Religion Or Run? Essay, Research Paper

Religion or Run?

Religion has been around for thousands of years. Throughout history, religion has made an impact on the decisions people make everyday. People have even gone as far as sacrificing their lives for their religion. There have been countries formed over religion, so too have there been wars started. These events and many others have caused the creation of many new religions and the destruction of others. Even in the present, there are skirmishes between the people of different religions. While not everyone claims a religion, everyone is affected by it.

During the time of the Celts, religion was a form of animism, the Latin word for spirit. They believed that spirits were everywhere, in the trees, fires, stones, thunder, and rivers. Celts assumed that the spirits controlled all areas of life and that they needed to be kept happy. At times, either ritual dances or human sacrifices were performed. The Druids were the people who acted as the connection between the humans and the gods. The most important god to the Celts was the Mother Goddess. They believed that almost everything could be explained due to her actions. The Celts hoped that a marriage between the Great Mother and the Great Father would result in a world of perfect harmony. These people were not the only ones to believe that the gods controlled everything, many other future religions also thought the same.

Throughout the early 20th century in Britain, religion still had an impact on the way people lived their lives. They tried to live their lives in the best way they could to please their god. In the movie Chariots of Fire, based on events from the 1924 Olympics, religion plays a part in the life of one of the main characters. Eric Liddle is a Christian who has qualified to be in the Olympic Games, unfortunately there is a problem, one of the qualifying heats is to be ran on a Sunday. Being the strong Christian he is, he refuses to run in the heat unless it is changed to a different day. Fortunately for him, the committee agrees to have the day of the race changed so he can run in it. Many people in the present day may have just ran in the race despite it being held on a Sunday, but 100 years ago, the people held religion as a higher priority.

Today, there are still people who are very dedicated members of a certain religion, but there are also people who have pushed religion towards the bottom of their priority list. I belong somewhere in the middle of that group, I am not extremely dedicated to any specific religion, but on the other hand, I have not given up on religion all together. In the 21st century, religion is still playing its part in people s lives, but the affect it has seems to have decreased since the early 10th century.