Breaking The Spell: The Study Of Religion

Upon reading the chapters written by both Kessler and Martin this week I believe that this will be an interesting course for the seven remaining weeks. Even though I identify myself as a follower of the Christian faith, I think it will be nice to have a fresh outlook on religion from the outsider's point of view. From my time as a first grader through my time as an eighth grader, I spent at least an hour or two each week learning about the Catholic faith in a religion class. Also, I would like to see how this course will possibly change my outlook or open my eyes to different aspects of religion. In addition, I expect to have discussions about several religions from the various regions of the world. I hope that these discussions will help me broaden my understanding and appreciation of other religion and cultural backgrounds

David Chidester defines religion as the ways of being a human person in a human place. He further goes on to describe it as “the practices and discourses that negotiate what it is to be human in person in relation to the superhuman or in relation to whatever might be treated as subhuman” (Chidester). As such religion can be said to encompass the beliefs customs and even the cultures of the people. It defines and shapes the human out view to life and how they relate to each other based on the morals and ethical guidelines outlined in the various doctrines governing the religions. Over the years, religion has been interpreted from different perspectives. Over time in history, religion was directly intertwined with the activities and the lives of the people. For instance, where the people practiced farming, they had deities or gods which were thought to control and protect the seasons which were an integral part of the farming activities. The same case applied to those who practiced pastoralism activities. In all aspects, the religion was in tandem with their activities.

Religion is man-made and has nothing to do with spirituality. Belief on God does not require a religion. Spirituality is native to the human being and we are constantly in contact with that, which we cannot measure in physical terms. The belief in a higher power or God does not require religion. Religion is a man-made institution developed specifically for the control of mass people by a smaller group of people. The intermingling of spirituality and religion is a major problem. There can be no consensus on human morality and ethics until it is done without religious interference. I am willing to believe in a creator (although no knowledge has gone so far to define it) but not necessarily the being described in the Bible or Quran or any other religious text. One may argue that the degree of order and the complexity of that order may demand the existence of a creator, and the observable physical laws are obvious but there may be spiritual laws that underpin reality as well. Those laws are the foundation of ethics and morality. Religious people believe that religion is the tool by which the connection or the rules of restricting behavior is accomplished. But it is not the case because the inherent bias that each religion has interferes

In the book, “ A Beginners Guide to the Study of Religion”, Herling highlights the clash that questions who has more knowledge in religion between an outsider and an insider. The insider being the person who physically and emotionally participates in said religion whilst the outsider being the one who studies and gains information about it from every corner from afar. Although this question is slightly unsolvable, it’s important for us as students to understand the concept of what our position means, why both insiders and outsiders are important, and which stance we should be taking in this course. This also in a sense links with Megan Roper’s TedEd talk about her position as both an insider and an outsider and how one should approach either

Reflection Larger social forces have very much shaped me into the human being I am today. As a Jew, I was born into a religion that has gone through much adversity. We are often stereotyped, and for this reason have been massacred throughout history. It is out ability to constituently overcome adversity that makes me so proud to be a Jew, and to represent my religion on my necklace everyday. It is what has made me want to attend a Jewish Day School, and have a Bar Mitzvah. It is what inspired me to go to Israel, and get connected with the holy land. It is what got me involved in BBYO, an International Jewish youth movement. It is what got me involved in community service and fundraising. Many of my closest friends happen to be Jewish, and

Notably, innate human abilities and ideas permit culture to determine the favored genes, which in turn can reinforce the culture. The relationship between culture and genes can be viewed as a vicious circle. To comprehend, the significance of culture, it is essential to view it as an independent organism, a parasite— a meme! The term "meme" was conceived by Richard Dawkins as "information copied from person to person by imitation"(as cited in Bull, Holland, and Blackmore, 2000, p. 2). Memes are ideas, beliefs, practices, etc. In order, for these memes to be successful parasites, their hosts (the humans) have to be successful at this imitation process. This complex social behavior is a consequence of our possession of a very sophisticated genetic mechanism: the mirror neuron system! Mirror neurons are a fairly recent neuroscientific discovery that affirms that the same neurons fire when we perform an action, as when we observe the action being done by

843 A.D. We the Northmen came to Nantes and killed the bishop and many of the clergy and laymen, both men and women, and we pillaged the city. Thence we set out plunder the lands of lower Aquitaine. Then we arrieved at a island and we carried materials from the mainland to build our houses for the winter.As a reason that we “ Northmen” not believe in god, we are not christians , and we don't have respect towards the monasteries. Our main purpose is to get food and jewelry from others. Many people tagged us as “uncivilized” by cause our way to get what we want and for what we came to.

Over the course of history religion has changed many peoples view of themselves, society, and nature. Confusanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and polytheism all address the issues a person questions about themselves, the perpose of life, and how they should live one with nature. Every religion has separate beliefs on what is expected of them

How have memes evolved and why do they go viral? Memes did not originate from the internet contrary to popular belief, and have changed greatly throughout the years, so understanding what they are, where they began, and how they are different today are essential to understanding how they flourish like

Scientists are now beginning to understand how these addictive meme are made, and why they dont last long or in other words “die”; or seeing if it's possible to predict which will go viral. The internet had not been around the time when Richard Dawkins the British evolutionary biologist came up with the term meme in 1976. Memetics uses Dawkins theory of evolution and suggests that memes evolve just as genes do. The gene that went through the many imitation had to be the best to evolved for communication. A meme is not controlled by one creator but many people. It can be hard to explain what can fall under the term meme. But scientists say that a meme can be a phrase, catchy jingle or a kind of behavior. Dawkins define the term but he noted

Weekly Reflection Unit 2 HUM 1055- Approach to Studying Religions Professor William Frantz Capella University October 23, 2017 Brittany Montes THE CONCEPT OF SACRED REALITY The concept of sacred reality, “We recognize a notion of sacred reality wherever a group of people describes a particular phenomenon

Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.

The idea, concept, and practices of religion have never really been something that is of importance to me during my life. For the longest time I did not identify as any certain or specific religion and when asked I would simply state how I was not a religious person. It was not until high school when I discovered the religion of Agnosticism. In our English class we had to research different religions and our group received Agnosticism. Before then I had never heard of that religion, but after learning about Agnosticism it pretty much summed up how I feel and what I believe about God and religion. Basically Agnosticism entails that the person believes that the existence of God is uncertain and claims neither a faith nor a disbelief in God. I feel like this religion perfectly sums up how I feel when it comes to my faith and ideas about God and just religion as a whole. Since I am not a religious type of person, the idea of me choosing another one that I would be a part of seems like a difficult task. When I do think about the various religions that I have studied, written, and read about during the course of this semester there is one that stands out to me. If I had to choose another religion to join instead of my own, I would join Buddhism because their fundamental principles and values are those that I can agree with and their ultimate purpose in life is something I can see myself believing in as well.

Sociologists define religion as a cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provides a sense of ultimate meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all-encompassing and supernatural (Durkheim in Giddens 2006 p.534). Religion can be viewed as a lifestyle or culture for some

Religious aspects explain the common characteristics which are used to explain how the religion had been formed. Religions have many common factors between the eight aspects which include Belief, sacred stories, religious experiences and religious rituals are the 4 main aspects including the extra 4 ( sacred texts , sacred structures, sacred symbols and religious ethics ). These aspects have a large influence on the religion as they allow people to have a purpose for why they are alive till this very day, to thank those they think have created the world by praying, how everyone should act to those among them through their lifetime and to tell the stories of those who have made the world for what it is today. We also get a deeper understanding of how these religions were formed, by who and why they have so