"What is Religion?"
The topic of religion is broad and can be defined in many different ways. Philosopher Fredrick Streng set out to accomplish the difficult task of defining religion in which encompassing all the world's religions at once. In another sense, he explains in his textbook "Ways of being Religious", that in order to define religion and build conceptions of it we must first grasp our own preconceptions. Streng believed we could do so by asking ourselves questions he proposed in the book. His essay focuses on revealing the various ways to approach the topic of religion. Even further, philosopher John Hick has grouped these many approaches into two categories. One being the idea that religion "is a projection upon the universe of our human hopes, fears, and ideals"; on the other side is the ideal that religion "is a human response to a transcendent reality" (Chaffee 7.2). …show more content…
This theory is backed with another theory. One that we are made of two selves, and in order to protect the self that displays our the way we actually are, we create an existence of sin to shield us from our imperfections. He believed in the process of anthropomorphism, the idea that we imagine all values and emotions capable to humans and take them in their greatest and most pure form to create a personal identity, God. Similarly, philosopher Mary Dale believed humans created God and also that the idea of God in Christianity reflected a patriarchy. She wrote many books about how this idea shows a structure around the father and discusses myths of patriarchy
The topic of religion is broad and can be defined in many different ways. Philosopher Fredrick Streng set out to accomplish the difficult task of defining religion in which encompassing all the world's religions at once. In another sense, he explains in his textbook "Ways of being Religious", that in order to define religion and build conceptions of it we must first grasp our own preconceptions. Streng believed we could do so by asking ourselves questions he proposed in the book. His essay focuses on revealing the various ways to approach the topic of religion. Even further, philosopher John Hick has grouped these many approaches into two categories. One being the idea that religion "is a projection upon the universe of our human hopes, fears, and ideals"; on the other side is the ideal that religion "is a human response to a transcendent reality" (Chaffee 7.2). …show more content…
This theory is backed with another theory. One that we are made of two selves, and in order to protect the self that displays our the way we actually are, we create an existence of sin to shield us from our imperfections. He believed in the process of anthropomorphism, the idea that we imagine all values and emotions capable to humans and take them in their greatest and most pure form to create a personal identity, God. Similarly, philosopher Mary Dale believed humans created God and also that the idea of God in Christianity reflected a patriarchy. She wrote many books about how this idea shows a structure around the father and discusses myths of patriarchy