Religion
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A religion is a systematic set of dogmas and, usually, rules for behaviour, that revolve around some supernatural explanations for aspects of life as we know it here on earth.
The system of beliefs and rules are called dogma; religions vary in how much dogma they include and how strictly they define it and enforce it.
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[edit] Major features
Most of the world's religions have several features: mythologies about creation (some admit they are, some don't) and man's place in it; answers of some sort for life's mysterious questions (what happens before life/after death, where do lost socks go); a requirement to have faith in the religion's ideals; and some sort of guidance (rules) for how to live in the world so defined. They often also tell tales of what will happen at the end of the world, as well. Another almost universal feature is some form of proselytising, whether by personal contact or by print[1][2] and/or electronic media.
[edit] Range of religious perspectives
Some religions are so bereft of silliness and dogma that they might as well be called philosophies. At the other extreme, some are rife with superstition, myth taken as fact, and harshly enforced rules.[3] People who are not their adherents call them "cults", those who share their dogma (the "faithful") think they are the ultimate truth, even above the evidence of their senses.
[edit] Religion and the supernatural
The supernatural aspects of religion "evolved" socially as part of how a people would deal with unanswerable questions, and the rules often developed as clumsy or elegant solutions to how to live with others and to survive as a people. Sadly, some religions are unable to separate the supernatural from the rules, and the clumsy rules from the elegant ones.
[edit] Modern approaches
In the modern era, many fairly non-religious people cobble together a "personal philosophy" that is a grab-bag of the religious, philosophical, and moral concepts that they think or feel works well for them.
In contrast, in spite of so much of our understanding of the universe, there are people who insist that every teaching their religion promotes is the absolute truth - these people are called fundamentalists.
While many religionists think that the modern world's most important battles are between religious traditions, the reality is that the most important struggle is that between fundamentalists of any stripe and people who are more open-minded in their beliefs.
[edit] Religion and science
Historically, due to the aspect of religions' needing to "explain" natural phenomena, as science has improved its explanations of them, the two fields have experienced friction. In some cases religions have encouraged naturalistic explorations and explanations, at the other extreme, they have severely suppressed these attempts. It is, however, difficult to imagine a religion which does not, at some level, rely on supernatural or miraculous explanations.
[edit] Examples of science-friendly religion
- In the middle ages, the Muslim world had a mini-renaissance due to their open-mindedness towards science. This has collapsed due to the rise of fundamentalism in Islam.
- In the modern era, many Christian denominations accept fully modern science and its ramifications. See NOMA.
- The Irenaean theodicy to explain the existence of evil in the world is dependent upon the 'evolution' (his words) of humans. It is, perhaps, interesting to note that he was writing in 160 CE,
[edit] Examples of anti-science religion
- Copernicus and the Roman Catholic Church.
- Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church.
- Darwin and opposition to evolution by contemporary fundamentalists.
- Opposition to stem cell research (mostly in the US) by contemporary fundamentalists.
[edit] See also
- First Great Awakening
- Reparative Therapy of Fundamentalism
- State Religion
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
