(UFV - 2000)RELIGION AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR1 Does life

(UFV - 2000)

RELIGION AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR

1 Does life have meaning? What gives it meaning? Why do we act the way we do? What is the best way to live? How can we find peace?

2 There are questions that people have struggled with throughout history. Philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, and physicists are among the many thinkers who have tried to give us answers. We look for answers within ourselves, but few are satisfactory. In the end, it is religion that gives most of the world answers to these questions.

3 Hundreds of religions exist in the world, yet all religions try to answer the same quesitons. Every religion describes two sides of human nature - the animal and the divine; It is these opposing sides that cause conflicts. Every religion gives people a method that they can follow to resolve the conflicts. All religions have a goal, which is in one form or another the transformation of humans from the animal to the divine. This spiritual transformation is common to all religions, though it has many names: nirvana, heaven, salvation.

4 All cultures in the world have religious beliefs. For that reason, every part of life is affected by religions, whose teachings offer guidelines on ways to live.

(WERNER, P. K. Mosaic: a content-based grammar. New York: Random House, 1985.)

 

In the sentence "MANY thinkers have tried to give us answers," the capital word has a meaning close to: