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Carlos Ayala

Sociology 101

11-11-2004

COMPARATIVE RELIGION

The world is divided into many different types of religions. This doesnt make us

different, it just means we believe and live our lives differently because we have different rules

that we live by. The two types of religions that I am going to compare and contrast are; The

Church of All Worlds, which was born because of Robert Heinleins book Stranger In a strange

Land, and The Church for Christians & Domination/Submission, which is about female

submission. Both of these religions are very different, yet they still have guidelines that they all

must follow. It does not matter what type of religion a certain type of person belongs to, because

no matter what we all have by laws to which we live by. To me religion is a means of escaping

reality, it blocks you from seeing the truth (of course this is just my opinion). Everyone needs to

believe in something if you do not youre made out to be a bad person, which is not the case.

The church of all worlds was inspired by science fiction book called, Stranger In a

strange land, this was written by Robert Heinlein in 1962. The church at first was just a group

of friends that were inspired by this authors novel, which believed what he spoke about was the

truth. They believed that the book talked about a spiritual and social way of life, which they saw

as a metaphor for the awakening of social consciousness. In 1970 they were officially recognizes

as a church by the U.S. federal government. The church believes in the following: a belief in

immanent divinity, a pluralistic perspective towards religion, living in harmony with nature; self

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actualization, deep friendship and positive sexually. Unlike other religions, the church of all

worlds does not demand that you give up on what you believe, all they ask is for you to agree or

share common values. They dont meet up every week, but the church does encourage its

members to create and re-create rituals and myths that attune their life with nature, bring honor

and communion with divinity. For example, the planet it is looked as a goddess because it is

pure and divine. Therefore, the followers believe that they are children of the goddess. They

believe that they should treat the earth with nothing but kindness, because if they do not the

goddess will punish them. You can join this church by just filling out an application

and sending it in.

The other religion is called The church for Christians & dominance/submission. The

purpose of this church is to, to promote, encourage, and foster the development and

improvement of daylilies-and public interest therein, by all suitable and appropriate means..

This church does not see them selves as a church, they see themselves as a society. To be able to

join this church you must be a daily grower, and you must live in the general central Alabama

region, plus you must pay five dollars annually to the church. This society was formed in 1992,

and is a region 14 club of the American Hemerocallis society. Unfortunately, this certain religion

does not explain why it evolved, but it seems like it is more of a democracy than a church. They

have annual elections to decide who is going to be the president, vice president, and so on. This

church does meet very often, they meet once every two weeks.

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These religions are very different, yet the only thing that they have in common is that

they both respect what they believe in, and they both follow the rules and guidelines that their

church gives them, the main difference is in what they believe in. The church of all worlds

believes more in taking care of the environment, and the renovation of our souls (they believe in

purifying the soul), by doing a communion that they call water sharing. What they do is share

water with each other, and they say a chant, Thou art God Which means divine in me greets

the divine in you. on the other hand you have the Christians and domination/ submission

religion which has very strong Christian beliefs, but believes that a woman should be dominated

by man. they believe in all the Christians beliefs, this is the only exception that they make.

Another difference that these two religions have is that one evolved from a science fiction book,

and the other evolved as a wild child from the Christian religion. another comparison is that the

church of all worlds does not really meet, unlike the Christian submission group, they meet once

every two weeks.

It does not matter to what type of religion a person belongs to, because at the end of the

day we are all human beings. Even though we do not agree on everything, that does not mean

that we cant respect each other, and live together in a world which we all love. A religion is not

something that you are born with, although your parents may Impose one on you as a child.

Religion is something that you believe in a hundred percent, and that you must like, not because

someone told you to believe in it. All religions are different there are not two alike, therefore we

must all respect each other and live life to the fullest, but you should never judge someone else

because of their religion because that would be wrong. Like a man once said, all man are

created equal therefore we must act like we are. (all my sources came from the internet).

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