For many years, people
from all walks of life have tried to define religion. Thus, religion has varied meanings.
·
Early
definition of religion-It is typical in the West to
define religion in terms of the belief in a creator God. But other religions,
such as Buddhism, do not have this belief. This has led some to relate religion
more generally to a belief in spirits or superhuman beings. According to E. B.
Tylor, religion consists of the belief in supernatural beings. A similar
definition is that of Melford E. Spiro: ‘Religion is an institution consisting
of culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman
beings’.
·
The
definition from Religious Experience- Other definitions
focuses on the experiential aspects of religion. According to Rudolph Otto,
‘Religion is that which grows out of, and gives expression to, experience of
the holy in its various aspects.’ This is a more general definition that makes
room for a variety of religious forms and experiences. According to Friedrich
Schleiermacher, ‘The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute
dependence’. Like Otto, Schleiermacher reduces religion to experience, but
defines this experience much more narrowly, as a particular type of feeling.
These definitions still do not include many features of what the term
‘religion’ denotes.
·
Religion
as an ultimate concern- according to theologian Paul
Tillich ‘Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a
concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself
contains the answer to the question of the meaning of life.’ This definition
indicates that religion involves belief, what Tillich calls an ‘ultimate
concern’, and that this belief helps a person deal with the major problems of
existence, i.e. the meaning of life and death. It also indicates that this
‘ultimate concern’ will be something by which a person can live, for it helps a
person see that other concerns are secondary.
·
The
role of Ethics- According to the philosopher Immanuel
Kant, Religion is the recognition of all our duties as divine commands’. This
definition focuses on the ethical and social aspects of religion, i.e. the fact
that religions prescribe certain forms of action and proscribe others, claiming
divine justification for these laws of behavior.
·
The
ideas of Freud and Marx- According to the psychologist
Sigmund Freud, ‘Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.’ Karl Marx’s
statement about religion is more famous: ‘Religion is the sign of the oppressed
creature; It is the opium of the people’. Freud believes that religion is a
psychological disorder, whereas Marx believed it to be a fantasy people resorted
to escape their socioeconomic troubles.
·
Functional
definitions of religion-Perhaps it is more useful to
define religion not in terms of what it is, but rather in terms of the role it
plays in society and in an individual’s life. Rather than define religion in
terms of its substance, such as the belief, experience or moral action, this
approach focuses on what religion does, i.e. its function. A useful
functionalist definition of religion is that of the sociologist Milton Yinger: ‘Religion
can be defined as a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of
people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life.’ While it is useful
to focus on the role of religion in society, this definition is also too broad:
it could be applied to science or politics. Nowadays political action is a
common means by which a group of people come together to address the major
problems of life.
Religions are different from this in that they are
believed to refer to something objectively real: they make truth claims about
the source of their beliefs and practices. According to any religion, their
function is ultimately determined by some ultimate reality, and not just social
convention.
Durkheim proposed in
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, that religion promotes a binding together
of the members of society and of the social obligations that unite them.
Religious beliefs can be extended from inter-group and inter personal to intra
personal functioning. Durkheim believed that belief in religious doctrines
produces a man, who is,
“…stronger. He feels
within him a force, either to endure the trials of existence, or to conquer
them. It is as though he were raised above the miseries of the world, because
he is raised above his condition as a mere man; he believes that he is saved
from evil, under whatever form he may conceive this evil”
According to Durkheim,
religious belief does this not by conferring superior powers upon the
individual, nor by creating or increasing them within him, but merely by releasing
the ‘motive powers’ which are to be found within the individual. It is possible
that a religious belief achieves this by contributing an element of emotion to
everyday cognitions in such a fashion that action tendencies are more likely to
be expressed in behavior. Moreover, by believing in religion one accepts the
core of collective representations of society and thus becomes part of society
and may enjoy the support of society’s approval.
“Religion is, above all, an ordering principle
in human life. It organizes the individual’s experience in terms of ultimate
meanings that include but also transcend the individual. If many people share
such an ordering principle, it becomes possible for them not only to deal with
each other within the framework of meaning thus given, but to transcend
themselves and their various egotisms, sometimes even to the point of self-
sacrifice. “
While participation in
social organizations appears to be a prerequisite to internalizing norms, it is
only through belief that the values of a society can give the norms order.
Robert Bellah suggests that while concrete action derives its meaning from
social norms, norms themselves are given meaning and coherence by a “super
ordinate meaning system” in the form of a “set of symbolic forms and acts which
relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence.”
Religion and physical well being- A
steadily increasing body of evidence from the social sciences demonstrates that
regular religious practice benefits individuals, families, and communities, and
thus the nation as a whole. The practice of Religion improves health, academic
achievement, and economic well-being and fosters self-control, self-esteem,
empathy, and compassion. It shows-
.
§ Higher levels of marital happiness
and stability- Christopher Ellison of the University
of Texas at Austin and his colleagues found that couples who acknowledged a
divine purpose in their marriage were more likely to collaborate, to have
greater marital adjustment, and to perceive more benefits from marriage and
were less likely to use aggression or to come to a stalemate in their
disagreements.
§ Stronger parent-child
relationships- Compared with mothers who did not
consider Religion important, those who deemed Religion to be very important
rated their relationship with their child significantly higher, according to a
1999 study.
Wilcox found that
fathers' religious affiliations and religious attendance were positively
associated with their involvement in activities with their children, such as
one-on-one interaction, having dinner with their families, and volunteering for
youth-related activities. Compared with fathers who had no religious
affiliation, those who attended religious services frequently were more likely
to monitor their children, praise and hug their children, and spend time with
their children.
§ Greater educational aspirations and
attainment, especially among the poor- Mark Regnerus of the
University of Texas at Austin,educational attainment aspirations( Mark D. Regnerus,
"Making the Grade: The Influence of Religion upon the Academic Performance
of Youth in Disadvantaged Communities," University of Pennsylvania, Center
for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society Report No.3, 2001.) and math and reading scores (Mark D. Regnerus, "Shaping
Schooling Success: Religious Socialization and Educational Outcomes in
Metropolitan Public Schools," Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion, Vol. 39, Issue 3 (September 2000), pp. 363-370.) correlated positively with more
frequent religious practice.
Youth in impoverished
neighborhoods, religious attendance made the greatest difference in academic
achievement prospects, according to research in 2001 by Regnerus. As rates of
unemployment, poverty, and female-headed households grew in a neighborhood, the
impact of a student's level of religious practice on academic progress became
even stronger.
§ Greater longevity and physical
health- Greater longevity is consistently and significantly
related to higher levels of religious practice and involvement, regardless of
the sex, race, education, or health history of those studied (Johnson et
al.,"Objective Hope.") For example, those who are religiously
involved live an average of seven years longer than those who are not. This gap
is as great as that between non-smokers and those who smoke a pack of
cigarettes a day. Predicting the life spans of 20-year-olds who are religiously
involved compared with those who are not yields differences in life span as
great as those between women and men and between whites and blacks (Mark D. Regnerus, "Religion and Positive
Adolescent Outcomes: A Review of Research and Theory," Review
of Religious Research, Vol. 44, No. 4 (June 2003), pp. 394-413.) Among
African-Americans, the longevity benefit is still greater. The average life
span of religious blacks is 14 years longer than that of their nonreligious
peers (Robert A. Hummer, Richard G. Rogers,
Charles B. Nam, and Christopher G. Ellison, "Religious Involvement and
U.S. Adult Mortality," Demography, Vol. 36, No. 2 (May
1999), pp. 273-285.)
§ Higher levels of well-being and
happiness- A review of the research shows that
Religion significantly affects the level of an individual's happiness and
overall sense of well-being. In the vast majority of the studies reviewed, an
increase in religious practice was associated with having greater hope and a
greater sense of purpose in life. (Ibid.)
§ Higher recovery rates from
addictions to alcohol or drugs- Religion also has a
positive effect in the treatment of drug addiction. In 1994, a seven-year
follow-up study of Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug addiction program, found
that the program's graduates had significantly changed their behavior, in
contrast to those who had dropped out.( Roger D. Thompson,
"Teen Challenge of Chattanooga, Tennessee: Survey of Alumni,"
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 1994.)
§ Higher levels of self-control,
self-esteem, and coping skills-Byron Johnson's
extensive literature review, 65 percent concluded that religious commitment and
practice lead to increased self-esteem, while more than 80 percent indicated
that religious practice correlates with increased social support
§ Higher rates of charitable
donations and volunteering; and higher levels of community cohesion and social
support for those in need- Arthur Brooks of Syracuse
University demonstrated that religious practice correlates with a higher rate
of care and concern for others. Compared with peers with no religious
affiliation, religious respondents were 15 percent more likely to report having
tender, concerned feelings for the disadvantaged. This gap was reduced by only
2 percent when the effects of education, income, marital status, sex, race, and
age were taken into account.
The
evidence further demonstrates that religious belief and practice are also
associated with:
§ Lower divorce rates:
Marriages in which both spouses attend religious services frequently are 2.4
times less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse
worships. (Vaughn R. A. CallandTim B. Heaton, "Religious Influence on Marital
Stability," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
Vol. 36, No. 3 (September 1997), pp. 382-392.)
§ Lower cohabitation rates-
The religious practice of parents also affect cohabitation rates. Those whose
mothers frequently attended religious services were 50 percent less likely to
cohabit than were peers whose mothers were not actively religious. A related
research finding reported that church-going adults tend to stop regular
religious practice when they begin to cohabit.( Ibid)
§ Lower rates of out-of-wedlock
births- Compared with those who viewed themselves as being
"very religious," those who were "not at all religious"
were far more likely to bear a child out of wedlock (among whites, three times
as likely; among Hispanics, 2.5 times as likely; and among blacks, twice as
likely). (Allan F. Abrahamse, Beyond
Stereotypes: Who Becomes a Single Teenage Mother? (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand
Corporation, 1988), pp. 37-50.) Thirty-seven percent of births now occur
out of wedlock, (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, "Births:
Preliminary Data for 2005,) with
an increasing number born to cohabiting parents.( Maureen Waller, "High Hopes: Unmarried Parents' Expectations About
Marriage,"Children and Youth Services Review,Vol.
23, No. 6 (December 2001), pp. 457-484.)
§ Lower levels of teen sexual
activity- Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal
Survey of Adolescent Health found that a one-unit increase in religiosity (In this study,
"religiosity" scores were measured on a scale that ranged from 3 to
12 and represented an average of an individual's scores with regard to three
different variables: attendance at religious services, participation in
religious youth activities, and self-rated importance of religion.) reduced
the odds of becoming sexually active by 16 percent for girls and by 12 percent
for boys.( Rostosky et
al., "Coital Debut.")
§ Less abuse of alcohol and drugs- Harold
Koenig and colleagues at Duke University found that religious activity was
inversely related to cigarette consumption among the elderly.( Harold G. Koenig, Linda K.
George, Harvey J. Cohen, Judith C. Hays, David B. Larson, and Dan G. Blazer,
"The Relationship Between Religious Activities and Cigarette Smoking in
Older Adults," Journals of Gerontology: Medical
Sciences, Vol. 53A, Issue 6 (November 1998), pp. M426-M434.) Decades
of research indicate that a higher level of religious involvement is associated
with a reduced likelihood of abusing alcohol (John Gartner, David B. Larson, and George Allen,
"Religious Commitment and Mental Health: A Review of the Empirical
Literature," Journal of Psychology and Theology,
Vol. 19, Issue 1 (Spring 1991), pp. 6-25.) or drugs.( Deborah Hasin, Jean Endicott, and CollinsLewis, "Alcohol and Drug
Abuse in Patients with Affective Syndrome," Comprehensive
Psychiatry, Vol. 26,Issue 3(May-June 1985), pp. 283-295.)
§ Lower rates of suicide, depression,
and suicide ideation- People who are frequently involved
in religious activities and highly value their religious faith are at a reduced
risk for depression, according to a review of more than 100 studies. This
review also found that 87 percent of the studies surveyed concluded that
religious practice correlates with reduced incidence of suicide.( Johnson et
al.,"Objective Hope.") Levels of depression were also
lower for those who participated in religious services than they were for those
who only prayed on their own. (Christopher G. Ellison, "Race, Religious Involvement, and
Depressive Symptomatology in a Southeastern U.S. Community," Social
Science and Medicine, Vol. 40, No. 11 (June 1995), pp. 1561-1572.)
§ Less juvenile crime-
In the Add Health Survey, a major national survey of adolescents, a 6 percent
reduction in delinquency was associated with a one-point increase on an index
that combined adolescents' frequency of religious service with their rating of
the importance of religion.( Pearce and Haynie, "Intergenerational Religious Dynamics and
Adolescent Delinquency.")
§ Less violent crime-A
review of the literature on Religion and crime suggests that, compared with
less religious counterparts, religiously involved individuals are less likely
to carry or use weapons, fight, or exhibit violent behavior
§ Less domestic violence- A
small but growing body of research has focused on the links between religious
practice and decreased family violence. For example, men who attended religious
services at least weekly were more than 50 percent less likely to commit an act
of violence against their partners than were peers who attended only once a
year or less. (Ellison et
al., "Are There Religious Variations in Domestic Violence?")
Religion and Mental health-
The consolations of religion-
many religious beliefs and practices are associated with lower levels of
depression and anxiety, and higher levels of positive affect. Important beliefs
seem to be those involved in religious faith and trust- ‘God is supporting me
in this; hence it is for the best.’ Prayer is an important predictor of
well-being. The
general effect – that religion can be consoling and supportive – has been
demonstrated in a range of cultures and religious groups including North
American, European, Afro-American, Arab, South Asian, Christian, Jewish and
Muslim. People learn to look at life positively because they have a “purpose or
meaning to their life.”
Religious Stress- religion
and its practices may not always be beneficial. Those who believe in a
punishing God tend to have poorer mental health outcomes than those who believe
in a benign, supportive God. Religion may foster guilt which in turn may raise
anxiety levels, depression and obsession. Religion is not a determinant of OCD, simply an arena in
which OCD is expressed. Freud described
religion and its rituals as a collective neurosis, which, he suggested, could
save a person the effort of forming an individual neurosis. For example, in an
early paper, Freud (1907/1924) spelt out the similarities between religious
rituals and obsessional rituals. He argued that guilt is created when rituals
are not carried out, and assuaged when they are, so a self-perpetuating
‘ritualaholic’ cycle is set up.
Religion
and coping-
People from all walks
of life often lean on religion to cope with several things like mental illness,
physical illness, stress, depression, unable to find a spouse, unemployment,
poverty, etc.
Positive religious
coping practices and beliefs focus on creating and maintaining a loving and
caring relationship with God and finding hope and meaning when faced with
life’s challenges.
Positive religious
coping strategies include-
·
working collaboratively with God to
overcome difficulties
·
seeking and finding support and
fellowship from other members following the same faith
·
active religious surrender
·
praying
·
viewing life’s challenges as an
opportunity to grow
·
meditation to feel at peace, to reduce
stress levels.
Negative religious
coping strategies and beliefs reflect expressions of a less secure relationship
with God, an ominous and negative view of the world and a religious struggle to
find and maintain significance in life.
Negative strategies include:
·
Viewing God as punitive for ones sins
·
Questioning God’s love, power and will
·
Seeing negative and stressful life events as
the work of the devil
·
Becoming disconnected from God when
faced with life’s challenges
·
Passively hoping God will take care of
things
·
Pleading with God to resolve or fix issues
Religion
and human values- Religion is a subjective concept, many
people don’t believe in it but there is something in religion that must
survive. “Human life needs religion or an adequate moral equivalent for it.” A
religion does not need to be true in order to be valued, it just needs to be
believed. The human values of religion exist in something that is more than
human, something more powerful, more transcendental, namely, God.
Religion
in relation with significance of science and technology in today’s life-
the relationship between religion and technology is neither simple nor
concrete. The many ways in which the two interact make it difficult to
make a single statement regarding their co-evolution. Not only has
religion restricted the pursuit of scientific knowledge, it has also been a
major contributor and the cause of several technological breakthroughs and
advancements. There is an interesting and complex relationship between the
principles of religious institutions and the direction of technological advances.
In ‘Human Nature’ Paul Ehrlich, religion was created in part to explain
phenomenon that confounded humans and to provide spiritual stability. Since
science attempts to concretely explain natural processes and discover the laws
of the universe using the scientific method, it obviously conflicts with many
religious beliefs. Science has given their concrete explanations for the
occurrence of rain, lightening etc, which was once explained by religion.
The positive
relationship-
·
Religion helped create more efficient
forms of communication. The Internet, allow for greater access to religious
dialogue and information. Consequently, religious leaders are finding new
ways to reach larger audiences and to take advantage of new technological
mediums of communication.
·
Engineering and architectural advances
were often precipitated by the desire to build magnificent places of worship
such as temples, pyramids, and ziggurats.
·
Pope John Paul II helped to bridge the
gap between religion and science by accepting previously renounced theories
such as evolution and the Big Bang.
·
Muzaffar Iqbal, the founder of the
Center for Science & Islam, proposed that the increasing role of technology
in our lives is widening the gap between people and their connection to God,
and that it is causing people to be drawn more towards religion
The negative
relationship-
·
During the Inquisition, the church persecuted
Galileo for his support of Copernicus’ theory that the Earth was not the center
of the universe. Such actions by the church, as well as others, created
an atmosphere of censorship that ultimately inhibited scientific research.
·
If religious beliefs provide explanations for
the unknown, there is less demand for a scientific explanation. For
example, some thought that there was no need to research medical techniques
because a higher being controlled the health of the sick.
·
Sometimes religion fundamentalists use this
technology for propaganda of certain ideologies which could instill prejudices,
the feeling of ‘us’ and ‘them’, activism, etc. which could harm the society.
Hence, religious
beliefs serve both as an impediment on scientific research and as a catalyst
for technological pursuits.
Religion
and spirituality
The terms spirituality and religion have often been
used and inter-changeably. There is definitely a lack of clarity and no
distinct definition of what the terms mean. There is some degree of overlap
between the meaning and expression of the concept, differences do exist.
Spirituality
is a “… belief in something greater than the self and a faith that positively
affirms life.”
Religion is
associated with specific behaviors, rituals, symbols and beliefs which are
shared with others usually within structured institution i.e. denomination and
is seen as a communal experience.
Spirituality may be experienced within or external to a structured
religion. While spirituality and
religion may share some behaviors, rituals and beliefs, spirituality practices
often go beyond the boundaries of a set religious institution and are often
eclectic and personal.
“Religiousness has specific behavioral, social,
doctrinal, and denominational characteristics because it involves a system of
worship and doctrine that is shared within a group. Spirituality is concerned
with the transcendent, addressing ultimate questions about life’s meaning, with
the assumption that there is more to life than what we see or fully understand.
(…) While religions aim to foster and nourish the spiritual life–and
spirituality is often a salient aspect of religious participation–it is
possible to adopt the outward forms of religious worship and doctrine without
having a strong relationship to the transcendent.”
Religion
and spirituality- product of biological or cultural evolution?
I think religion and
spirituality is a product of both biological and cultural evolution because
there is no one definition to either of the terms.
Modern anthropologists
think it is a product of cultural evolution. According to some of
these anthropologists religion is the ‘projection idea’, a methodological approach which assumes
that every religion is created by the human community that worships
it, that "creative activity ascribed to God is projected from man.”
I believe our ancestors consciously chose to
attend to such spiritual awareness because it enabled them to better cope with
existence, for self preservation. People with similar experiences, or ideas
about self, life, ‘sacred’ etc, came together to form a cult. This helped them
co-exist as a group, worshipping totems, sacred groves became a part of their
culture. As tribes settled into civilization, these practices became tradition
and were passed on from one generation to the next.
We do observe a certain
universality that can be identified across cultures; it has survival value,
developed through the process of natural selection. David Hay in his book,
‘Something There’, provides evidence based upon years of interviews with
individuals, many of them children, that spiritual experience or awareness is a
built-in biologically structured component common to all humans. Examples of
spiritual experiences reported by David Hay include
(1) Awareness of the presence of God
(2) Awareness of prayer being answered
(3) Awareness of a
sacred presence in nature,
(4) Awareness of the
presence of the dead,
(5) Awareness of an
evil presence, and
(6) Awareness of a
transcendent providence or a patterning of events.
“Early nurturing
relationships, for example, with one's primary caregiver, influence early
spiritual development, and that spiritual development also affects us
biologically. Studies in developmental psychology suggest that children form
their conceptions of God, in part, from their conceptions of their parents (or
other attachment figures). As a result, early experiences with parents, for
example, the happiness or disappointment that comes with relationships with
parents, can facilitate or inhibit the development of a person's religious
faith later in life. In addition, religiosity and spirituality can have
positive and beneficial effects on the individual throughout life in the form
of reduced morbidity and mortality and greater psychological well-being. These
physical and mental health benefits are similar to those associated with
effective early parental nurture.” ( Bert
N. Uchino, "Social Support and Health: A Review of Physiological Processes
Potentially Underlying Links to Disease Outcomes," Journal of Behavioral
Medicine 29 (2006): 377-87.)
Religion
and death
Death was a concept
unknown. No one knew how or when death occurs. They knew not what happens after
death. Some people thought of it as a natural end-point of life, while some of
them thought it to be threatening and incomprehensible. This difference gave
rise to several ideologies and concepts such as heaven, hell, life after death,
etc. Several studies have found that moderately religious individuals fear
death more than either atheists or extremely religious individuals. A central
feature of many religions is a belief in an afterlife. Carl Jung has argued that most religions can
be viewed as “complicated systems of preparation for death” (as quoted by Ardelt
and Koenig, 2006).
One of the primary
tasks of religion is to enable each of us to experience life against the
horizon of death and to challenge us to incorporate that awareness of dying
into every moment so we can become more fully human and alive.
There is something
unique about religion’s experience of death. It sees death not so much as a
problem, a puzzle, but as a mystery to be experienced. Death, whatever its
meaning and its real nature, seems always to elude us.
Different religions try
and answer this doubt in their way. Humans have always looked for this sense of
connection, immortality (eternal life). This
need is part of the organism’s quest for continuity, for meaning, which we get
from religion. This sense of eternal life is not just our denial of death.
Death pushes us to search for a way of experiencing our connection with all of
human history, with continuity of life, with eternal life. Religion answers all
questions that are existential and each religion has its own way of describing
the experience of death and life after, heaven and hell.
Some look at death as
liberation from the cycle of life (to be born, die, and rebirth). They believe
they have transcended and have gained a state of ‘nirvana’ or according to
Maslow’s hierarchy to a state of actualization.
SANIKA SHAH
FSLE--3
No comments:
Post a Comment