Personal Paper
This paper is devoted to the issue of such definitions as “identity” and “religion”, what they mean for me and what is their role in my life. In my opinion, an identity is a definition that is worked out to show the social nature of human, considering him as the subject of social and cultural life, identifying him as the bearer of the individual principle, self-expanding in the context of social relations, communication and objective activity.
The definition of identity is quite complicated and it changes constantly. At the same time, the definition of “religion” is closely connected with the previous one. It should be noted that the identity does not distinguish himself from the religious group in its early forms.
Human acted as individual or a single representative of the clan or tribe, who were the bearers of ethnic and religious complexes. An individual could become a personality in religion (as in other spheres of life) only at a certain stage of the historical process of separation himself from the community (Burke and Stryker, 2000).
As for me, religion does not play significant role. In my opinion, value of religion and its impact on the human life decreases from generation to generation. It should be noted that the number of atheists increases from year to year. According to the Pew Research Center, around two thirds of US citizens believe that religion as a whole loses its influence on the lives of all Americans (Kokot, Tölölyan and Alfonso, 2003).
The majority of my friends and fellow students also think that religion is not important now as it was a several generations ago. At the same time, my parents and grandparents adhere to religious traditions. They regularly go to the church and celebrate religious holidays.
I think that society as a whole, my family and close friends significantly impacted on the forming of my identity. At the same time, each human develops all his life. In this case, my identity can change due to new trends or innovations of the modern society and modified value system of people.
It should be noted that until 15-16 years, my parents guided me in the right and desirable direction. Thus, my identity has formed under their significant influence. At the same time, I have formed my own life principles, my list of goals in the life at 17 years. Since that time, I can completely differ myself from others and understand the own “identity”. Also, it does not forget about the influence of society. The last one could strongly change human’s identity, because human and society are two interrelated definitions.
My ethical system is distant from religion. This aspect contradicts what my parents want me to believe. In this case, there were many conflicts between me and my parents. Sometimes, the last ones do not understand my clothing choice or my great interest in new gadgets. Anyway, majority of conflicts have been resolved. Now, I try to understand moral system of my parents and respect their life principles.
During my rest at camp last summer, I faced with difficulties in communication with other teens. The main reason of it was my religious beliefs, namely the lack of them and my opinion about that religion influence on the human life is less in the modern world. It was interesting that other teens wanted to change my own position in this issue.
In this case, it was extremely important for me to explain my own opinion to others and show that my views had all chances to exist. At the same time, I started to understand how to communicate with people, whose views or judgments are not compatible or opposite to mine ones.
Similar examples happen quite often in the society. For example, children are quite susceptible to the teacher’s view. Teachers can strongly change opinions of students. One more bright example is that wife changes an opinion of own husband. In my opinion, influence of family and close relatives can change the person’s position more than someone else.
An aspiration of one human to change someone else’s opinion or attitude to religion or other issue can be considered as a kind of power. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need for respect (success, approval, recognition) is on the fourth’s place. This need is linked to the desire to change someone else’s opinion.
In this case, person can show his importance or an advantage over others. Also, if the person wants to change someone else’s opinion, he seek to find supporters, fans in order to defend common interests.
It should be noted that the formation of the identity takes place in the process of assimilation of experience and values of the society that is is called socialization. Human learns to perform specific social roles, in other words, learns to behave in accordance with the child’s role, student, husband/wife. All of them have a distinct cultural context and, in particular, is significantly dependent on stereotype thinking.
Works Cited
Burke, P., Stryker S. “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly. 63.4 (2000): 284-297. Web.
Kokot, Waltraud, Khachig Tölölyan, and Carolin Alfonso. “Diaspora, Identity, And Religion: New Directions In Theory And Research, 2003. Online Research Library: Questia”. Questia.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 23 May 2016.
