Intro to World's Major Religons Flashcards
Critical Thinking
1) identifying assumptions
2) exploring their origins
3) exploring their implications
Assumptions
ideas that are held to be true but have not been proven
- exists in the human mind
- something you think is true but do not have evidence for it to prove it true
Beliefs
is a type of assumptions
- ideas that are held to be true but CANNOT be proven or DISPROVEN
- common in religion
Facts
ideas that have proven to be true
Fact or not
Jesus is the son of God.
NOT A FACT
Fact or not
Christians believe is Jesus the son of God.
FACT
How is thinking demonstrated
Thinking is demonstrated by questioning answers not answering questions
Religion definition
system of myths, rituals, ethics, and art that constructs and control the reality of a community of believers
What are some examples of not religions
monotheism, polytheism, atheism
The form of religion
1) Myths
-engine that drives religion
-sacred stories about supernatural
“sacred”—-> unique and powerful, determined by community of believers
2) Rituals
-sacred acts
-derived from myths
3)Ethics
-standards of right and wrong
-derived from myths
*cant read someone’s myths and expect to know exactly what the ethics are
4) Art
-visual, performing, architectural
-derived from myths
The function of religion
the social construction of reality (perceived reality not scientific), truth (resides in the mind), and meaning (language; symbolic)
1) event
2) interpretation (what you experience)
3) Institutionalization
THE CONTROL OF REALITY
- explanation/understanding
- human mind cant stand not knowing anything; a bad story is better than no story
- ethics/ritual/magic(prayer)
*storytelling makes religion not event itself
example of function of religion
event: Jesus was a historical person
interpretation: people interpreted him as Christ
Institution: Christianity
Methods/Rules of studying Religion
1) Relativism
- the concept of truth, norm, and values that are different for different people based on their political, social, religious and economic background
2) Agnosticism
- taking no position of whether there is an existence or nonexistence of a God or gods
Abington Township vs Schcempp
non-believing family successfully sued a public school board for its school’s daily opening exercises in which a Christian prayer was recited over the school’s public address system
Anthropology
concerned with studying people, their beliefs, behaviors, and institutions not assessing the truth of various beliefs or behaviors
