WRB

• Worldview


  A collection of beliefs about life and the universe being held by people
• Kinds of Belief System

  • Monism
  • Polytheism
  • Monotheism
  • Atheism
  • Agnosticism
• Monism


  There is no real distinction between god and the universe
• Polytheism


  The belief and worship of many gods
• Monotheism


  The doctrine or belief in one supreme god
• Atheism


  Disbelief or in denial of the existence of a personal god
• Agnosticism


  God cannot be known
• Theism


  A belief in the existence of one god viewed as the creative source of the human race and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world
• Monotheistic religions claim that there is only one God who could have designed and created the universe or may have directed all events that led to the creation of everything
• Monotheistic religions


  • Judaism
  • Christianity
  • Islam
• Polytheistic religions


  • Ancient religions of Egypt
  • Ancient religions of Greece
  • Ancient religions of Rome
• Polytheistic religions


  • Recognize many principal gods among whom no one is supreme
  • People worship a multitude of personal gods
• Agnostics


  Deny the possibility for man to acquire knowledge of the existence of God
• Monism


  Asserts that there is no genuine distinction between God and the universe
• Implications of Monism


  • God is dwelling in the universe as part of it
  • The universe does not exist at all as a reality but only as manifestation of God
• Edward Burnett Tylor


  English anthropologist; founding figure of the science of social anthropology
• Atheists


  Deny the existence of God
• James George Frazer


  Scottish social anthropologist; one of the founding figures of modern anthropology
• Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski


  An eminent 20th-century Polish anthropologist
• Latin word "religio"


  Something done with overanxious or scrupulous attention to detail
• View on Religion (Tylor)

  The belief in spiritual beings
• View on Religion (Frazer)


  A propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to control and direct the course of nature and human life
• Latin verb "religare"


  To tie together or to bind fast
• View on Religion (Malinowski)

  A body of self-contained acts being themselves the fulfillment of their purpose; an affair of all, which everyone takes an active and equivalent part
• David Emile Durkheim


  French sociologist; Father of sociology
• View on Religion (Durkheim)


  A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things
• Common Characteristics Among Religions

  • Religious rituals
  • Code of conduct
  • Belief in deity
  • A doctrine of salvation
• Religious authorities


  • Writings known as scriptures
  • Writings of saints and other holy persons
  • Decisions by religious councils and leaders
  • Unwritten customs and laws known as traditions
• Three philosophical views on belief in deity

  • Atheists believe that no deity exists
  • Theists believe in deity or deities
  • Agnostics say that the existence of deity cannot be proved or disproved
• Doctrine of Salvation


  Belief that people are in some danger from which they must be saved
• Code of Conduct


  A set of moral teachings and values that all religions have in some form
• A code of ethics tells believers how to conduct their lives and instructs them how to act toward the deity and toward one another
• Religious Rituals


  Acts and ceremonies by which believers appeal to and serve God, deities and other sacred powers
• Performance of a ritual


  Often called a service
• Most common ritual


  Prayer or for some Asian religions, meditation
• Rituals intended to


  • Purify the body
  • Pilgrimages
• Rituals


  Commemorate events in the history of religions and mark important events in a person's life
• Elements of Religion


  • Cult (Belief in Deity - how we worship)
  • Creed (Doctrine of Salvation - what we believe)
  • Code (Code of Conduct - how we live)
  • Community (The believers)
• Animistic Theories


  Primitive people believed in souls or anima found in people (seen in dreams) and in all nature and they pray and offer sacrifices to these spirits
• Mana


  A mysterious force that inhabited all of nature. The destructiveness of the mana can be avoided by establishing taboos.