Not exact matches
religion: 1: a set
of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose
of the universe 2: a
specific fundamental set
of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number
of persons or sects 3: a cause, principle, or
system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
Specific notions
of deity, and
of divine action, that have figured in theistic conceptual
systems of long - past civilizations have certainly been influenced by then - prevailing technology — the ways in which people made their living.5 In our own time, recent developments in technology and in science have had major influence on how the object
of religion is conceived, at least for some theists.6 Whitehead wrote:
While the impact
of these classical theories has remained strong, I would like to point to a
specific contribution that, in my view, has served as a kind
of watershed in our thinking about the cultural dimension
of religion: Clifford Geertz's essay «
Religion as a Cultural
System,» published in 1966.1 Although Geertz, an anthropologist, was concerned in this essay with many issues that lay on the fringes
of sociologists» interests, his writing is clear and incisive, the essay displays exceptional erudition, and it provides not only a concise definition
of religion but also a strong epistemological and philosophical defense
of the importance
of religion as a topic
of inquiry.
One approach to dealing with
religions and belief
systems is to design
specific subjects taught over a number
of years.
Prothero's point, aided by cogent summaries
of the world's major diaspora
religions, is that while there is some overlap about goodness and an ideal world, there are
specific reasons why
religions emerged the way they did for very different purposes (his sports analogy is a good one — most sports have a score - keeping
system, but runs are very different than goals or crossing a finish line), obscuring the real and often hostile fissures between them.
Prothero's point, aided by cogent summaries
of the world's major diaspora
religions, is that while there is some overlap about goodness and an ideal world, there are
specific reasons why
religions emerged the way they did for very different purposes (his sports analogy is a good one — most sports have a score - keeping
system, but runs are v