Sociology Of Religion Quiz One

Front 1

What is being ID'd in the Sociological study of religion?

Back 1

The social factors/bases for religion

The influence religion has on social life and history as well as its significance

Front 2

Mead

Back 2

Brought forth the idea that an individual's brain is the hardware and the mind is the software, and the mind is shaped by the world around us (what language we speak can even affect how we think)

Front 3

Ontology

Back 3

concerned with the nature of being/reality/existence in a casual and constitutive sense- what is the world and how does it work. The concept that "being" is stratified (into diff layers)

Front 4

Epistemology

Back 4

concerned with knowledge + how things are known

Front 5

Ontology of Religion

Back 5

Distinct ontology where there are two separate realms: the reality we know and a transcendent/divine realm (they may be connected) where the divine is responsible/controls/created our world

Front 6

epistemological dualism of religion

Back 6

the claim of the reality of the divine by religious people and the lack of measurability of this claim by scientists/social scientists/historians- not empirically verifiable or falsifiable

Front 7

faith statements

Back 7

declarative/performative/emotive religious language/discourse of the truths of a specific religious tradition to a person. will be unconvincing to people w other religious affiliations

Front 8

religious language

Back 8

not factual/empirical, cannot be proved/disproved-- not empirically measurable

Front 9

Two Explorers in Garden Parable

Back 9

Two people stumble across a garden-- one says there must be a gardener tending to it the other claiming there must be some sort of spiritual entity (nature) caring for it. They decide to wait and see if they can catch the gardener and when they can' t, one of them says it is proof of the spiritual gardener and the other says it is proof against the spiritual gardener

Front 10

The "insider" vs. "outsider" polarity

Back 10

believers (insiders) vs. non-believers (outsiders)

members of specific religious tradition (insiders) vs. members of another (outsiders)

Front 11

subjective vs. objective ways of knowing

Back 11

believers saying that (social) scientists cannot access/fully comprehend religion because they cannot access the transcendental realm of the divine- therefore their "objective" way of understanding religion is reductionist

Front 12

Methodological Atheism

Back 12

Studying religion based solely on what is observable in the natural world (Berger)

Front 13

Methodological Agnosticism

Back 13

(Smart) social scientists must “bracket” the ontological claims of religion and focus solely on their historical, social, and psychological consequences and effectssimilar to berger's atheism of the same name; this approach does not question the validity of religious beliefs but instead what is measurable!

Front 14

Carlos Castañeda

Back 14

Anthropological study of the Yaqui (aboriginal group in Mexico) and specifically their interactions w magic-- worked w brujo called Don Juan and eventually came to agree that science (social) could not properly grasp the separate reality accessed by these brujos through use of psychotropics. Castañeda crossed over and became a brujo himself-- but the validity of his works was questioned: one reason being because it was no longer purely objective

Front 15

“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of life”

“Man is the measure of all things”

Back 15

Protagoras: these quotations depict that people are not neutral observers of the world around them- our observations are filtered through our humanity

Front 16

Religion

Back 16

system of complicated social relations created by people with relation to the supernatural/divine. holds the purpose of creating meaning/order in the world/peoples' lives

Front 17

Functions of Religion

Back 17

practical (a way of gaining security/support + protection; shares this with hard sciences)

cognitive: a way of making sense of experience

Front 18

Formation of the Transcendent as Objective

Back 18

Vivifying/realize the transcendent through representation in objects, events, places, times etc. Divine as beyond this world but also present in it.

Front 19

3 Dimensions of Relational Linkage

Back 19

Cosmic, Mythic, Cultic

Front 20

Cosmic

Back 20

The universe is the setting for divine action (haha get it). Drama btwn good/evil, light/darkness in which humans participate

Front 21

Mythic (Theological)

Back 21

what is said abt the gods: their genealogies, traits, names, expectations, traditions. language rendering the numinous personal: over time gods are anthropomorphized (gods are latecomers-- at first were spirits who were later given more concrete forms/names)

Front 22

Cultic (Ritual)

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humans seeking to participate in divine order through sacred/sanctifying actions: offerings, symbolic performances, etc. Cicero: cultus deorum "the cultivation of the gods"

Front 23

Mythropraxis

Back 23

living out cosmic, mythic, and cultic aspects of the sacred through thoughts and actions

Front 24

Humans Biologically "Open"

Back 24

Idea that people are order seeking: humans have no instinctual purpose for their lives just instinctual guidelines (eating etc.): this purpose is not decided individually but is impacted by culture etc.

Front 25

Man as the "homo symbolicum"

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Cassirer: humans as symbolizing creatures: tied to the idea that we are open: cultural universe of symbolic meanings (religion as symbolic response to life's challenges)

Front 26

Religion as "Sacred Canopy"

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(Berger): shields people from the uncertainty of life: it is a culture: a system of inheriting accumulated conceptions abt the divine + the human relationship to it; people as socialized/acculturated into religious traditions: identity and action in people's lives

Front 27

“we all begin w the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds of life”

anthropos is “an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun”

Back 27

Geertz: idea of humans as biologically open but also caught in our own histories/cultures not living separately from those as individuals

Front 28

4 pillars/coordinates of Religion

Back 28

belief, ritual, spiritual experience, and communities

Front 29

Pillar 1: Belief

Back 29

mappings of worldview: cosmologies: what is being believed not abt whether it is true or not

Front 30

Pillar 2: Ritual

Back 30

Sanctification of important social rituals (birth, death etc.)

Front 31

Pillar 3: Spiritual Experience

Back 31

Based in feeling/emotion: awe, reverence, security etc.

Front 32

Pillar 4: Communities

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Group identities, solidarities, religion as maintaining boundaries (us and them)

Front 33

Religious Institutionalization

Back 33

formation of organizations/communities surrounding faith: involved bureaucracies, sacred texts, rituals etc. the objectification of spiritual belief. connected to other institutions (tangled web)

Front 34

Two Main Social Scientific Theories around religion

Back 34

Projection theory and theory of social control!

Front 35

Projection Theory

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Divine as modelled after human social-historical conditions: human order mirrored in that of divine order

Front 36

Social Control Theory

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Divine as "supernatural police" - human behaviour is being monitored at all times w divine punishment and reward in the future or present

Front 37

"great surveillance camera in the sky"

Back 37

Richard Dawkins: what a butt

Front 38

Xenophanes

Back 38

wrote abt famous poets (ie homer + hesiod) writing abt the gods as being like themselves, ehtiopians similarly had gods that looked like them, was the one to say that if horses, cattle, triangles etc. had gods they would be fashioned after horses, cattle, and triangles respectively: projection theory!

Front 39

Aristotle

Back 39

“Men create the gods after their own image, not only w regard to form, but also w regard to the manner of life”

aligns with projection theory

Front 40

Kritias

Back 40

Plato's uncle: leader of oligarchical tyranny one of the first to record/state social control theory: set forth in a play where once humans had free will they were living "like animals" and so laws were created as punishers and someone invented that mortals should fear the gods as they were punishers of misdoing hence creating the idea of the Divine

Front 41

Feuerbach

Back 41

wrote the Essence of Christianity: has a historico-philososphical approach to religion- puts forth the idea of theology as anthropology: projection theory: all humans highest hopes and anxieties projected onto the divine

Front 42

“Religion is the dream of the human mind. But even in dreams we do not find ourselves in emptiness or in heaven, but on earth, in the realm of reality…”

“Man—this is the mystery of religion— projects his being into objectivity (man thinks abt self, tries to solve probs w religious language- but through projection, projection becomes reality- objective), and then again, makes himself an object to this projected image of himself thus converted into a subject”

Back 42

Feuerbach, every advance in religion is an advance in human self-knowledge; god as highest subjectivity of man's abstracted self (limitless subjectivity)

Front 43

Feuerbach on Providence

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The divine plan/order, convinces people of their value; god's love for me is nothing more than my self-love deified

Front 44

Feuerbach on Prayer

Back 44

"the human soul giving ear to itself" "the unconditional confidence of human feeling over nature" "where there are no wishes there are no gods"

Front 45

Feuerbach on immortality

Back 45

belief in heavenly life is belief of worthlessness of this life, heaven as existence adequate to my wishes- life freed from limitation/evil

man negatives himself, but only to posit himself again and in a glorified form- no suffering, but all the good stuff + perfection of human life (human theosis)

Front 46

Feuerbach and religion as...

Back 46

Existential alienation! empowering the divine entails the diminution of man; in seeking supernatural deliverance, people avoid taking full responsibility for themselves/their actions and for righting the ills of the world they live in now (injustice, oppression etc.)

Front 47

Marx on Religion

Back 47

uses feuerbach's religion as alienation as a starting point-- difference being feuerbach's conceptualization "the human essence" is too abstract for Marx: Social Alienation: “Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and also the protestagainst real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of aheartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions.” religion as a product of social alienation: a reaction to inequality but the happiness it brings is ultimately illusory

Front 48

More Marx on Religion

Back 48

"The criticism of religion is therefore the germ of thecriticism of the valley of tears whose halo is religion. ... The criticism of religiondisillusions man so that man can think, act, and fashion his own reality as a disillusionedman come to his sense; so that he may revolve around himself as his real sun. Religion isonly the illusory sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve aroundhimself.”

****religion occludes reality, drapes it in myth and phantasy -- it offers an imaginary “solution”(afterlife rewards) to real sufferings and oppressions

“the crit of religion turns into the crit of the earth”

Front 49

Marx's Promethean Ideal

Back 49

humanity has to make its own paradise (not focus on a false one: ie heaven) (communism as radical humanism)

Front 50

Religion as Reification

Back 50

Marx: human beings become dependents on and servants to figments of their own imaginations;they organize their lives according to Divine commands and prohibitions, etc.

Front 51

Marx vs. Feuerbach

Back 51

Feuerbach sees human misery rooted in religious superstition and Marx sees religion as a by-product of worldly oppression/despair

Front 52

Religion as Ideology

Back 52

Marxist perspective: religion both legitimizes the system and acts as a social critic

- may contain utopian elements but ultimately, cultural production is influenced by who holds power; ruling ideas correspond w ideas of ruling classes

Front 53

Anthro + Religion

2 Contesting Perspectives

Back 53

evolutionary models vs. psychic unity of human kind

Front 54

evolutionary models of religion

Back 54

development in stages: savagery --> barbarism -->civilization

Magic (no worship)—>Religion (worship)—>Science (rationality)

Animism—>Polytheism—>Monotheism

ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny (those primitives were like infants us moderns are like adults)

Front 55

religion: psychic unity of humankind

Back 55

panhuman commonalities: says despite great difference present across our species there is no difference in cognitive potential across people

Front 56

Edward Tylor

Back 56

(protestant bias) tracing of religion to animism: all reality as "ensouled", defines religion as "belief in spirits"derived from human experience (death and dreams), thought of these "primitive beliefs/magics" as "survivals"

Front 57

James Frazer

Back 57

(protestant bias)looked at mythology and folklore: early religion as fertility cults (mythology around harvest etc.) Magic based on law of similarity (homeopathic/imitative magic) and law of contagion/contact. Called magic a false science. Draws line btwn magic and religion: trying to harness supernatural power for own use vs. higher morality of religion- veneration of such higher power

Science: real stuff

Front 58

Good Ole Bronislaw Malinowski

Back 58

founder of functionalist approach: field work guy!! ethnography as trying to grasp the native's point of view: ethnography steps back and observes how stuff works but also how native communities think abt stuff. not about stages.

says so called "primitives" have practical science and magic is like an aide or support to empirical action and to cope w stress: the tech./pragmatic often run parallel w the magical/religious