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Intro to World Religion! :earth_americas: images (The Five Points of…
Intro to World Religion!
:earth_americas:
The Five Points of Interest
Rituals
Rituals are a repetitive act done most often in a religious community. These rituals are heavily associated with religious beliefs and are often heavily entangled with religious mythology. Some rituals are meant for the participant to become more connected to whatever divine deity they believe in.
For example, A monk may pray in order to achieve enlightenment like the buddha did.
Mythology
Myths are explanations about the world around us from a religious standpoint. Myths include things like epic legends about heros, stories about the creations of everything, the four seasons, mysteries of life, and death! But, what all myths hold in common is that they are believed by the religious followers that share them.
One of the most popular examples of mythology would be greek mythology.
Symbols
Symbols explain the philosophies of religions within these religious societies.
Religious symbols often carry multiple meanings that aren't always religious in nature. But, within the context of religion, these symbols are used to convey religious ideas and to bring that particular religious groups together.
Non-Human World
All humans have evolved to have a mechanism called HADD. This mechanism causes all humans to look at situations as actions caused by an "agent". For example, a deer dies and the agent would be the car that ran it over.
In a religious context this would be like seeing a natural disaster like a tornado or earthquake as a result of an action done by a deity of some sort.
It is believed that this mechanism, HADD is how humanity created religion.
Religious Specialist
A religious specialist is a person that has devoted their life to their religion and as such they have an extensive amount of experience and knowledge in their religion.
For example, Monks, Priests, and Rabbis would all be considered religious specialists.
What is Religion??
Religion is a system
As a system religion is part of a cultural network where in if one part of the network changes, the other parts change as well.These other parts of the cultural network may include economic relationships, gender, and power etc.
Religion is composed of beliefs and behaviors.
For example, Beliefs can refer to what people believe in their religion's mythology. Meanwhile behaviors refers to the rituals these people may do in accordance with their religion.
What's the Purpose of Religion?
David Durkheim
Durkheim believed that society was in from fracturing and that religion was the only thing holding us together. He emphasizes the way that religion creates communities and how this is essential to keeping a functioning society.
Clifford Geertz
Geetrz belives that religion was a system of symbols. He saw religion as something that has a purpose in society. But his definition was critisized fro being too broad or basic.
Karl Marx
Marx believed that religion was a relief for the suffering of the people within society.Essentially he argued that the top of society was making the world unbearable for the bottom of society and that religion helped convince them that this couldn't change.
