art piece representing my view towards religion, and the artist statement that went along with it.
I chose my art piece to represent the idea that even if God doesn’t exist, the human race would create him because they need such a powerful figure to believe in. Without religion, many people would live in fear of death, because they have nothing to “look forward to” after their passing. Essentially, man kind’s obsession with “what happens after” is something that has led us to allowing religion to control the vast majority of things that we do on a daily basis. Even though there are thousands of different religious practices’ circling around the world, in every case, there has been a higher figure, or as most know it a God. This God is what people look to for help when the time of their demise comes. That is why the hand in my painting plays such a significant role. This hand is representing the God that is such an extreme part in every religion known today and how overpowering it can be to the Earth. I chose for this specific element of the painting to be gold because it did not seem right to classify this higher figure to a specific race. Gods are not limited to white, black or tan skin, and I did not want to make a bias statement when it could go any which way.
In the hand's grasp is a lighter. The lighter and the flames around the Earth are fundamentally representing how much “heat” a certain belief system can place on someone. In every religion, there are hundreds of morals and a standard that a theist is expected to live by on a daily basis and with that comes pressure because in many cases one wrong move can cause a believer to not be granted into a afterlife they have cherished since they started believing. The background wash is a deep and empty black in order to represent how much is left to be discovered when it comes to religion. Often time’s people think that they know all when it comes to religion, but there are so many concepts that are unknown that I felt it was very important to include that.
In the hand's grasp is a lighter. The lighter and the flames around the Earth are fundamentally representing how much “heat” a certain belief system can place on someone. In every religion, there are hundreds of morals and a standard that a theist is expected to live by on a daily basis and with that comes pressure because in many cases one wrong move can cause a believer to not be granted into a afterlife they have cherished since they started believing. The background wash is a deep and empty black in order to represent how much is left to be discovered when it comes to religion. Often time’s people think that they know all when it comes to religion, but there are so many concepts that are unknown that I felt it was very important to include that.