What is Religion

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What is Religion?

• Exercises

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• Say I am only a warner, and there is no god but
  Allah, the One, the Subduer (of all). (Qu'ran
  38.65)
• Muslims repeat this utterance several times a day
  to confirm their belief in Allah, the one and
  only God (1). The declaration proclaims Allah as
  the one personal God therefore excluding any
  other religious belief that does not affirm God,
  the Holy One (2).

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2. I believe that there are sufficient affinities
between religious and secular worldviews (such as
applied Marxism and nationalism) to include the
secular... Because religion is separated from
secular worldviews, for instance, it is assumed
that East Germany was a secular state in fact
Marxism functioned in that country much as state
religion, as Lutheranism once had. If you did not
adhere to the state religion you were denied
opportunities in education and employment. So my
enterprise here, though largely concerned with
religion, can also be categorized as a version of
worldview analysis...when I use 'worldview' I
mean incarnated worldview, where the values and
beliefs are embedded in practice. That is, they
are expressed in action, laws, symbols,
organizations. (Ninian Smart, Dimensions of the
Sacred 2-3) Defining religion as worldview
provides a wide-ranging working hypothesis,
therefore avoiding the limitations of definitions
that for example focus on the one and only God.
Another important aspect is that conceptual
aspects as well as experiential and social
aspects of religion are taken into consideration
in Smart's definition (1). Yet if we apply this
definition, the question arises whether
distinctions exist between the focus on religion
and whatever might be called profane (2).
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3. The totem is before all a symbol, a material
expression of something else. But of what?...It
is evident that it expresses and symbolizes two
different sorts of things. In the first place, it
is the outward and visible form of what we have
called the totemic principle or god. But it is
also the symbol of determined society called the
clan. It is flag it is the sign by which each
clan distinguishes itself from the others, the
visible mark of its personality, a mark borne by
everything which is part of the clan under any
title whatsoever, men, beasts or things...The god
of the clan, the totemic principle, can therefore
be nothing else than the clan itself, personified
and represented to the imagination under the
visible form of the animal or vegetable which
serves as totem. (Emile Durkheim, The Elementary
Forms of Religious Life, trans. J. W. Swain, 206)
Durkheim's definition focuses on the social
function of religion therefore providing insights
regarding objective consequences resulting from
religious concepts. Thus, religious belief is
understood as phenomenon arising out of
experiencing society and community (1). However,
if religion is essentially understood according
to its social functions, such a definition
relegates religion to sociological mechanisms,
therefore, using a reductive paradigm to
characterize religion(2).
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4. While the different religions wrangle with one
another as to which of them is in possession of
the truth, in our view the truth of religion may
be altogether disregarded. Religion is an attempt
to get control over the sensory world, in which
we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which
we have developed inside us as a result of
biological and psychological necessities. But it
cannot achieve its end. Its doctrines carry with
them the stamp of the times in which they
originated, the ignorant childhood days of the
human race. Its consolations deserve no trust.
Experience teaches us that the world is not a
nursery. The ethical commands, to which religion
seeks to lend its weight, require some other
foundation instead, for human society cannot do
without them, and it is dangerous to link up
obedience to them with religious belief. If one
attempts to assign to religion its place in man's
evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting
acquisition as a parallel to the neurosis which
the civilised individual must pass through on his
way from childhood to maturity. (Sigmund Freud,
"A Philosophy of Life" in New Introductory
Lectures on Psychoanalysis, by Sigmund Freud
trans. W. J. H. Sprott ) Sigmund Freud argues
from a psychoanalytical perspective. According to
Freud, the origin of religious belief in God is
situated in the first experiences of a child in
relation to his/her parents. The child projects
his/her experiences of the father as the creator
of life as well as the one who protects and
punishes unto "God the Father" (1). Religion thus
is reduced to an illusion, a fantasy in which
childhood experiences are revived (2).
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5. ...one who has attained to the ultimate truth
sees that there's no such thing as "religion."
There is only a certain nature, which can be
called whatever we like. We can call it "Dhamma,"
we can call it "Truth," we can call it "God,"
"Tao," or whatever, but we shouldn't
particularize that Dhamma or that Truth as
Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Judaism, Sikhism,
Zoroastrianism, or Islam, for we can neither
capture nor confine it with labels and concepts.
Still, such divisions occur because people
haven't yet realized this nameless truth for
themselves. (Buddhadasa Bhikku trans. Bhikku
Punno Speech given on 01/27/1964 at Suan Usom
Foundation, Bangkok) The Thai monk Buddhadasa
argues that religious experience opens a deeper
level of understanding than any language attempt
can encompass, a dimension in which the common
differentiation between religions disappears.
Various religious traditions and expressions are
vehicles to realize ultimate reality. Thus, there
is no religion at the level of conscious
realization (1). However, since this mystic level
of understanding is beyond language, even beyond
religion, it is also beyond the category of
definition (3).
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Comparing Four Contexts
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Zen

• Posture
• Breath
• Thoughts
• Awareness
• koans

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Puja
puja (poo-jah first syllable rhymes with
"zoo")Puja is the act of showing reverence to a
god, a spirit, or another aspect of the divine
through invocations, prayers, songs, and rituals.
An essential part of puja for the Hindu devotee
is making a spiritual connection with the divine.
Most often that contact is facilitated through an
object an element of nature, a sculpture, a
vessel, a painting, or a print.
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A Christian Monastery
Ora et Labora
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Kalachakra Sand Mandala
Over a period of twelve days, Buddhist monks
guided by a ritual master or Vajra Master,
perform a Kalachakra initiation. Central to this
ceremony is the creation of a multicolored sand
mandala, meant to aid the monks and students to
purify their consciousness in the meditative
process of visualizing aspects of the Absolute.
The mandala itself is not the Absolute, rather a
vehicle to discover and realize aspects of clear,
radiant divinity. After eight days, the period of
actual creation of the sand mandala, the
blindfolded students are for the first time
allowed to enter the perfect palace under the
guidance of the Vajra Master. The ceremony ends
in the dismantling of the mandala. The sand is
then transported to a body of water, a reminder
that what generally is called reality is
without essence. Visualization in the sand
mandala is an incentive to work towards the
purification of consciousness.
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What is religious in these contexts?What do they
have in common?
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Dead Sea ScrollsPhilological Study
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JerusalemArchaeological Study
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Another exampleSepphoris
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Psychology
Brain, Mind and God