Gods and spirits

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Gods and spirits

• Chapter 9

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Introduction

• Ghosts, ancestors, and vampires used to be human
• But gods and spirits are supernatural beings that
  may not have human origins
• Gods tend to have individual personalities and
  names and spirits are more less powerful and more
  localized

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Gods and Spirits

• Spirits can be individual (spirit guide,
  ancestor, shamans helper) or communal
• Gods tend to live in specific location outside of
  the earth while spirits live in the human world
  and interact with humans
• Can offer protection or punishment
• Offerings, rituals, sacrifices are meant to
  appease them
• The site of these rituals are at shrines

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Example Vision Quest

• In Native American cultures, the vision quest is
  an individualistic ritual in which a person finds
  his or her spirit guide through ASC
• The Ojibwa tribe has a boy at puberty sit on a
  tall platform and fast until he has a vision
• This vision guide shows what path his life will
  take
• A successful vision ushers him in to adulthood
• The berdache were given their position in this
  way or in a dream

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Example Jinn

• Islamic
• In the Quran, there are three types of beings
  humans (clay), angels (light), and jinns (fire)
• Can have human or animal form, or be invisible
• They have lives (born, marry, die)
• Can have special relationship with a human and
  can have special powers, but they can also be
  troublemakers
• The genie in Aladdin is a jinn

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Example Sudan

• Spirit possession
• Type of jinn called a zar, who causes illness and
  is associated with blood and fertility
• Through spirit possession it can enter a womans
  body
• Women in this culture are very anxious about
  their fertility because it determines their place
  in society
• Problems with fertility are blamed in zar and
  rituals help draw them out of those possessed

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Angels and Demons

• These appear in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
• They are mediators between God and humans
• Angels come not from the Bible but from Saint
  Dionysus, who had a hierarchy of angels

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Angels and Demons
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Angels and Demons

• While angels are good beings that help God,
  demons are evil beings that are associated with
  the devil
• Involved in temptation and human evil
• 68 of Americans in 2007 said they believe that
  angels and demons are real
• According to the Bible, Satan was once an angel
  who fell from Heaven
• Between 15th-17th centuries demonology was
  extremely popular
• Incubus and succubus were male and female demons
  that have sex with humans while they sleep

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Angels and Demons
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Exorcism

• This is a Christian practice in which religious
  specialists cure a demonic possession
• In the Catholic Church, the priest is told to be
  skeptical and look for other causes of behavior
  (mental illness)
• Exorcisms are rare and have become part of pop
  culture from the 1970s The Exorcist movies

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Gods

• Gods are more powerful than spirits
• Control nature
• Wind, rain, fertility
• In cultures there can be one god up to more than
  1000 gods

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Gods

• They are anthropomorphic and take on human form
  and personalities
• They can be influenced by offerings and
  sacrifices
• Behavior of humans is controlled by commandments
  from the god(s)

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Types of Gods

• The gods in a religious system is called a
  pantheon, which usually has a hierarchy with a
  supreme god at the top
• Specialized gods are attribute gods who control
  that specific thing
• Creator gods create the physical earth and living
  things on it
• Otiose gods are not directly involved in humans
  lives and therefore rituals are rarely performed
  to them

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Gods and Society

• Gods serve important role in society
• Take on social statuses such as mother, father,
  sister, son, etc.
• We relate to them and learn from their actions
• They model correct human behavior

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Gods and Society

• They also show status in the community
• Status can be ascribed (given based on family) or
  achieved (given based on achievement)
• Gods help people understand their place in
  society and can also help people accept their
  current status and work hard for a better
  afterlife or new life

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Goddesses

• Some scholars say that early human religions
  focused on fertility and therefore focused on
  goddess worship
• Early statues can Venus figures show exaggerated
  fertility
• As monotheism took hold, goddess worship declined

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Goddesses Example

• Ishtar (Near East)
• Worldview nature represented violent
  relationships between gods
• Ishtar had power over fate
• Sexuality and marriage were symbolic of her
• Connected to fertility of land

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Goddesses Example

• Isis (Egypt)
• Great Mother and Queen of Heaven
• Represented family, motherhood
• Originally associated with royalty, she later was
  associated with nature
• 300 BCE began the Isis mystery religion (secret
  rites)

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Goddesses Example

• Kali (Hindu)
• Associated with creativity and nature
• Black One, fierce, blood-thirsty
• But not evil she is creation and destruction
• Represents transformation

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Goddesses Example

• Mary (Catholic)
• Medieval periods she was set above saints and
  second to God
• Queen of Heaven
• Bore the son of God
• Protector and sustainer

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Monotheism

• Most religions in the world and through history
  were polytheistic
• Three major world religions are monotheistic
  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• All believe in one God who is omnipotent
  (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and
  omnibenevolent (all-good)

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Judaism

• Believes the Jews have been chosen by God as
  having a special relationship with him
• This may have developed from a polytheistic
  religion
• Some say the many different names for God in the
  Hebrew Bible are actually names of different gods
• Moses made a covenant with God through the Ten
  Commandments
• The commandment though shalt not worship false
  idols or though shalt not have other gods
  before me may also point to polytheism

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Judaism

• God is very anthropomorphic but can also appear
  in non-human form (burning bush)
• He is often cruel and violent and also forgiving
  and compassionate
• God is seen as a subjective and private path for
  the individual to discover

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Christianity

• Branched out of Judaism
• People were expecting a human Messiah
• Jesus never claimed to be divine and it was not
  until the Council of Nicea in the 4th century
  that he was voted as divine and was God in a
  human form
• Jesus is mediator between God and humans and will
  lead people back to God
• Therefore, he is salvation

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Christianity

• Idea of the Trinity
• God (Father, creator), Jesus (Son, also God),
  Holy Ghost (spirit of God after Jesus death)
• The concept of the Trinity causes problems for
  some Christians because it seems polytheistic

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Islam

• Centered on prophet Mohammad, in Mecca (also
  location of Kaaba, a mysterious, huge cubed
  shrine said to have been built by Abraham and
  Ishmael)
• Allah (God) is identical to Jewish and Christian
  God
• Islam sought to restore authentic monotheism,
  which the other two religions had strayed from
• Mohammad is the way to do this

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Islam

• Mohammad was given the word of God to recite from
  an angel and this became the Quran
• People are encouraged to look for signs of Gods
  goodness and power in the world
• Humans can find peace by surrendering completely
  to God

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Atheism

• Historically this meant not accepting the current
  conception or religious practice of God
• Scientific developments in the 17th-18th
  centuries led people to question how the world
  worked and how their religious beliefs did not
  seem to be valid to explain this
• Many atheists also do not condemn the idea of
  God, only the idea of a cruel, punishing God or
  the horrible things people do in the name of
  religion
• Many people identify as agnostic, which says the
  existence of God is unprovable

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HW 4

• Select two events connected to religion (next
  slide) and discuss how fundamentalist religious
  beliefs can be dangerous. Give details and
  examples.
• Select three of the religious views presented in
  lecture and identify common themes they share.
  How would seeing similarities in religions help
  make the world a more peaceful place?

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HW 4

• The Holocaust
• September 11th/Suicide bombers
• The Crusades
• Bombing of abortion clinics
• Spanish Inquisition