In one of our first class meetings, we discussed what we believed the definition of religion was. We came up with a list of words that included: practice, beliefs, morals, higher power, mystery, stories, scriptures, and symbols. Peter Berger describes religion as, “The establishment, through human activity, of an all-embracing sacred order, that is, or a sacred cosmos that will be capable of maintaining itself in the ever-present face of chaos.” I don’t think you could sum it up any better than that. This discussion reminded me of a paper that I wrote last semester in my RSTD 211 class with professor Schweig.
Within our paper, we were asked to define religion in our own words and explain our thought process. My definition ended up being, “The system of beliefs and practices that individuals commit to in order to be able to feel free, enlightened, or loved, either from within, or from outside forces.” This is very similar to Berger’s and included quite a few of the words that we listed on the first day.
The practices that I speak of include different rituals people might participate in, trends they may follow, and other traditions they take part in. It can also include how they treat other human beings, animals, and nature itself. My definition of religion also takes into consideration the fact that not everyone believes in higher deities. Each religion has their own unique set of beliefs and established practices. No one religion is more important than any of the others and you must learn to be accepting of all of them.
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