You would think after last week, this would be straightforward. What is religion but something inherently linked to spirituality? Well, as it turns out, not so much…
I came across this paper by Dr. Mike Sosteric. It’s described as “introductory unit, Athabasca University Sociology 231: The Sociology of Religion”, which you’d hope would make it straightforward. Again… not so much…
To start with, it’s fairly straightforward:
Religion is an institution setup to meet various and specific needs. What needs a particular religious institution will meet will depend on the intent of the people who set it up
Dr. Mike Sosteric, https://www.academia.edu/80934448/What_is_Religion
It’s a complicated topic and it’s made the more difficult, because it is so personal.
What’s so complicated about it?
Well here’s the thing. Sosteric, in that paper linked above, highlights the fact that it’s extremely difficult to consider religion while removing our own biases. If you’re raised religious and believe deeply, then you believe. If you’re atheist and believe deeply, you might think it’s all a pile of manure.
Marx reduced religion to “opiate.” Freud reduced it to an “infantile delusion.” Durkheim called religion a projection of society, and most scholars who approach it reduce it to a belief in spirits of some sort.
Dr. Mike Sosteric, https://www.academia.edu/80934448/What_is_Religion
Plus we can all probably list religions:
- Christianity
- Islam
- Judaism
- Hinuism
- Buddhism
- Confucianism
- Taoism
- Jainism
- Sikhism
- And there’s loads more here
Not to mention, under each of those headings there are up to dozens of flavours of those religions that might have relatively little in common with each other. I mean, I was in my teens before I realised that Catholicism and Protestantism were both under the umbrella of Christianity… I’m really not joking here!
The same Wikipedia post used above gives this as a quote to define a religion:
[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
(Clifford Geertz, Religion as a Cultural System, 1973)
I mean, ok the definition is limited to men. The feminist in me wants to shout out what definition works for women… But here we are.
Where does this leave us?
In a bit of a quandary to be honest. Some define religion in terms of belief in supernatural beings or forces, while others emphasize rituals, ethics, or community affiliation. And if I’m honest, I think there’s a bit of truth in all of this. Googling “what is religion” really didn’t help much. Dr. Sosteric is correct in his statement that depending on your viewpoint on religion, you either accept your religion or no religion…
It’s a difficult one. For me though, I’d like to think of it like this:
- includes a belief in something greater than ourselves, whether that is a deity, nature, the Otherworld or a combination
- A structured framework of belief, possibly dogma even (dogma = a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true)
- prescribed set of rituals
- material things such as building or items of clothing or holy objects/ relics etc
- there is usually a community involved, some sort of social gathering for ritual or other reasons
- there’s usually also a spiritual or mystical element – an experience of the otherworldly or supernatural being
- storytelling – all religions have stories. Whether it’s the hagiographies of the saints from the early Christian Church to the stories of Buddha or the various creation stories around the world
- There’s nearly always something around healing. Seriously.
How accurate is my list?
Well, I’m not a scholar of humanities or of world religions. The items in the list above come from my own, somewhat erratic reading around the subject. They come from my own experience in the last four decades. And from the experiences of people I know.
So, y’know, take it with a pinch of salt.
But it’s not that easy to define. There are too many different opinions and thoughts around it. And indeed, our own background, upbringing and religious experiences or lack thereof will fuel our own beliefs in this area.
Why bother trying to define religion then?
Mostly, because it is a thinking point. It’s not necessarily something I spend a lot of time on, but it is part of my spiritual practice to think on these things. Religion has been the cause of major upheaval, violence, racism, genocide and other evils in this world. I think given that, it behooves us to at least try and understand it.
We may never come up with a generally accepted definition of “religion”. But if we understand the concepts that generally make up a religion, we can start to understand why some people act the way they do, in direct contravention to the ways we think of as correct. Maybe neither party is fully correct, but by going back to first principles, we can make progress to understanding each other.
Finally, and I really do mean finally, most of what I’ve read about the core tenets of any of the major religions I’ve come across can be boiled down to this: be decent to each other.
That’s it…
