Great conversation today to get us started thinking about what is religion anyway.
Belief in God came up right from the start. Ernst, with his anecdote about the atheist who gets asked, “Yes, but are you a Christian atheist, a Jewish atheist, or a Muslim atheist?” (p.58) pushes us to broaden how we understand religion to move beyond belief in God.
We quickly moved to culture, and started grappling with the extent to which we can separate religion and culture. They are definitely distinctive concepts; but the question for us becomes consideration of their Venn diagram–that is, where and how they overlap.
The question of free will also came up, related in an interesting way to whether or not religion is something we choose. We landed here in an area where we might see some interesting distinctions between religions. Many, in fact arguably most people in the world today identify with the religion into which they were born. But intentionality matters! (We’ll be talking about niyya, an Islamic term that roughly translates as intentionality, later in the semester.)
As a class, we then made the word cloud below, based on what other words came to mind when folks in the class heard the word religion. Perhaps in part because of the direction the conversation had taken to that point, “God” was the word that figured most prominently, but it was followed closely by “community.” We talked a bit about what that word means in terms of religion, distinguishing between personal spirituality and identification with a particular institution– even for folks who, either by choice or circumstance, are in some way separated from that community.
Hoping that this summary encompasses some of the ideas we discussed. Please use comments to add, nuance, question….
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2 thoughts on “What’s Religion Anyway?”
Sadra Marie
I think there’s something very profound about the fact that so many of us thought of the word community. As we’ve regularly discussed, no religious group is a monolith, but perhaps that is precisely what makes a religious community so important. To have a group of people united by one thread and different in everything else, including the way they use that thread in their life, makes for a strong and diverse community that’s more able to assist one another through difficulties.
Leslie Avecillas
Adding on to what Sandra said, community is what keeps people sane and together. Our sense of community is strongly tied to family and these invisible ties can make us forget our sense of self and throw all precaution to the wind if we feel it is warranted. It is precisely the reason why cults are so effective. Similarly, every religion makes it its mission to make their members feel as though they are necessary to continue a legacy or to serve in a greater purpose. It may also be the reason why most people identify with the religion they were born into. The established community is a safe haven (most times) and even if you no longer identify with a religion, you will still stay for the community that the religion built.