Week 1 Post

From an academic view point what is “religion”?
Religion as defined by a dictionary as a personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. Religion comes from the Latin world religio which means to bind. Religion binds us with a sense of the sacred. What that sacred is, is a personal choice which usually stems from a meme. There are seven dimensions of religion which are; myths, rituals, experiences, doctrines, ethics, social aspect, and material forms.
Every religion is based on some myth that is non-testable which keeps it in the myth status. Usually combined with the sin or idea that it is wrong to question its truth keeps the religion alive. Rituals play a part as well which give one a sense of community and belonging to something greater such as going to church on Sundays, meditating, chanting, praying, and any action that imbeds a feeling of transcendence. The doctrine dimensions are intimately connected to the myths of the religion and are the philosophies. The Ethical Dimension is simple; it’s a code of ethics. What to do and not to do, what is a sin and what is not a sin. The Social Dimension of religion allows for a sense of normative values and group bonding, a creating of community. There is also a material dimension in where religious studies a material object that is viewed as a direct manifestation or embodiment of the sacred such as a cross or the statue of a Buddah. Religion is less about God than it is about human beings representing our psycho social emotional biological state, our cultural values, and our overall history.



How should we study it (proper methods)?

In the book WHEN GODS DECAY: How New Religions Arise pg. 11 Professor Andrea Diem points out that in religious studies the overall accepted approach to study religion is phenomenology: objectively studying religious phenomena and refraining from making value judgments on what is ontologically true. Utilizing the methods of epoche (bracketing out one’s prejudices and verstehen (empathy), phenomenology allows outsiders an inside glimpse of the inner workings and logic behind a religious faith. This approach allows an air of openness between scholar and devotee and greater insight into the religion in question. Yet, when critically analyzing the data the reductive approach, grounding religion in material culture, can also play a valuable role. While cognitive openness is important one must be careful not to engage in uncritical experiential participation, in other words going “native”. In short we should the objective is to analyze the origins and content of philosophical groups (aka. Religions) without addressing the truth-value of them. A complete methodology’s proper methods to study religions are as follows: Phenomenology, objectively describing religious phenomena. Sociology of Religion, understanding the social origins of religion. And Transpersonal psychology, assessing the developmental stage of religion.


Why should we study it?

Religions feed our thoughts, gives structure to the world, and helps determine our culture. To ignore the subject (religion) is to ignore a significant aspect of the human being and of the world at large. When we hear of something new the natural tendency is to label it “strange” or “weird.” Studying world religions can help create more tolerant individuals in a society. The study of world religions can tear down unnecessary social divisions. How someone interacts with another may be affected because of their studies. Rather then looking upon someone who looks different because of the way they are dressed and labeling them weird one might just have an inspired curiosity. In simple terms studying world religions helps one to not discriminate.


How did religion start?

There are many ideas of how religions started. The biological explanation is that religion is a bio-product of our brain chemistry. Because our neurology allows us to contemplate the great mysteries of the universe is why religion has emerged. According to evolutionary psychologists, religion itself is an important survival tool for our species. It offers a sense of meaning, community, and social rules. Early humans who had religious beliefs of some kind may have had a greater chance of survival. The theological explanation is that religion originated from the transcendental. God (however he/she is viewed) gives a sort of spiritual truth to a prophet or might have come to earth themselves spreading this spiritual truth which is the kept in a sacred book such as the Bible, Hsun Tzu, Bhagavad Gita, and the Samytta-Nikaya. Because the idea of God is non-testable all the social scientists can do with it is to acknowledge it is a matter of faith. The anthropological explanation states that in all religions we find some aspect of animism—material forms taking on a life of their own as they imbued a spiritual power. The psychological explanation says that religion in its first form was totemism which comes from the Oedipus complex of a male wishing his father dead and carrying out the act by sacrificing an animal. This is a claim or theory of Sigmund Freud. However Carl Jung only agreed with Freud in the reasoning that religion comes from our unconscious mind. Jung declared that our “collective” unconscious mind is filled with archetypal symbols, many of which manifest in our dream state, and religion is an outward expression of them. The sociological explanation states that the entity is none other than the embodiment of societal elements at play. God decides how we are to act and think which allows for social order. If one disobeys the rules one is threatened with an existence in hell, having a bad rebirth, which demands total obedience. Religion also offers a sense of belonging creating communities. Other religions may have been created with other ideas besides driven by the feeling of the divine calling. The incentive to start the group may have been for other reasons such as money or popularity.


Will gods decay? (That is will religion die? If not, why not?)

I believe that religion will never die. Not only because there are new ideas that seem to sprout up new cults that evolve and grow and gain popularity. But because there will always be many educated, middle to upper class urbanites, who may be seeking to assert adulthood, to experience group fellowship, to re-invigorate a sense of self, to re-mythologize their worldview, and to enliven spiritual intensity. J. Bordon Melton argues this very fact exist in today’s population who joins cults. Melton also claims that for the young members who want to rebel might do so by joining a cult. Melton thinks this is may actually be a sensible tactic which I would have to agree with. Once I have children, I would rather them join a cult then join a gang or get into drugs or worse. However, when it comes down to it every one wants to feel acceptance and feel like they belong some where. Religion fills this very need as long as one has the same beliefs that belong to that one religion. Another reason that religion won’t die is because its ideas evolve with the ever changing times. Once example is when the Roman Catholic Church during the 15th century believed that the sun revolved around the earth even though astronomers like Galileo and Copernicus showed evidence to the contrary. Because the Bible, their sacred book, indicated that the earth was the center of the universe to prove that fact wrong would mean that the Bible was wrong. If the Bible was wrong then the very idea that God existed would be wrong. This would bring down the whole Roman Catholic Church belief system. To help save their ideals people who questioned the Bible were burned at the stake such as scientist Bruno. Five centuries later Pope John-Paul II apologized for the Church’s “BAD” and for the mistreatment of intellectual pioneers. If seeing is believing then once the whole world population saw on TV that the world revolves around the sun and not the other way around how could one deny that very fact? In order for the Catholic Church to survive Pope John-Paul II’s apology was essential. Religion will most likely have a fruitful future since it is so deeply rooted in our psychology and neurology.


What role do memes play in all of this?

The ideas that can be passed on by imitation are memes. Such as a young child seeing their parent kneel and pray in church or reciting a prayer may feel compelled to do the same. In order for a meme to be successful it must be able to be imitated and distributed among a larger group of people. Depending on its contents it may be appealing playing of a human’s needs and fears. Combine the needs and fears with a meme that says it is your duty to “spread the good word” and you then have a potential thriving religion. Also the easier and more simple the meme the easier it is to transplant from one person to another. If the meme is to complex it may be to hard to “spread the good word” or one might just loose interest.


All information was gathered from the following 2 books:

When Scholars Study the Sacred by Andrea Grace Diem, Ph.D.
When gods Decay by Andrea Grace Diem, Ph.D.