scientific study religion in society

　　There are many books on religion that try to break down each with enough facts to get the reader to understand. Though books are filled fact after fact and at times, slight biases, they sometimes forget to include values and reasons why people follow them. Because of this, students can miss out on a chance to get a deeper understanding of religion and the people that follow it. Huston Smith’s The World's Religion, Revised & Updated is that book that can broaden students’ viewpoint of all religions.

“The approach taken here is to view religion as an area of human life that needs to be studied using various well-established academic disciplines. Thus, to really study a religion, students to need

4. Often in research, religious groups are compared to one another on social and political attitudes and beliefs (e.g., Roman Catholics are compared to Protestants, Muslims, and Jews). Discuss why this might be problematic and

Firstly, Steve Bruce (1995, 1996) attributes the development of a range of religious institutions, including sects and cults, to a general process of modernization and secularization. He believes the weakness of more conventional institutionalized religions has encouraged some people to consider less traditional alternatives. As modern societies

Since the beginning of time humans have endeavoured to explain the causes and reasons behind their existence. As a result of this thirst for knowledge many different beliefs and values have been formulated with the aim of explaining this age-old question. Most of these beliefs are prevalent today in the form of institutionalised religions. In order to gain an understanding of the word 'religion', we need to fully analyse and compare the components of religions in order to gain a more cultivated understanding of this enigmatic term. An extremely valuable way of classifying religion and its many aspects is through the Seven Dimensions, developed by Ninian Smart. (See Appendix 1) These dimensions explore the many aspects of religion in a

Martin uses a functionalistic approach to understand the role religion plays in society, exploring each object with hermeneutical suspicion, believing, for the sake of this study, that any supernatural claims are false. By exploring such concepts as classification, structured society, and habitus, Martin explains how “we, as humans, are a product of society”. He focuses on answering questions such as “what’s going on” and “whose interests are served” by skeptically looking at the way in which people use legitimation, authority, and authenticity to push their own agendas.

Students revisit how the world and our country have developed over time in regards to religious beliefs and traditions vs. scientific discoveries and achievements. They trace how individuals have come together or been torn apart by differences in customs, practices, and teachings. They study this at the personal, school, community, national, and international levels. They compare and contrast actions and reactions taken over time and draw conclusions about people from them.

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

“Religion is a ritualized system of beliefs and practices related to things defined as sacred by an organized community of believers.” (Basirico et.al. 379). Religion is an important element in the society because it influences the way individuals act and think. It has shaped the relationship and bonding among families as well as influenced the decision made in economics and politics. Religion in general has contributed to shape a society and a government structure which will influence the way the individuals under certain governmental structure behave. Sociologists are interested in religion mainly because religious belief is heavily rooted in individuals’ lives and it helps sociologists to interpret human’s actions, expression, and

The relationship between religion and science is indubitably debated. Barbour describes four ways of viewing this relationship (conflict, independence, dialogue--religion explains what science cannot, and integration--religion and science overlap). Gould presents a case in which religion and science are non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA), that the two entities teach different things and therefore do not conflict. The subject of this essay is Worrall, who says that religion and science does conflict, and that genuine religious beliefs are incompatible with a proper scientific attitude. The former half of the essay will describe his argument, while the latter will present a criticism of his argument.

What is religion? Why is it so controversial? What is the significance of religion? These are some of the questions that are encountered when studying religions. Finding the answer, however, is not as simple as it may seem. In fact, there are many different approaches to studying religions. Some of these techniques include the religious method, the phenomenological method, and the historical method.

Students studying Religions in the non-confessional way as Chryssides and Geaves says are expecting to receive fully in depth information on the main six religions and that’s all. But instead of that the study of religion focuses on how the study of religions began. They would research different approaches to religion and they will realise that religion involves different academic disciplines that for some might be surprising

We all have some experience with religion. Whether our parents are religious, our own religious views, or others who try and convert you to a religion, we have all come in contact with a religion. But what do sociology and religion have to do with each other? The answer to this question is that religion meets sociology in the affects that it has on an individual or society (Schaefer, Richard T, 2009, pg 323).

In my opinion, Deepa Mehta is a courageous and bold director to produce a movie ‘Water’ which is intended to affront the tradition and living style of Indians back then. She displays how every character brings up almost perfectly similar kind of stance which is because of the doctrine and beliefs that have been set in their minds for a long period of time. The practice inherited from one generation to another generation which later becomes the tradition of Indian community. I could see how every widow refuses and rebuffs changes; which they are forbidden to marry again as a result of believing in they themselves bring unluckiness or bad luck to others. In fact, other women either married

This “another” sense of coherence and reality often plays a vital role in the portrayal of characters belonging to different ethnic backgrounds in the mainstream Bollywood flicks. The reason why non-Indian characters from the subcontinent, i.e. the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Afghans or Sri Lankans are not being considered in this discussion is that the socio-cultural gap between India and her neighbouring countries are relatively less and how they are portrayed in Bollywood films demands a new discussion altogether due to extremely convoluted bilateral or multilateral political, social and historical relationships between India and any of these countries.