The Academic Study of Religion

If you're reading this right now, and fully digesting it (unlike myself during class), you should be paying me about 100 bucks or something. This is like FREE Religious Studies 001 class right here.

My professor defines religion as "Ultimate Concern". What does this mean? It means that for every religion, regardless of its origin or beliefs, has its own "thing" that it cares about. eg. Christians and God, Muslims and Allah, Buddhists and Nirvana, etc. The "thing" is transcendental. It does not exist in time, nor in space, as we physically do. So now, remove your perception that "religion" is "praying", or "going to church/temple/mosque", or "worshiping". Think of it as Ultimate Concern. For example, if your ultimate concern is to make tons n tons of money, then money is your religion. If it is to get a 5.0 GPA, then that is your religion. Comprende?

So today in class we talked about the 5 functions of religion. (It helps people defines these things.)

1. Happiness. What does it mean to be happy? Religion helps people define happiness. In most religions, happiness is internally based. Material wealth canNOT bring you happiness because it is subject to change. Say you buy a flashy sports car, you think you're happy. But when it gets banged up or scratched, you're unhappy. Internally based happiness is the same, whether you just won the lottery, or got shot 4 times. You're still happy.

2. Meaning. Meaning to what?? Meaning to life. There was this psychologist who interviewed 60 honor roll students, all of whom attempted suicide, and asked them why. Their response: "Life is meaningless." What does that mean exactly? What is the purpose of your life?

3. Values. I'm not gonna talk about this. Because this is subjective. But religion gives you priorities and things. Ethics is another different issue altogether.

4. Identity. Ask yourself this. "Who am I?" Simple to ask, hard to answer. The words aren't even that hard. All less than FOUR letters. Even IGOR knows those words. Your social identity is one where you're known by your name, your friends, who your mother and father are, brother, sister, where you're from, etc. It gives you a label. But your religious identity gives you a location in the universe. So.... who are you?

5. Death. Religion helps people deal with death. It looks death straight in the face and says "Why does this happen? What is the purpose of death?"



Gets your brain going a little doesn't it?