Preliminary: Nature of Religion and Beliefs

Question 1

What are the 5 major religious traditions?

Answer 1

Christianity
Hinduism
Islam
Buddhism
Judaism

Question 2

What is religion?

Answer 2

• The belief in and worship of a supernatural power or God.
• A worldview/ system of formal beliefs and structures practices that directs/guide its followers to an initial or enhanced feeling for the sacred or divine.

Question 3

What is the supernatural dimension?

Answer 3

The belief in the existence of beings or powers beyond the realm of the natural world, and is greater than humankind.

Question 4

Belief in ____ is a central commonality to all world religions.

Answer 4

Belief in the supernatural dimension is a central commonality to all world religions.

Question 5

What is the most significant element of a religious worldview?

Answer 5

The supernatural dimension
A being/power from here is believed to be responsible for the creation of the world and for providing the moral framework for human life.

Question 6

What 2 concepts can the supernatural dimension be broken down into?

Answer 6

Transcendent religious worldview
Immanent worldview

Question 7

What is a transcendent religious worldview?

Answer 7

The beliefs that embrace the ideology of a divine power beyond human capabilities and experiences.
Focuses on heavenly or spiritual matters.

Question 8

Give an example of a transcendent religious worldview.

Answer 8

Judaism, Islam, Christianity

Question 9

Why are all monotheistic religions transcendent religious worldviews?

Answer 9

Because they emphasise the idea of God being revealed to humankind from beyond the human spirit.

Question 10

What is an immanent religious worldview?

Answer 10

A belief in a divine or powers dwelling within the individual.
Emphasises the presence of Gods within the human existence and in day to day life rather than beyond it.

Question 11

Give examples of immanent religious worldviews.

Answer 11

Hinduism, Buddhism.

Question 12

What are the characteristics of a religion?

Answer 12

Beliefs and believers
Sacred texts and writings
Ethics
Rituals and ceremonies

Question 13

What are beliefs?

Answer 13

The key tenets, doctrines pr values which underpin the religious practice if a religion for the believers.

Question 14

What are believers?

Answer 14

The adherents who follow and accept these beliefs, customs and traditions as a way of understanding creation and answering the fundamental concepts of life.

Question 15

Give an example of a belief of any religion.

Answer 15

Christianity- the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God.

Question 16

What are sacred texts and writings?

Answer 16

Contain the sacred stories which explain how people are connected to the supernatural dimension.
May be communicated orally, visually or written.
Contain the truth of a particular religion and provides guidance to believers.

Question 17

What are ethics?

Answer 17

The system of standards which regulate moral decision making. They clarify what is right and wrong.

Question 18

What are rituals and ceremonies?

Answer 18

Practical expressions of aspects of a religion and allows believers to connect with the tradition of their religion.

Question 19

What do rituals and ceremonies involve?

Answer 19

Involve the prescribes words and actions along with the use of symbols.

Question 20

What is a dynamic, living religion?

Answer 20

a religion that is ever changing and alive in nature.

Question 21

How do the characteristics of religion create a dynamic living religion?

Answer 21

When people express their religion through rituals, sacred texts, ethics and beliefs, that is when the religion becomes living.

Question 22

How do practices/rituals create a dynamic living religion?

Answer 22

Practices (eg rituals) give the doctrinal elements of the religion a lived expression as the individual is immersed in physically expressing their religion.

Question 23

How do Sacred texts create a dynamic living religion?

Answer 23

Sacred texts interact with the doctrines as they are contained in and expressed through the sacred writings.

Question 24

How do ethics create a dynamic living religion?

Answer 24

Ethics embody the doctrines in the form of law precepts, allowing dor the practical application of the religion.

Question 25

How do believers create a dynamic living religion?

Answer 25

Interaction with the supernatural and sacred through ritual, worship and prayer, gives expression to believers.

Question 26

How has religion contributed to culture? Give an example.

Answer 26

Religion is influenced by culture and also triggers cultural change. Christianity and Islam significantly influenced European art, medicine, and architecture.

Question 27

How does religion have a conservative influence on society?

Answer 27

sexual, morality, bioethics, etc.
Tries to prevent society from moving away from traditional values.

Question 28

How does religion have a progressive influence on society?

Answer 28

• Religion is proactive in areas regarding social advocacy of refugees, Indigenous rights, protection of the environment…
• Instill a sense of justice in prominent social debates to encourage communities to embrace new approaches.

Question 29

How does religion contribute to the individual?

Answer 29

Personal search for meaning
Ethical guidance
Sense of belonging
Ritual meaning

Question 30

What is the dreaming?

Answer 30

• Underpins all beliefs, knowledge and practices in Aboriginal communities and shapes their identity.
• Involves the Aboriginal view of creation and the past, present and future.
• Establishes the rules that Aboriginal peoples adhere to.
• Transcends time and exists beyond the ordinary world.

Question 31

What does the dreaming explain?

Answer 31

The origins of the universe, the workings of nature, cycle of life and death, regulates kinship and guides Aboriginal life.

Question 32

What is the nature of dreaming in relation to origins of the universe?

Answer 32

• How the world, animals and plants came into being through the actions of Ancestral spirit beings.
• A metatemporal concept
• Each Aboriginal clan has an ancestor and natural species/totem.
• The beginning of time, creation of life, birth of humanity and the ordering of all things.

Question 33

What is the nature of dreaming in relation to sacred sites?

Answer 33

• Sacred sites are places within the landscape that have significance or where events occured in the dreaming.
• Can be sacred for their use
  eg burial grounds, ceremonial grounds.

Question 34

What is the nature of dreaming in relation to stories of the dreaming?

Answer 34

• Explain the origin of the world, how it was formed and how human beings were created.
• Experienced through song, dance, art, ritual, kinship and story.
• Passed down through generations.
• Provides unity, purpose and laws that maintain Aboriginal peoples identity.

Question 35

What is the nature of dreaming in relation to Symbolism and art?

Answer 35

• SYmbols are used in art to preserve culture and tradition and tell the Dreamtime stories.
• Art is connected to the artist’s country.
• Used to teach about sites, sacred stories, rituals..
• Indicates identity and clan relationships.

Question 36

What is meant by a metatemporal conept?

Answer 36

• not confined to specific time period.
  Incorporates past, present and future reality as a complete and present reality.

Question 37

Give an example of a sacred site.

Answer 37

Uluru.
thought to have been formed by ancestral beings during the Dreaming.

Question 38

What is the nature of dreaming in relation to rituals and ceremonies?

Answer 38

Mark important occasions
Way to maintain cultural practices
Reinforce social bonds
Honour ancestral beings

Question 39

Give an example of a dreamtime story.

Answer 39

the rainbow serpent

Question 40

give examples of symbolism and art.

Answer 40

Body art, painting, tree carving, rock art, bark painting, dot painting.

Question 41

What is kinship?

Answer 41

More than biological connections, the social roles, responsibilities and obligations based on the dreaming narratives.

Question 42

How is the dreaming for Aboriginals diverse?

Answer 42

• Language, kinship, art, song, dance, totems, geography on the land…
• over 700 languages
• Thousands of dreaming stories
• identity preserved through their individual and culturally unique features.

Question 43

Describe the inextricable connection of the dreaming, land and identity.

Answer 43

• Aboriginal peoples are part of the land and it is part of them.
• Land is the physical medium through which the Dreaming is communicated, lived and expressed.
• The land is their mother; it is steeped in their culture and there is responsibility to care for it.
• Spiritual relationship with the land.

Question 44

What quote can be used to answer a question based on the inextricable connection of the dreaming, land and identity.

Answer 44

S.Knight’s statement:
“We don’t own the land, the land owns us. The land is my mother, my mother is the land.”

Question 45

Why is the dreaming important for aboriginals?

Answer 45

• Forms foundation of cultural and spiritual identity.
• The aboriginal understanding of the world, of its creation and its stories.
• Tell the story of creation and enciompasses past, present, future.
• Provides the rules and laws for aboriginal peoples that links them to each other and the land.
• Provides the knowledge of all aboriginal life.
• Influences aspects of lives : social organisation, kinship systems, totemic relationships, connections to land.

Question 46

The Dreaming ___ ___ and exists ____ the _____ world.

Answer 46

The dreaming transcends time and exists beyond the ordinary world.

Question 47

Give an example of how the dreaming influences aspects of aboriginal people’s lives.

Answer 47

Certain dreaming stories may dictate marriage rules and relationships between various kinship groups.