Crescent Star

On Tuesday March 18, 2014 as I was heading to class I noticed the Crescent Star on a decal that spelled out “Coexist” with religious symbols on a car in the parking garage. The Crescent Star is a Islamic religious symbol. The star and crescent is a well-known symbol of Islam. It features prominently on the flags of many countries in the Islamic world, notably Turkey and Pakistan. Contrary to popular belief, the symbol is not Muslim in origin. Rather, it was a polytheistic icon adopted during the spread of Islam, and its use today is sometimes controversial in the Muslim world. The crescent and star are often said to be Islamic symbols, but historians say that they were the insignia of the Ottoman Empire, not of Islam as a whole. Islam has few traditional symbols, and the crescent moon and star are not ones that are recognized by as traditional symbols by Muslims. The symbol is due to cultural diffusion and the spread of Islam to the Ottoman turks who ruled a large area and also put the crescent moon and star symbol on their flag. It has since become associated with Islam. The Crescent Star has a very unique symbol that can catch the eye of different people. When I first saw the symbol it stood out to me out of all seven of those symbols so I decided to chose the Crescent Star.

“Allah”

The word “Allah” in Arabic script or characters can be regarded as visually representing Islam as a symbol. It is used mainly by Muslims to refer to God in Islam.Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word “Allah.” For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for “God” and there is only One God. First of all, it is important to note that “Allah” is the same word that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use for God. I got that this symbol is just Allah written in Arabic.I don’t have a personal connection with this sign I just came across it in the “Living Religion book” 5th edition page 381, on March 20, 2014.

Yin and yang (Taiji)

The most well-known Taoist religious symbol is the Yin and Yang symbol, a circle divided into two swirling sections, one black and the other white. The symbol represent perfect harmonic balance. On Friday March 14, 2014 I saw a decal of the Yin and Yang symbol on someones car in the Target parking lot. I have always known this symbol to represent peace.Yin and Yang is a Taoist symbol that represent perfect balance. Seemingly, the whole of Chinese philosophy stems from the concept of Yin and Yang – opposites interacting and supposedly the seed of all things. For example, evil results from an imbalance in Yin and Yang, and good comes from the two being in harmonic balance.To aid in understanding the properties belonging to each side of the symbol, I have included the following table. Each property is beneath its corresponding Yin or Yang energy. The deeper meaning to Yin and Yang Yin can be thought of as complementary (instead of opposing) forces interacting to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. In Taoist metaphysics, good-bad distinctions and other dichotomous moral judgments are perceptual, not real; so, yin-yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of Confucianism on the other hand, most notably in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu, (c. 2nd century BC) a moral dimension is attached to the yin-yang idea.

Star of David

During spring break I was in Miami visiting my family. I drove through North Miami Beach which has a large Jewish community. I grew up in North Miami which is not too far from North Miami Beach and I have always seen people walking to their church and community functions. On Monday March 10, 2014 my cousins and I drove through 167th st I saw that the start of David is extremely famous in that community. The Star of David is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol. It is supposed to represent the shape of King David’s shield (or perhaps the emblem on it), but there is really no support for that claim in any early rabbinic literature. In fact, the symbol is so rare in early Jewish literature and artwork that art dealers suspect forgery if they find the symbol in early works. The Start of David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles. The hexagram has been in use as a symbol of Judaism since the 17th century, with precedents in the 14th to 16th centuries in Central Europe, where a Shield of David was partly used in conjunction with the Seal of Solomon (the hexagram) on Jewish flags. Its use probably derives from medieval (11th to 13th century) Jewish protective amulets (segulot). The identification of the term with the hexagram shape dates to the 17th century. The term “Shield of David” is also used in the Siddur (Jewish prayer book) as a title of the God of Israel.

Dove

Throughout every funeral that I have been to at the end when the pallbearer descends the casket they also release a white dove. I grasped a personal connection with the white dove and for some reason I found a love for them. I decided to use the dove as one of my religious symbols since it is one that is very special to me. In my opinion I feel like dove expresses it self so well it represents freedom, purity, and new beginning. The dove represents the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost in Christianity. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove when he was baptized in the Jordan River. The dove is also a symbol of peace. In Genesis 8 after the flood, a dove returned to Noah with an olive branch in its beak, revealing the end of God’s judgment and the beginning of a new covenant with man. According to Luke 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”. The deeper meaning of the dove is used as a symbol of peace, the symbolism derived from the events described in Genesis. When the flood started to recede, Noah released birds from the ark, one at a time, to see whether any land was above water. After a week, he sent out a dove, which returned with an olive twig in its beak, demonstrating that the waters were receding and God was allowing them a chance to live. Both the dove and the olive branch are symbols for peace and/or reconciliation. The dove is also the Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit, mainly because the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove during Jesus’ baptism. The image of a dove representing the Holy Spirit has been very common for centuries.

Jesus Fish

On Monday February 19, 2014 I stood under a red light heading north bound on Bruce B Downs as as the person in front of me had a Jesus fish magnet on the back on their car. This symbol came from the Bible when Jesus told his disciples that they will be fishermen of men. The fish symbol came about when there were persecution among the Christians during the Roman empire. To acknowledge they were Christians, one would draw a single curved line on the ground and the other acknowledging it with another curved line making the symbol of the fish. The deeper meaning of Jesus fish isThe Greek word for fish is “ixthus” or “icthus.” The Christian fish symbol that many Christians place on their cars is known as the “ixthus.” Five Greek letters form the word “ixthus,” and those letters inside the fish form an acrostic which is a message that Christians clearly identified with. The first letter represented the word Jesus. The second letter represented the word Christ, the next two, God Son, and the final letter represented the word Savior. This adds up to “Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the Savior”. During the early days of Christianity, Christians were often put to death for practicing their faith, so they worshiped in secret places. A fish painted on the outside door of a house let other Christians know that they would be safe and welcome inside. I can’t really say that that I have a personal reflection with this symbol, but I have always seen this symbol and it has always draw my attention because of the design and i cant really agree or disagree with the information I gained.

Christian Cross

On Sunday February 22, 2014 as I sat in church at Revealing Truth Ministries there sat a cross as usual at the altar. There is many different types of crosses out there you have the cross that is printed on leggings that girls are wearing now, you have the cross on someones chain, and there is an abundance of different types of the cross, but I am referring to the cross in the Christianity religion. This symbol is mostly seen in the Christianity religion. The cross is representational symbol representing the crucifixion of Jesus. I grew up in a Christian household, I can still remember as a child sitting in church listening to pastor talk about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I also remember the Easter plays in church and also being a part of the play. As a result of going to church , watching the passion of Christ, and also being apart of the Easter play as a child I got that the cross expresses the great love of God and I was taught that god sent his only begotten son Jesus to died on the cross for our sins. Jesus suffered a great abundance of pain for us. The deeper meaning of the cross is that God sent Jesus to die for our sins.The Christian Cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity.It is related to the crucifix (a cross that includes a usually three-dimensional representation of Jesus’ body) and to the more general family of cross symbols.