Unit OneThe Religious Response

Living Religions

The Nature of Reality

Are humans religious?What is the Ultimate

Reality or the Sacred?Where do we get the

word religion from?

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Dimensions of Religions

Ninian Smart notes seven dimensions of religion.

1. Ritual (repeated and predictable worship-ful actions)

2. Narrative and mythic (the first order discourse)

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Dimensions of Religions

3. Experiential and emotional (religious experience, feelings of guilt, dread, awe, devotion, etc.)

4. Social and institutional (group dimensions involving shared beliefs, identity, membership)

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Dimensions of Religions

5. Ethical and legal (rules concerning human behavior)

6. Doctrinal and philosophical (systematic belief structure and intellectual framework)

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Dimensions of Religions

7. Material things (things and places representing or manifesting the sacred)

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Why Are There Religions?

In Many cultures and timesReligion: the basic foundation of life

Why are there religions? How have various thinkers sought to explain

the origin and continuation of religion throughout human history?

How do the different examples of explanations of religion help us understand and refine our own approach to the study of religion?

Materialistic perspective: humans invented religionReligion exists in our imaginationsReligion is bad for peopleHumans created religionLudwig Feuerbach

Humans have turned desires and fears into gods

Sigmund FreudReligion is like childhood neurosis

Karl MarxAn opiate of the masses