What are the basic elements of religion? Stories, community, traditions, worship, meaning, belief? From cave drawings to modern day religions, are these elements universal to the past present and future of religion? first off, we can't know about the future. We progressed from cave drawings to modern day art. From caves to cathedrals. Shamans to popes. We see all the differences of all the religions. One religion believes in multiple gods, while another believes in only one. One religion believes in a circle of life through reincarnation, and another, an everlasting afterlife of either good or evil depending on how they lived their life. While some religions believe in gods, others do not. Worship may not even exist in a religion. So, trying to isolate these common elements between religions, what does it boil down to? Can we redefine religion by these common elements.
The first element is meaning. All religions give some kind of meaning to life, or humanity. It places something in perspective.
Second, belief. A religion will have a similar belief. What that concerns is not limited.
Third, there are going to be traditions. While this goes along with belief, it is the physical aspect of that.
After that, religion can add any other elements. While i know i am not incorporating everything into this post, i feel that this idea i'm about to present will strike you as odd. Between meaning, traditions, and belief, what can constitute a religion? Do people have their personal religion, or is it reserved for groups of people who believe the same thing? Does science constitute a religion? Science gives meaning to life. It shows us how the world works. To follow science, there is the scientific method: Observation, Formulation and hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, peer review, and acceptance with the transition of that hypothesis to theory. This belief of figuring out the religion also can be seens as a tradition, or ritual.
For this post, i'm not going to reveal my thoughts on the elements religion. I will leave that for later. But boiling down religion does bring into question what a religion is through the basic elements.
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That's a really interesting concept. Personally, I've always separated science and religion as two distinct entities...I never considered how they might overlap since religion relies so much on faith without proof whereas science is all about proof. However, by your definition, I can see how science could be considered a type of religion since it satisfies the basic requirements that you have set for a religion. Great job :)
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Hey, I had to come back and re-read this post after it came up in class. I hope we can keep asking the question about science and how it relates to religion..
ReplyDeleteI loosely consider science my religion. It consists of my beliefs about the world and how it works. And while science does do a great job for giving explanations for how many things work, where do the concept that science can not, or has not explained fit in? For example I know some people who do not follow and particular religion, but still believe in the soul. I hope I may have added something to think about in a future post.
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