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QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS. What is religion? How many religions have there been in the history of the world? Where does religion come from? How does religion work? What explains why some religious survive and others do not? Does religion actually even exist?. WHAT IS RELIGION?.

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QUESTIONS

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  1. QUESTIONS • What is religion? • How many religions have there been in the history of the world? • Where does religion come from? • How does religion work? • What explains why some religious survive and others do not? • Does religion actually even exist?

  2. WHAT IS RELIGION? • “Religion is devotion to or belief in God.”

  3. WHAT IS RELIGION? • “Religion comes to people revealed in scripture.”

  4. WHAT IS RELIGION? • religion is emotional devotion (or not) to God or many gods or no gods, along with a collection of practices that might (or might not) be directed at God or many gods or no gods and that might (or might not) have a collection of writings that might (or might not) have come from God, many gods, or no gods.

  5. Religions? • Hockey in Canada • Rugby in Australia • Football in the Europe

  6. Theories of Religion • E.B. Tyler and James Frazer (social anthropologist): social evolution: magic to religion to science: each does a better job at explaining the natural world. • Emile Durkheim (sociologist): “God is society, writ large”; Religion was the cement of society • Sigmund Freud (psychologist): religion exists because people are weak/sick; it is the result of psychological distress. • Karl Marx (political philosopher): Religion fools the poor and oppressed into accepting their submission. • Mircea Eliade (historian of religion): Religion articulates the difference between sacred and profane. 1

  7. Definitions • 50+ definitions of religion (Leuba 1912) • J.Z. Smith: • The existence of at least fifty definitions of religion is not evidence that religion cannot be defined; • it is evidence that religion can be defined in at least fifty different ways.

  8. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • Religion is an empty category • Something empty needs to be filled: by humans! • Content?

  9. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • Religion is a concept • mental representation • hole vs. crater • concept as scholarly creation

  10. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • Religion cannot be reified • Religion is responsible for crimes against humanity • Religion is beautiful • Religion is peaceful

  11. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • Religion cannot be totalized • “the essence of religion is prayer” • “religion is violent” • “Christianity and other faiths are struggling with secularism.”

  12. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • Religion is not majority-rule • boundary and identity formation • internal debates, not scholarly

  13. Religion’s Primary Characteristics • There are no data for religion • getting dressed • traveling • speaking • killing an animal

  14. The Study of Religion • Religion is what we study, not how we study • Religion is studied as a human invention • The scholar of religion does not set out to offend, but she can inadvertently offend. Not her problem. So lighten the hell up! • methodological atheism

  15. One Final Analogy Religions, Religion, Religious Studies = Languages, Language, Linguistics

  16. Finally a #@$* definition religion is a concept that refers to a system of beliefs, practices and narratives relative to superhuman beings (J.Z. Smith)

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