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