Title: Why study religion?
Course: REL 201 RTZ > Section: Week 1 - Introductions, Introductions to the Course and Introductions to Religion

Introduction

Islam teaches us that religion is in the nature of man. To be human is to be concerned with religion; to stand erect as men and women do is to seek transcendence.  Human beings have conceived the imprint of God upon the very substance of the their souls and cannot evade religion any more than they can avoid breathing. (Seyyed Hossein, In Our Religions 444)

I had to find my way to the place where I could stand side by side with a Hundu, a Buddhist, a Moslem, and know that the authenticity of his experience was identical with the essence and authenticity of my own. (Howard Thurman, With Head and Heart 120)

Reasons to Study Religion:

Pews Research Center completed a comprehensive survey of over 230 countries and territories in 2010 and approximates that 84% of the world population practices some sort of religious traditions.  32% of those are practicing Christians, 23% practicing Muslim, 15% Hindu and 30% is a mixture of all the other religions of the world.

The study of religion provides insight into one great aspect of the hearts and minds of most of humanity.

It enables us to better express our own respective traditions to others in the quest for interfaith understanding and dialog.

The study of religion should be distinguished from the practice of religion.  Studying religion does not mean becoming religious, although it does not exclude this effect.

Religion is a part of domestic affairs, both nationally and internationally.

Consider the following national issues and whether or not they political debate pertaining to their individual outcomes is subject to religious influences:

Legalized abortion

Gene research

Doctor assisted suicide

The death penalty

Faith-based initiatives re. Social services

Gay and lesbian rights, including gay marriage

Religious matters occasionally become apparent in domestic crisis:

The Peoples Temple and Jonestown massacre in 1978 where 914 people died

The 1993 Branch Dravidian confrontation with federal agents in Waco, Texas that claimed the lives of 80 people

The Heaven’s Gate mass suicide of 39 people in 1997 pertaining to the appearance of the Hale-Bopp comet, resurrection, and a coming apocalypse

Al-Queda, September 11, and its aftermath

When pursuing business opportunities, relief efforts, or political arrangements with international partners, it is important to be aware of those partners’ religious sensibilities.  Some issues, examples, and questions to be aware of, among others, are:

How do international relief organizations maximize their effectiveness when dealing with the religious sensibilities of their client population?  After the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India, relief efforts were hampered when village Hindu leaders insisted that relief supplies be distributed not only according to need, but according to the religious status of the Hindu caste system.

Also, in 2001, the Japanese marketed their version of pork-based MSG (monosodium glutamate) to Indonesia, a predominately Muslim country.  Muslims consider pork to be a forbidden food.  According to Will Deming in Rethinking Religion nearly 3,000 tons of products had to be recalled.

Accordingly, those wishing to establish effective relationships and base clienteles with Muslim countries must become familiar, country by country, with various Muslim dress codes, daily prayer, fasting during Ramadan, and restrictions on alcohol, gambling, and pork.

In India, for example, McDonald’s aware of the cow’s stature, has established franchises that do not serve beef.  Unlike Burger King in 2009 used the image of the Goddess Lakshmi sitting in the lotus position on top of a hamburger to market their products.

Dr. Paul Redditt’s Top Ten Reasons to Study Religion

You might meet your future spouse in class
It satisfies a graduation requirement
It might help you get a job. (Might not!)
It prepares you for graduate or professional school in many areas: e.g., divinity, medicine, law, international relations
It prepares you for informed participation in church life
It is inherently interesting
It puts you in dialogue with some of the greatest thinkers the world has ever known
It helps you think critically about abstract subjects
It prepares you to think about faith
It can help you draw nearer to God

As Deming points out, “Rather than ask, Why study religion?, the better question might be:  Why have we, as a society, not studied religion more?”  (Deming, Will.  Rethinking Religion. Oxford University Press, 2005.)

From the Upanishads:

How Many Gods?

Then Vidagdha Sakalya asked him:  “How many gods are there, O Yajnavalkya?”  He replied with this formula: “As many as mentioned in the formula of the hymn of praise addressed to the Visvedevas, viz. three and three hundred, three and three thousand.”

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

“Three-three,” he said.

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

“Six,” he said.

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

“Three,” he said.

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

“Two,” he said.

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “How many gods are there really, O Yajnavalkya?”

“One,” he said.

“Yes,” he said, and asked again: “Who are these three and three hundred, three and three thousand?”

Yajnavalkya replied: “They are only the various powers.”

From the works of Sri Ramakrishna:

Many Paths to One God

As one and the same material, water, is called different names by different peoples, one calling it water, another eau, a third aqua, and another pani, so the one Sat-chit-ananda, the everlasting intelligent-bliss, is invoked by some as God, by some as Allah, by some as Jehovah, by some as Hari, and by others as Brahman.

As one an ascend to the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope, so diverse are the ways and means to approach God, and every religion in the world shows one of these ways.

Different creeds are but different paths to reach the Almighty.  Various and different are the ways that lead to the house of the Lord. Every religion is nothing but one of such paths that lead to God.

As the young wife in a family shows her love and respect to her father-in-law, mother-in-law, and every other member of the family, and at the same time loves her husband more than these; similarly, being firm in thy devotion to the deity of thy own choice, do not despise other deities, but honor them all.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, he who longs for him, finds him.  God and verify this sin thine own life; try for three consecutive days with genuine earnestness and thou art sure to succeed.

Every man should follow his own religion.  A Christian should follow Christianity, a Mohammedan should follow Mohammedanism, and so on.  For the Hindus, the ancient path of the Aryan Rishis is the best.

People partition off their lands by means of boundaries, but no one can partition off the all-embracing sky overhead. The indivisible sky surrounds all and includes all.  So common man in ignorance says, “My religion si the only one, my religion is best.” But when his heart is illumined by true knowledge, he knows that above all these wars of sections and sectarians presides the one indivisible, eternal, all-knowing bliss.

As a mother, in nursing her sick children, gives rice and curry to one, and sago arrowroot to another and bread and butter to a third, so the Lord has laid out different paths for different men suitable to their natures.

Dispute not. As you rest firmly on your own faith and opinion, allow others also the equal liberty to stand by their own faiths and opinions.  By mere disputations you will never succeed in convincing another of his error.  When the grace of God descends on him, each one will understand his own mistakes.

So long as the bee is outside the petals of the lily, and has not tasted the sweetness of its honey, it hovers round the flower emitting its buzzing sounds; but when it is inside the lower, it noiselessly drinks it nectar. So long as man quarrels and disputes about doctrines and dogmas he has not tasted the nectar of true faith; when he has tasted it, he becomes quiet and full of peace.