Nature and Purpose of Studying Religion University of

Nature and Purpose of Studying Religion University of Phoenix REL 133 World Religious Traditions I Introduction to Asian Religions

Agenda for Week 1: REL 133 • • Instructor Introduction Student Introduction Game Class Overview Learning Team Formation • Class Discussion: What is Religion? – Are you a pluralist, inclusivist, exclusivist or none of the above? • Course Objectives for Week 1: • Identify the elements of a religious belief system. • Describe the role of tradition in religion. • Explain the importance of being knowledgeable about other peoples’ beliefs and attitudes.

World Population Statistics • World Population: • India • China • US Population: • US Census Bureau (www. census. gov) – Updated 3/14/11 6. 9 b 1. 19 b 1. 34 b 311, 000 (17. 2%) (22%) (5%)

WHAT IS RELIGION? • Guidelines / Rules • For Individuals, Families, Communities and States • Identifying and searching for meaning • Sacred amidst profane – Sense of higher purpose and direction • Transcending the finite self

Psychological Perspective: • Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm: “People need a stable frame of reference. ” • Sociologist Emile Durkheim: “Provides the symbols and structures that hold society together. ” • Answers the fear of what happens after death

Materialistic Perspective: • Developed in 19 th century • Only the physical world exists • Supernatural world is ‘imaginary’ Karl Marx: “Religion is the opiate of the masses to keep them submissive and unquestioning. ”

Scientific Perspective: • Religion & Science search for universal principles that explain life • Stephen Hawkins: “There is a source that breathes fire into equations and makes a universe for them to describe. ”

Faith Perspective: • Encounter with a transcendent reality • “Sublime encounter” • Feeling of a transcendence (grace) beyond everyday living • Feeling something that can never be fully know or understood

Western Paradigm • Torah / Old Testament – – – Creator God Covenant with God Messengers of God Blessings and curses from God Deliverer / Messiah End of Time Possible Punishment by God Commandments from God Align oneself to God’s will and word Personal God Teaching by parable

Asian Paradigm • Unfathomable beginnings • Circular understanding of time • Karma • Reincarnation • Going beyond the rational faculty • Divinity within identical to God and universe • Psychologically oriented

Asian Religious Philosophy • Inadequacy of “Empirical Inquiry” – Perception and reason for ordinary, utilitarian knowledge – Transcendent reality can only be known by “transrational capacity” • (Confucianism as an exception)

Impersonal God Within • We experience reality in two different ways: � – Rational Thought – Non-rational modes of knowing • The rational mind is not the highest faculty of human activity – Layered self • Non-rational modes of knowing include: – Automatic behaviors, sleeping, meditation, chanting, prayer, unbelievable healing from illness (body knowledge), placebos, asceticism, fasting, yoga, breath control, sannyasin,

Concepts of God • Personal God With qualities and human • • attributes / Can pray and communicate with the deity Impersonal God Without qualities and human attributes (beyond gender) / Can access this knowledge or power through discipline and meditation / creation and destruction principle / within and without

Negative Side of Religion • Contemplation in spiritual practice as escape from everyday issues • Dividing people in hatred and intolerance

Historical Background • 90, 000 -10, 000 BCE Successive ice ages – Lowering of the world’s sea levels – Temporary land bridges • • • China & Korea Philippines & Indonesia Siberia with Alaska – Hunter-Gatherers spread out over the globe, start to live near rivers and in valleys – Around 25, 000 BCE: fertility figurines

Agricultural Revolution Began • Last ice age ended • • 10, 000 BCE With warmer temperatures, the domestication of plants and animals Hunter-Gatherers became farmers

Historical Background • 3, 500 BCE: Flood Myths / Ocean levels reached current levels • 2500 BCE: Start of Urbanization and the four river valley civilizations

Cultural Elements of Urbanization • Social interaction beyond kinship ties • Social stratification / Work roles • Writing / Record Keeping • Trade / Government • Gender roles • Representational Art • Monumental Architecture usu. sacred • Patriarchalism in government & religion

Patriarchalism • Shift to kingship instead of • kinship groups Shift to patriarchal religion – Indra as the Supreme Male Deity • Reduced ritual participation of women – Became property of men

Axial Age • 800 -300 BCE: Spiritual / Intellectual flourishing

Comparison of East and West • Deity (Philosophical) • In the West, Deity is a fact and energy proceeds from this fact • Deity in the East is a personification of energies in the universe • Consciousness • In the West the brain is the source of consciousness • In the East consciousness comes first and brain is a human organ that interprets consciousness through a filter of time and space

US Census Bureau 1/1/2005 • 19. 2%-22. 25%: Adherents of Christianity • Protestantism is broken into over 200 church denominations • 10. 92%-18. 72%: Adherents of Islam • 10. 11%-18. 72%: Adherents of Hinduism • 18, 000 followers of Judaism

Living Religions states: “comprehending the intention and meaning of religious phenomena for believers. ”