What is Religion?
Study Guide for Test #6
Fall 1997
Prophecy and Revelation
Prophecy
Definition
to speak for a god
predict future
vs. prognostication
conditional prediction
signs
revelation
visionary
social reformer/critic
psychic
Social dimensions of prophecy
requirements for belief in prophecy
God is able & willing to communicate
God uses ordinary people for such communication
prophecy and its socialization
Community support essential to prophecy
often draw from lower social status b/c
means of attaining social status
non-cognitive (e.g. God speaking, not prophet)
value for the community
Psychology of Prophecy
Psychological states of prophecy
dissociation (ecstasy)
Tours of heaven etc.
out of body experiences
possession
necromancy/mediumship/channeling
automatic writing
parasensory experiences
visions
voices
other senses
enthusiasm
Pentecostal Prophecy
speaking in tongues
revelation
Ouija boards
insight
premonitions, etc.
divination
tarot cards, astrology, entrail reading, casting lots
dreams
Rel. b/n prophetic experience & insanity
drugs in religious experience
pathology vs. socially acceptable
Philosophy and Religion
Proofs of the existence of God
cosmological, first cause
Aquinas
explains the unknown, including origins of universe
response: scientific theories may be sufficient
from nature
statistical proofs
response: a slim chance is still a chance
from morality
Kant vs. Durkheim
ontological
Anselm
response: can imagine lots of things that don't exist
embedded in human psyche
Religious response
rejection of proofs <> disproof
proving your own existence to someone else
Evil
concept of
Rel. b/n bad & evil
problem of (theodicy)
basic paradox:
a) God is all powerful
b) God is all good
c) bad stuff happens (evil exists)
solution of problem through elimination:
a) Weakness of God: Why Bad Things Happen to Good People
b) God(s) not so good: Greek gods
c) Tapestry theory
Religion and Rationalism
Roots of secularism
the Reformation
the Enlightenment
Hume
the Scientific Revolution
Conflict of Religion and Science
attempts to harmonize the Bible with science
Religion and Sex
adultery
purity violation
violation of sacred symbol
in nature religions
sex in the realm of the gods
sympathetic magic
public and ritual sex for fertility ritual
priests and priestesses as sexual mediators
in worship
kama yoga (tantra)
control of sex = control of self
in ritual
private, public, in worship, rites of passage
ritual adultery
in anti-Christian religions
Witchcraft
generation of spiritual energy in magic
sex as anti-Judaio-Christian in magic
mystical union
Bride of Christ
Erotic language in mysticism
Last Modified 12/11/97
by
Alan Humm