But I have another objection to it. The Number of people who follow the religion: 4 million people (called Mormons) Major areas of the followers of that religion: Cuba and Jamaica. Can such childish dreams have given rise to that faith which has proved so stupendous a power in the world's history at once destroying and inspiring or to those hopes which have sustained millions of our fellow-men amidst terrible sufferings and lightened their eyes in the agony of death? For although we possess no historical record of the oldest forms of religion either in written documents or in trustworthy traditions yet historical science which requires to invoke divination and intuition to create a distinct picture of the past even when such records exist can also with their aid give us an approximate idea of these forms as they existed in prehistoric times. religions Article Elements of a Comparative Methodology in the Study of Religion Oliver Freiberger Department of Asian Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; of@austin.utexas.edu Received: 15 January 2018; Accepted: 27 January 2018; Published: 29 January 2018 Abstract: While comparison has been the subject of much theoretical debate in the study of religion… Basic Elements of Religion Sufi initiates—known as “Whirling Dervishes”—performing the Sema ceremony 2. Mr Andrew Lang in his recent work, And it is to these illusions as Feuerbach has called them to these self-deceptions to this Fata Morgana this will-of-the-wisp that religion is said to owe its origin! Gravity. Due to a changes in circumstances, aspects can be refocused, redeveloped or reinterpreted. What makes them religious? provided of course we understand the last word in a figurative and not in a literal sense. They assist in understanding the complexities of religion. Spell. And although these thoughts are always awakened by the influence of some external stimulus they are only awakened not created by such influence. Mormonism originated in 1820s in what was called the Second Great Awakening. A Hegelian of the extreme “left” like Feuerbach one of the “right” like Lipsius and Eduardvon Hartmann Otto Pfleiderer (who however since 1878 has abandoned it for another theory) and at an earlier period Zeller and Hoekstra have all accepted it with slight variations as the best explanation of the origin of religion. God reveals Himself to man through nature and through man's own soul—yes but what is it that gives the human soul the necessary receptivity for such divine revelation? For to this instinct alone we must attribute the hypothesis that men regard the desires of their heart transformed into persons by their inventive imagination as the causes of the powers they see at work in nature. The process is the very reverse. It is man's original unconscious innate sense of infinity that gives rise to his first stammering utterances of that sense and to all his beautiful dreams of the past and the future. Man would then arrive at religious conviction by a process of reasoning like the following: “I hear a voice within me which often bids me to do what conflicts with my wishes and inclinations or forbids me to do precisely what I most ardently desire. It therefore still requires to be explained how he comes to put himself into relation with these beings to suppose that he is somehow akin to them and even to ascribe to them mental and moral qualities which have no connection with their functions as powers of nature. These universals, and the differences in the way societies and individuals experience religion, provide rich material for sociological study. Skip to main content.ca Hello, Sign in. Observe I am not speaking here as an apologist. Some characteristics of religion are the worship of gods or prophets, beliefs in a system of norms and values, symbology or places of worship. This hypothesis places me rather in a dilemma as I can neither accept nor reject it. Prime Cart. Here too we see the instinct of causality at work; but it is not by its application to the phenomena of nature alone that religion is produced. According to this view it was the dictates of conscience that alike prompted the worshippers of Moloch (properly Melek or Malik) to make their children pass through the fire in the Valley of Gehinnom and impelled the prophets to inveigh against the practice in the name of Yahve; the martyrs whom neither threats nor torture nor death could induce to renounce their faith and their persecutors who threw them to the lions or burned them at the stake acted alike from conscientious motives; Creon who refused to bury the body of Polynices as being that of a traitor and Antigone who disregarded the royal command in order to obey the behests of the gods were equally conscientious. Whatever name we give it—instinct or an innate original and unconscious form of thought or form of conception—it is the specifically human element in man the idea which dominates him. It is rather a rudimentary philosophy a crude cosmogony. Some authorities (like Schenkel) not only deduce religion from it but make it the foundation of a complete dogmatic system; others (like Opzoomer and Rauwenhoff) maintain that it is entirely devoid of content and is purely of a formal nature. At a later period when people had outgrown these childish notions they tried in order to adapt religion to the demands of a higher civilisation to clothe it in a more æsthetic a philosophical scientific or even ethical garb. These elements can be incorporated into their classroom policies and performance standards regarding technology usage. Religion. That is what we want to know. Myths within religion is a subject that is thoroughly questioned, and independently relies on faith or interpersonal belief in order to have any slight truth. The argument may be summarised as follows: Man placed in a world where he is surrounded by many different powers which endanger his welfare and his very existence but conscious of his right to exist in that world seeks for help and support in a power to which the world itself is subject. Despite differences, there are common elements in a ceremony marking a person’s death, such as announcement of the death, care of the deceased, disposition, and ceremony or ritual. Even in the lower strata of religion men figure to themselves a certain moral order of the world although in a very primitive form and this moral order must have a director and an origin. Some people may answer in the affirmative. Notwithstanding this defence I am at a loss to discover the origin of religion in a perception of the Infinite. There is some difference of opinion as to the precise meaning of the terms conscience and unconditional sense of duty. It has been observed in the case of children for example that they are unable to form any conception of death. Aspects can alter over time. Religious beliefs and practices, and why they change. What part religions play in cultural and social transformation. And, at the risk of being even more provocative, it is Muslims who need to say it the most among those who are religious. Unless the stimulus finds something responsive within the man himself it yields no fruit. The role of religions in transnationalism and globalization. Try. 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