Religion,
Ethics, and Social Behavior
WHY RELIGION?
Major Challenge?
IGNORANCE!
• Ignorance
is not stupidity
• People
are ignorant about something because:
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They are afraid to learn
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They don’t have access to information
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They have access to false information
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They are not allowed to learn
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They are too lazy to learn
Thoughts on Religion
• “Religion”
has been the major determinant of human behavior since the dawn
of consciousness
• “Religion”
is fundamentally about:
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identity =
self-esteem
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relationship
= empowerment
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“religions”
answer identity-forming and relationship-guiding questions
Functions of Religion: To Society
• Supports social norms
• Provides social integration
• Provides social control
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Legitimating of
social values
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Social solidarity
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Social conformity
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Informs legal systems
• Provides interpretation of important life cycles in
society and life events
Functions of Religion:
To the Individual
• Psychological
function: dealing with death, suffering, fear, anxiety,etc.
• Makes
the world understandable
• Provides
meaning and purpose in life
• Interprets
life-cycle events: birth, adulthood, marriage, death
• Helps
individuals adjust to change
Common Misconceptions
•
Religion is a person’s own business; it
has no impact on society in general.
•
Religion is identified with the Christianity
taught in Sunday Schools.
•
Religion only happens at a certain time, on a
certain day, in unusually shaped buildings that occupy prime real estate in the
towns and cities of the world.
•
Religion and
politics are separate institutions
Real Religion
• Real religion happens somewhere between religious belief (idealism)
and human behavior (practical experience).
• Real religion is a blend of theology and culture.
•
Real religion is filtered through the joy and suffering of real
people who belong to life just as much as you and I do.
Real Religion
• Real religion “works” in the day-to-day experience of people as a
combination of:
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Values, morals,
traditions, customs, mores
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Social
constructions regarding belief & behavior
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Sacred texts
(biblical theology in America)
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Common sense
experience
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Emotive symbols,
myths & rituals
Key Observation
BELIEFS
+
BELIEVERS
=
BEHAVIOR
Common Human Experience
•
All human beings in
all cultures and in all eras of human history have pondered the same existential
questions:
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Who am I?
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Where did “all this”
come from?
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What is the meaning
& purpose of life?
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How should human
beings live?
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What is the “good
life?”
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How do I find
happiness?
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I know that I will
die. What happens, then?
Religion & Life
1. People ask profound life questions
about about identity, meaning, purpose, love, hope, death, etc.
2. Rites of Passage in life are
part of human existence = birth, death, adulthood, marriage, love, tragedy,
change, etc.
3. Rites of Passage generate profound life questions; cause people to
question the meaning and purpose of life.
Religion & Rites of Passage
Religions provide answers to profound life questions that arise during rites
of passage = life situations common to all human beings.
Human religious activity, then,
is common to all human beings in all cultures and in all times.
Common Human Experience
• Religion is about the ongoing quest for answers, for “wholeness,” for
peace and security, for justice, equality, and fairness.
• The “world religions” – Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, etc. – all emerge in a relatively short (2500 yrs.) period
of time.
• Earlier peoples had different answers; what will
future answers and religious systems be like?
Worldviews & Religion
Everyone has a worldview:
• A worldview = your identity, or sense of
self + your relationship with the world around you + your interpretation of
life’s circumstances + your behavior!
•
Worldview = what a person really values; what they really
seek in life
• You know a
person’s worldview by their behavior; all else is “window dressing”
Types of Worldviews
• Self-centered
worldviews: concerns are limited to the need of the individual
• Secular
worldviews: concerns expand to include causes, ideologies, political
structures, etc.
• Religious
worldviews: concerns expand to include the transcendent
Self-centered Worldviews
• “Affluenza”
– The person who dies with the most toys wins the game of life!
• “Never
enough-ism” – not enough security, things, recognition, attention, etc.
• “I,
Me, Mine-ism” – I’m the center of the universe; get out of my way!
Socially Constructed Worldviews
• Hip-Hop culture
• Sports Fan (atic) culture
• Country Music culture
• NASCAR culture
• Professional Wrestling
• Fashion world
• Media/Web culture
• The “Weather Channel” ??????
Secular (non-religious) Worldviews
• Feminism
• Environmentalism
• Capitalism
• Communism
• “cultural
Christianity”
• Patriotism
• multiculturalism
The point is…..
• For good or ill, all human beings have a worldview.
• It is a “way of thinking” about the world that, at
some level, provides structure, meaning, a sense of purpose (or lack thereof),
guidance, or some level of belief that it’s worthwhile to “get up in the
morning.”
The “religious impulse”
• The human “intuition” that there “has to be something
more” to all of this.
• The search for wholeness, unity, completeness, peace,
fulfillment
•
Doing all of this in
relationship to the transcendent
•
Transcendent = God, a higher reality or consciousness, a “better
way of being”
THE DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS
• DOCTRINE
= BELIEF
• ETHICS
= BEHAVIOR
BELIEF
+ BELIEVER
= BEHAVIOR
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS
MYTH
EXPERIENCE DOCTRINE
RITUAL
Inward
Turning Impact
on
Religion
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS
ETHICS
DOCTRINE
SOCIAL
Outward Turning Impact
on Society
ETHICS
• Definition: Religious ethics is that aspect of religion
concerned with proper patterns of action in the situation and
circumstances of the human cycle and social relations.
• Ethics: key to values/behavior relationship in any
worldview
• Provides the link between beliefs and right
action (behavior)
Thoughts on religion...
•
For “religion” to work,
it must be spiritually authentic and socially relevant.
•
For “religion” to work,
a human being must see themselves as included, empowered, enlightened,
spiritually-moved, and inspired to love.
• Otherwise “religion” becomes the most dangerous power
on earth.
Thoughts on religion…
• When “religious answers” to profound life questions
are institutionalized in a given culture, the religion will express the
very best in that culture but also can be infected by the worst concepts and
practices, all in the name of God.
• Example: the oppression of women in the name of God or
the Divine
Thoughts on religion…
• What
is common in human experience finds its way into religion.
• Religion,
then, takes common human experiences and adds a unique and powerful
interpretation of what it means to be human.
• Religion
can be familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.
Religion and Violence
• “Religion” is the ideal way a people conceive of the
world; it is the way the world SHOULD BE.
• “Politics,” as power, is the natural human inclination
to see the ideals of their worldview realized in daily life.
• All of human history is about the dynamic relationship
between religion and power.
Religion & Violence
•
Power – spirituality
= religious violence
• 5 “symptoms”
of real or potential violence in any
religion are:
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Absolute &
exclusive truth claims
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Blind obedience to a
charismatic leader
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Establishing the
“ideal” time for violent activity
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A God-ordained end
justifies any means
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Declaring Holy War
against perceived enemies