In regards to the play, "The Christians," by Lucas Hnath, the controversy the Christians vs. Christians, quarrel about the existence of hell. Ultimately, the idea that hell does not exist in the presence of Christianity seems absurd, since Christians deem the origin of evil behavior to be stored there. In another literary work "the philosophy of pitchforks," it also reassesses the image of hell. Pastor Paul did have a good point when he stated that the Bible "does not say hell" (Hnath 37). The poem also correlates with the mystery behind the truth about hell.…
There are many different themes and approaches in the anthropology of religion. Furthermore, each approach views religion in its own unique way and has a distinctive explanation of how religion is understood by individuals. In the short film “Second Stories: Honour Thy Father” created by Gerald Auger, these anthropological approaches are evident but the ones being discussed in this piece of writing are the social-functionalist and interpretive approaches. The social-functionalist approach has two main ideas, one is social functionalism and the other is how religious views are interpreted psychologically. Additionally, the functionalist approach consists of the idea that religious rituals and beliefs serve a psychological or social function.…
Furthermore, the semantic field of religion within the…
During the 1960’s, Jim Jones started the People’s Temple, a racially integrated, socialist, Pentecostal worship-inspired church, which caused controversy after he led the mass religious suicide of over 900 people on November 17th, 1978 at Jonestown, Guyana. While some branded the People’s Temple as cult, David Chidester’s book Salvation and Suicide analyzes the People’s Temple from a religious perspective to understand the underpinnings of its values and ideologies. By doing so, he embraces the identities of those who were part of the People’s Temple, accepting them as part of the very fluid definition of what it means to be human. Chidester’s phenomenological approach successfully and cohesively analyzes the beliefs of the People’s Temple,…
In a world where there are 4200 globally recognized religions, creating a universal definition of religion must be a difficult task. I associate religion with a feeling of comfort and fellowship. I define religion as a set of beliefs corresponding to a religious routine. Although people might take different approaches to the same set of beliefs, I wouldn’t consider someone an active follower without a somewhat frequent acknowledgment of their religion. Naturally, my definition isn’t perfect.…
Forming the shape and structure of society, religion is a fundamental aspect in any culture. It is religion that you look towards for spiritual advice when all else fails, especially in a time of dire circumstances. Mircea Eliade noted this concept of religion, a sacred model of life orientation, in The Sacred and Profane. Theorizing the origins of religion, Eliade makes connections to religious man and the ordered existence of religious man’s universe(the cosmos). Eliade’s ideas coincide with Hmong culture, a society influenced by practices of socialization, tightness of culture, adaptation of the world around their society, and their unique language(Lor, Teaching Techniques, 359).…
How do you define religion? Is it a belief system based on supernatural beings? Or is it something as foolish as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? According to Geertz in Religion As a Cultural System religion can be broken down into five parts. Geertz writes that religion is a system of symbols (1) which acts to establish moods and motivations in men (2) by formulating conceptions of organizations of existence (3) and covering those conceptions by making them seem factual, (4) while simultaneously making the moods and motivations realistic (5)(Geertz, 90).…
Who were the people that discovered North America? How did they get here and why did the come? Approximately 30,000 years ago, small groups of Paleolithic hunters and food gatherers began to migrate toward North America from Asia. The migration of these people took place when temperatures dropped greatly from what they had been. This was known as the Ice Age.…
Introduction According to J Z Smith, the reason that these facets of culture were given the term religion is to give scholars a way to categorize these facets for academic purposes. There was never a consensus reached for a universal definition of religion. As a result, the definition of religion is incredibly ambiguous.…
Part B: A Compare and Contrast of the Religious Values in Ancient Egypt and China Religion has played a very significant role in the way that civilizations over time have operated. Encompassing more than just an imposing autonomous moral compass, having specific and certain beliefs have managed to perpetuate a variety of cultural contexts for thousands of years throughout countless civilizations. Especially for ancient civilizations, religion marked a wide array of cultural attributes, ranging from agricultural practices to political infrastructure. The potential, it seems, to prescribe certain spiritual aspects onto a person at an individual level, very well defines how a society functions. Egypt and China were both great empires in the…
For my discussion, I chose Dorthey Lee: Religious Perspectives in anthropology. As I read through this article, I believe that the thesis Dorthey Lee wanted to make was the understanding of religion a little more clear for close minded people. It may seem as if religions can be similar in many ways, but in all reality, they all differ from each other. In Western cultures and societies, many of us only celebrate or worship once a week and maybe a few holidays than carrying on with our everyday lives. Non-Western cultures, religion is a big part of their everyday lives.…
A definition? Definitions are all different. The Anthropological definition is often refuted, but illustrates that it is, “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic,” according to Charles Joseph Adams in The Encyclopedia Britannica. Religion seems to be the conception on how we were created, and what will happen after one dies. This follows through with the most popular religions: Christianity, Catholicism, Mormon, and Muslim.…
Religion and its accompanying world view reflects the values of the culture which practices that religion as exhibited in the ancient world cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In Mesopotamia, it is evident that the religion and world view of the Sumerians reflects the values of their culture based upon their negative outlook on life and the inability they had to trust their gods to take care of them. In Sumer, peoples were afraid of unexpected floods and possible raids by outsiders, which according the Kidner, “this gave the Sumerians a pessimistic outlook on life.” The pessimistic Sumerians believed that these uncertainties in life were caused by their unpredictable gods. The Sumerians believed they could influence the gods in order to make the world more secure, which caused their culture to focus mainly on pleasing and persuading the gods.…
Critical Analysis Paper # 3 Analysis of “Religion Gives Meaning to Life,” by Louis P. Pojman Introduction: In this article, “Religion Gives Meaning to Life,” Louis P. Pojman believes that religion, but mainly a theistic religion gives purpose and meaning to life. Pojman feels that, since people cannot prove that theism is true or not true, then therefore, people should live like theism is true. A world with theism, living life following a higher being would be a better world than living a life of self-governing, autonomy. Lastly, Pojman believes that living in autonomy is not really affected by having a religion or faith but instead religion may help everyone’s autonomy because they will have more purpose for their personal goals.…
In “Interpreting the Sacred,” William E. Paden does not answer the what is religion question, in fact he does the opposite. Paden challenges the reader to ask why IS religion and to question how one can even define religion. It was an interesting read that discussed the difficulties in studying religion, and the challenges we all face with religion in our everyday lives. Paden poses the idea that our individual worldviews and lives shape religion, not just in the sense of how we ourselves interpret our own religions, but also how we define religion, culture, and society. Chapter 1 discusses the lens that we all view religion through.…