AT – Discursive Exemplar On George Orwell’s (Module C)

Resource Description

This was my Module C Craft of Writing assessment task. I got 19/20 for it (11/12 for piece, 8/8 for reflection). This is a discursive piece taking influence from George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. Also has my reflection.

RELIGION REIMAGINED

At their heart, most religions exist for the same reasons. They may disagree on who God or Allah is, but they believe in a higher power. Their followers may go to churches or temples to worship, but they go to feel a sense of connectedness with their community and themselves. Their rituals and customs may vary, but they create tangible practices that bring their spiritual values to life. Their sacred texts and doctrines may be written differently, but they establish codes of ethics, principles, stories of origin and teach their followers what is right and wrong.

Religions exist to answer the questions that humanity cannot – about existence, purpose, identity, death. They may answer differently, but they answer. This is the nature of religion now and historically always has been. But as the world rapidly modernises, we begin to understand concepts that all of humanity has previously failed to comprehend, questions we relied upon religion to answer for us. Such drastic changes in our societies and our understanding of the world have challenged and changed our interpretation of and need for religion.

Each religion enshrines its history, origins, values, practices and stories into sacred texts that are read, repeated and shared through their communities. The Bible, the Torah, the Quran, the Tripitaka, the Veda – the sacred scriptures for the world’s largest religions. These tomes dictate the principles, stories and rules of each religion and ensure they remain as existent in the future as at the time of their creation. They have been read and reread for centuries, consumed and interpreted by millions of people past and present. They should be timeless documentation of the nature, practices and existence of religion. But how can these texts convey what they must to sustain humanity in a modern world? How can these principles, stories and rules be timeless when the world is so different?