Religion and Individualism Essay

Different countries piss polar cultures, traditions and evaluates. They represent the image of the nation, piles mentality, how they think and behave, and what they puree for and struggle for. With the help of them we judge of what is Coperni usher out in life of a psyche, of a nation, of a coun find out. the States is non an exception. De breach the great add together of various ethnic groups that inhabit unite States, on that point be things that coalesce e precise last(predicate) the people. Among them argon such values give c atomic number 18 renouncedom and freedom that entirely characterize America. The Ameri nooky founding fathers felt that this concept was of maximum wideness when they were deciding what the United States Of America would be and how it would function. In the minute paragraph of the Declaration of Independence its written We hold these truths to be self-evident, that exclusively men atomic number 18 created equal, that they ar endowed by their master with certain unalienable decentlys, that among these atomic number 18 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.This is what sets the U.S. apart from all other countries in the objet darthood. Other values are beauty, nature, patriotism, optimism, and equality. All of them are pull outd by different Ameri nooky writers, painters, politicians and philosophers. Probably the just about in-chief(postnominal) ingredient of Americans ideology is their article of creed in the freedom of the mortal called individualism. Americas highest ideal and greatest blessing is freedom and individually individual falls to what purpose should it be employed. Everyone should set his own goals for himself. Americans are considered to be quite a religious nation. A volume of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives. We can see how various writers, presidency activity and painters talk well-nigh religion and express it in their works. In th is root such values as religion and individualism will be analyzed, through the words of Emily Dickinson, Abraham capital of Nebraska, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.Emily Dickinson, an American poet, was brought up in a prominent family, which raised Dickinson to be a cultured Christian char who would one day be responsible for a family of her own. Her father es maintain to protect her from put downing books that might joggle her approximation, particularly her religious faith. She robed unless when in white. In religion white color is the symbolism of innocence, purity, holiness, and chastity. She used contemporary popular church hymns, transforming their standard rhythms into free-form hymnmeters. Her numbers contains al well-nigh all the range of biblical and religious designations. Emily Dickinsons rime trust is a Fine Invention, can be interpreted spiritually. Dickinson says, confidence is a fine invention- When Gentlemen can see In context, Faith is nonion that does non rest on logical proof or usher. In other words, faith is belief without seeing. In Dickinsons meter, she suggests that humankind only possess faith when the object is seen.In meaning, faith is nonexistent. Dickinson maintains in the incidental lines truism, But Microscopes are p stark(a)nt- In an Emergency. This suggests the characteristic of some people who alone cannot accept something without witnessing an in-depth account. For example, Microscopes could be a representation of modern day scientists and interpreters who research and develop explanations to discover the truth behind what is believed. Continuing, Dickinson suggests these Microscopes are prudent only when things go bad. As with most people today, good judgment is slackly a last resort in the midst of adversity. Genuine faith is the only focussing out of trouble. Nevertheless, humankind is busy trying to widen explanations and theory rather accepting belief without logical evidence. In her poem This World Is not Conclusion we see that she didnt think this world is the end. A Species stands beyond this means that life exists somewhere beyond our world. She was saying that death is not the end of this world. There is another life later death because God says so. This speaks also of the resurrection.She was saying after we die there is another generation that comes after us, so really this world never ends it keeps on going and going. Its alone like Plato was saying that all the souls transmigrate and only those souls, who reached the catharsis leave the earth and stay in the kingdom of heaven. plurality try to puzzle out what is this, merely the Faith slips and laughs, and rallies Blushes, if any see Plucks at a twig of Evidence. A straighten out, you must just believe in God, in a world beyond, and not try to find evidences for it. There are things fifty-fifty the wise cant explain Philosophy founding fathert know. Abraham capital of Nebraska, sixteen th president of the United States, has become a mythic figure in Americas civil religion. He was known for honest, sympathy, and kindness to the victims of the well-bred War on both(prenominal) sides. He was private about his beliefs and respected the beliefs of others. Though capital of Nebraska didnt belong to any church, he is believed to be Christian.Lincoln read the Bible throughouthis life and quoted from it widely. Lincoln was clear in his belief that Christians of the normality and South were praying to the same God. Lincoln was self-taught in the ways of both God and humanity. His speeches and conversations always had references on Christianity, there is an unusual depth of the Christian perception. Nowhere was that depth visible than in his Second Inaugural traverse Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should withstand to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces further permit us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. He insisted that there were no unbridgeable differences. Both were God fearing people and worked hard.He went on to describe the strange fact that both sides pray to the same God for a successful resolution and improvement of each of their ideals. Both could not win. It was prudence that willed that slavery should be abolished and in his speech, which was almost like a prayer, he hoped to calm both. Lincoln suggested that the cause of the war was the North and the Souths common sin of slavery. He continued, Fondly do we hope fierily do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may chop-chop pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-mans 250 geezerhood of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of breed drawn with the lash, sha ll be paid by another drawn with the sword, so as was said three thousand years ago, so so far it must be said the judgments of the Lord are true and outlayy altogether. He uses religious imagery to enlist the belief that God is against slavery. Lincoln placed the outcome of the war into the hands of God to whom all seemed to be praying, saying that some(prenominal) Gods desire on these issues would be, that would ensconce the fate.He said that if it is Gods will that the war should continue until all funds be expended or until there is a tranquil conclusion, whichever the case, God would decide. He concludes with more religious imagery, specifying the divine right that the Federal should attain a victory, and that the goal is to achieve and care about a just and lasting tranquility among ourselves and with all nations, based on answer in the right as God gives us to see the right. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American lecturer, set aboutist and poet. He was seen as a champi on of individualism.Emerson was drastic in his conviction that an individual should result himself and himself alone. The concept of individualism is fully depict in the essay Self- reliance. Emerson uses the essay as a vehicle for stressing the importance of the individuals intellectual and moral development, and for making a protective statement supporting individualism itself.His idea is that a man can trust no one just himself he should not obey the society, but think and act as he feels is right. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Emerson says that man should focus on his inner self for guidance rather than relying on external. Trust thyself every totality vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you. Reliance on and acceptance of the self are the keys to achieving uniqueness by way of trusting ones own thou ghts. Complete trust in a persons own intuition should exist without bend from outside forces of tradition, religion or government. Emerson talks about the society as about an obstacle on the way of free thoughts. These are the voices which we key out in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we encipher into the world The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.The society doesnt love truth and art, but meaningless words and conventions. And Emerson says I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways, so he doesnt need to follow the society and hide the truth. What is natural, what a man feels, what he believes to be true, right and paramount these are important No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against i t. If he is the only one who thinks other than from the society, that doesnt mean he is wrong. All people are individuals and they are ruled by different values, opinions, moral codes and beliefs. If a person votes for a candidate just because everybody does, Emerson cant really understand what this person presents of himself under this mask My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I often prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be honest-to-goodness and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. Later he says Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.Do what you want to do, what youfeel you should do, but not what majority regulates you. Otherwise youre not living a life youre just a puppet in the hands of the society, a part of indifferent mass. People are horrified to be misunderstood. Therefore it would be better and easier to check out with the others and accept social standards than to try to go against them and to change something. When w e allow ourselves to be dictated to by another, sooner or later those people bring they have us wrapped around their finger, and serious problems could arise. Emerson tries to assure them thats not so bad many famous figures were misunderstood. Your conformity explains nothing. cloak singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. too when you accept the thing you dont believe in, you oppose yourself, which is the hit treachery you can do, correspond to Emerson. Emerson also says that everything comes from the main source.The universe is right, if we free ourselves, make our souls clear, well understand the universe. The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We denote this primary wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions. Intuition is the basic wisdom, the mystical senses, when you say you just know it, and you feel it. Emerson always thought that fee lings are the go around proofs and arguments for everything. Repeatedly throughout Self-Reliance Emerson returns to these ideas and themes to support his point that fortune and peace is attainable only through reliance on and trust in ones self. People should believe in themselves, de malignity what others may say or think, not be afraid of thinking differently, not lose their identity. Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, critic, and philosopher. He is best known for his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. One of the most important themes in the work of Thoreau is the idea of individualism.Thoreau rejects the view that a person must apply or isolate his values out of loyalty to her government. Thoreau expresses his anti-conformity and individualism in pursuit of a political and ethical cause in spite of opinion of the majority. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in theleast degree, abdicate his conscience to the legislation? Why has every man a conscience, thus? I think that we should be men first, and champaigns afterward. It is not desirable to prune a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only debt instrument which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. This means that first of all a person must be faithful to his opinions and views and do what he thinks and feels is right, he can and must disagree with the government if he thinks its beyond his standards of truth. His idea is that everybody is a man first and a subject afterwards.Everybody has his own feelings upon this or that questions, people are different and they have different beliefs and points of views. Nobody and nothing can make one change his th oughts. Thoreau distinguishes 3 types of people The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etcetera In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of still hunt or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs.Yet such as these regular(a) are commonly esteemed good citizens. Here he talks about people who behave just the way they are told, they even dont ponder over their attitude to the things they are doing. Thoreau compares them with animals, that have no the ability of thinking, they just do what they are made to do. Others- as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders- s erve the state chiefly with their heads and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. These people have the ability of thinking, they know what is right and what is wrong, but in spite of it they still do things that are profitable for them. They live for themselves and try to gain as much as possible. A very few- as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men- serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be clay, and stop a hole to keep the wind away, but leave that office to his besprinkle at least. These are the individuals who are valued for being aman, for not just having the ability of thinking, but thinking differently. They are not afraid to opposite the others and to divulge their thoughts. Thats mainly why these people are no t accepted by the majority. He writes that governments post is impure. Thoreau exhorts to true respect for the individual. There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent fountain, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. He says that he dreams of a State that esteem the individual, a State that would not mind if a few individuals even chose to live independent of it altogether. This kind of State would prepare the way for an even more perfect and glorious State.Returning to religion we can discover that mostly Americans are religious people. Though the government doesnt dictate any kind of religion to its citizens, people choose to be faithful. to each one of them believes in his own God, and each of them feels the faith in his own way. Emily Dickinson and Abraham Lincoln were both Christians, both of them read Bible, and the works of both sound like a prayer. But what separates them is that Dickinsons main idea was to believe in God without any proofs. One should not try to find evidence for the existence of God, he should just believe. And Lincolns idea was that North and South pray to the same God and that all people are equal in front of God. Also he believed that everything in the world, and the Civil War is not an exception, happens because of God willing.Only the Almighty can decide the fate of people, and the conclusion of the war including. Passing on to the second value of this work, its necessary to mention that individualism is one of the most important and inalienable elements for each American. Emerson and Thoreau were ardent supporters of individualism. They hated the society they are against the majority and against those people who obey. They both think that what a person thinks and feels is right, and not what they are forced to think and believe. Emerson also talks about the human intuition, which is accordin g to him the primary wisdom you know something is right just because you feel it. Thoreau by-turn talks about 3 types of people, and elevates the people who are able to think differently and to act differently, without being afraid not to be accepted by the society. Thoreau also creates in his dreams a new State, where an individual would be respected.