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whitecrayon
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dear catholic answers forum readers
i have been reviewing chapter thirteen of the undergraduate textbook cultural anthropology, 12th edition (2008), by haviland, prins, walrath, and mcbride, which chapter is titled spirituality, religion, and the supernatural. in that chapter, i have run across ten opening paragraphs which i would like to share here, in the hopes that this thread might spark discussion of the nature and condition of religion per se. after reading the excerpt below, please, if you would like, comment in this thread on what you think about any or all of the facts offered.
from pages 298 to 300:
"from an anthropological point of view, spirituality and religion are part of a cultural system’s superstructure, earlier defined as the collective body of ideas, beliefs, and values by which a group of people makes sense of the world and their place in it. in their studies of different religions and spiritual beliefs and practices, anthropologists seek to remain unbiased regarding any particular cultural tradition. instead, they examine spirituality and religion in terms of a society’s worldview - the collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality.
among people in all cultures, particular spiritual or religious beliefs and practices fulfill numerous social and psychological needs, such as the need to confront and explain suffering and death. religion gives meaning to individual and group life, drawing power from spiritual forces or beings and offering continuity of existence beyond death. it can provide the path by which people transcend their burdensome and mortal existence and attain, if only momentarily, spiritual hope and relief.
religion and spirituality also serve an array of social needs. a traditional religion reinforces group norms, provides moral sanctions for individual conduct, and furnishes the ideology of common purpose and values that support the well-being of the community. also of note, people often turn to religion or spirituality in the hope of reaching a specific goal, such as the healing of physical, emotional, or social ills.
perhaps it is because they fulfill these and numerous other social and psychological needs shared by humans across cultures that supernatural beliefs are universal. while recognizing that not all individuals believe in a supernatural force or entity, anthopologists know of no group of people anywhere on the face of the earth who, at any time over the past 100,000 years, has been without some manifestation of spirituality or religion. not even in russia and albania, where atheism was the communist state dogma during much of the 20th century, did religion entirely disappear.
in the 19th century, the european intellectual tradition gave rise to the idea that modern science would ultimately replace religion by showing people the irrationality of their spiritual beliefs and practices. the expectation was that as valid scientific explanations became available, people would abandon their religious beliefs and rituals as superstitious myths and false worship. but to date, despite tremendous scientific advancements, that has not occurred. in fact, in many places, the opposite trend seems to prevail.
far from causing religion’s death, the growth of scientific knowledge in rapidly changing societies may have contributed to the continuing practice of religion in modern life by producing new anxieties and raising new questions about human existence. although traditional, mainline christian religions have shown some decline, nondenominational spirituality is on the rise. also on the rise are fundamentalist religions, which often take a strong antiscience position. examples include islamic fundamentalism in countries such as afghanistan, algeria, and iran; jewish fundamentalism in Israel and the united states; and hindu fundamentalism in india. christian fundamentalism is represented in the dramatic growth of evangelical denominations in the united states, central america, and sub-saharan africa.
among the fastest-growing religious communities in the world are the indigenous churches of africa. over the last half century, the number of registered indigenous denominations in southern africa alone has doubled from about 5,000 to about 10,000. there, it is estimated that more than half of the christian church members belong to indigenous churches, like the amanazaretha church founded by a zulu prophet and popular among fellow zulus in natal.
within the united states, non-christian religions are also growing. islam (3 to 5 million followers – up from 527,000 in 1990), buddhism (2 to 3 million – up from 401,000 in 1990), hinduism (1.28 million – up from 227,000 in 1990), not to mention various new age options such as wicca (a modern, nature-oriented religion that draws upon ancient western european and pre-christian beliefs and now counting about 310,000 adherents). notably, just 16 percent of the adult population throughout the world claims to be nonreligious. this is not to say that those classified as nonreligious are all atheists, because this miscellaneous “negative” category actually includes many millions of individuals in dozens of countries who may reject or not fit under the label or organized religion, but are metaphysically involved in creative arrangements of spiritual beliefs and practices of their own choosing.
an inventory of the technological applications of modern science reveals the range of new anxieties facing our species. these include nuclear catastrophe, threats of chemical or biological terrorism, health hazards from pollution, and uneasiness about the consequences of developments in biotechnology such as cloning, production of new strains of genetically engineered."
i have been reviewing chapter thirteen of the undergraduate textbook cultural anthropology, 12th edition (2008), by haviland, prins, walrath, and mcbride, which chapter is titled spirituality, religion, and the supernatural. in that chapter, i have run across ten opening paragraphs which i would like to share here, in the hopes that this thread might spark discussion of the nature and condition of religion per se. after reading the excerpt below, please, if you would like, comment in this thread on what you think about any or all of the facts offered.
from pages 298 to 300:
"from an anthropological point of view, spirituality and religion are part of a cultural system’s superstructure, earlier defined as the collective body of ideas, beliefs, and values by which a group of people makes sense of the world and their place in it. in their studies of different religions and spiritual beliefs and practices, anthropologists seek to remain unbiased regarding any particular cultural tradition. instead, they examine spirituality and religion in terms of a society’s worldview - the collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality.
among people in all cultures, particular spiritual or religious beliefs and practices fulfill numerous social and psychological needs, such as the need to confront and explain suffering and death. religion gives meaning to individual and group life, drawing power from spiritual forces or beings and offering continuity of existence beyond death. it can provide the path by which people transcend their burdensome and mortal existence and attain, if only momentarily, spiritual hope and relief.
religion and spirituality also serve an array of social needs. a traditional religion reinforces group norms, provides moral sanctions for individual conduct, and furnishes the ideology of common purpose and values that support the well-being of the community. also of note, people often turn to religion or spirituality in the hope of reaching a specific goal, such as the healing of physical, emotional, or social ills.
perhaps it is because they fulfill these and numerous other social and psychological needs shared by humans across cultures that supernatural beliefs are universal. while recognizing that not all individuals believe in a supernatural force or entity, anthopologists know of no group of people anywhere on the face of the earth who, at any time over the past 100,000 years, has been without some manifestation of spirituality or religion. not even in russia and albania, where atheism was the communist state dogma during much of the 20th century, did religion entirely disappear.
in the 19th century, the european intellectual tradition gave rise to the idea that modern science would ultimately replace religion by showing people the irrationality of their spiritual beliefs and practices. the expectation was that as valid scientific explanations became available, people would abandon their religious beliefs and rituals as superstitious myths and false worship. but to date, despite tremendous scientific advancements, that has not occurred. in fact, in many places, the opposite trend seems to prevail.
far from causing religion’s death, the growth of scientific knowledge in rapidly changing societies may have contributed to the continuing practice of religion in modern life by producing new anxieties and raising new questions about human existence. although traditional, mainline christian religions have shown some decline, nondenominational spirituality is on the rise. also on the rise are fundamentalist religions, which often take a strong antiscience position. examples include islamic fundamentalism in countries such as afghanistan, algeria, and iran; jewish fundamentalism in Israel and the united states; and hindu fundamentalism in india. christian fundamentalism is represented in the dramatic growth of evangelical denominations in the united states, central america, and sub-saharan africa.
among the fastest-growing religious communities in the world are the indigenous churches of africa. over the last half century, the number of registered indigenous denominations in southern africa alone has doubled from about 5,000 to about 10,000. there, it is estimated that more than half of the christian church members belong to indigenous churches, like the amanazaretha church founded by a zulu prophet and popular among fellow zulus in natal.
within the united states, non-christian religions are also growing. islam (3 to 5 million followers – up from 527,000 in 1990), buddhism (2 to 3 million – up from 401,000 in 1990), hinduism (1.28 million – up from 227,000 in 1990), not to mention various new age options such as wicca (a modern, nature-oriented religion that draws upon ancient western european and pre-christian beliefs and now counting about 310,000 adherents). notably, just 16 percent of the adult population throughout the world claims to be nonreligious. this is not to say that those classified as nonreligious are all atheists, because this miscellaneous “negative” category actually includes many millions of individuals in dozens of countries who may reject or not fit under the label or organized religion, but are metaphysically involved in creative arrangements of spiritual beliefs and practices of their own choosing.
an inventory of the technological applications of modern science reveals the range of new anxieties facing our species. these include nuclear catastrophe, threats of chemical or biological terrorism, health hazards from pollution, and uneasiness about the consequences of developments in biotechnology such as cloning, production of new strains of genetically engineered."
