Religion
and Culture: Filling the Gap Religion Leaves Behind
It is
without doubt that religion is in decline in many developed countries. More and
more people are abandoning their religion and spending much less time going to
church, reading their holy scriptures, and praying daily than the generations
that preceded them. If religion is a product, it seems that people are less and
less willing to buy these days. However, it is also without doubt that when
developing the various aspects of human society, humanity did not develop
things in neat, divided up boxes. Everything is connected and interrelated.
Religion is connected with culture is connected with language is connected with
social customs is connected with…you get the idea. It is clear that, regardless
of the veracity of the teachings of any religion, religion as a social
structure provided much more than just a common core for belief. Religion often
provides community, a sense of identity, and a common goal to work towards. In
certain times and places, even education could be found only from religious institutions.
So, with that being said, what do we do with the knowledge of the decline of
religion? I would like to examine the ways in which religion is interrelated
with other aspects of human society and see what alternatives may be used to
fill roles and functions left empty in the wake of religious decline.
A
rather simple way to look at how religion affects and shapes our lives apart
from genuine belief is through holidays. In the United States, most popular
holidays have religious roots. On Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ,
on Easter we commemorate his death and resurrection, and on Halloween we remember
when Jesus fed 5,000 people candy with only one Twix bar. Holidays also provide
us a rather interesting example of how we can handle the decline of religion
without losing part of our culture: we simply keep the parts of religion we
still have use for. Maybe we no longer see the Bible as the ultimate source of
truth, but we are still intrigued by the story of a blameless man ceaselessly
loving the people who put him to death, and so we continue to celebrate the
holiday of Easter even without the religious belief it was founded upon. It is
as if we deftly picked religion’s pocket as it left the room. Yoink!
Another
example of services provided by religion is the convention of habitually going
to church, or any place of worship. Church going creates community, a place where
people repeatedly go and see familiar people that they can develop
relationships with. At its best, church can provide people with a social safety
net, capable of assisting them in the difficult parts of life. From my personal
experience, church never really provided these things. My family never attended
a church long enough to develop genuine relationships and so it never really
contributed to my feeling of belonging, but many people report having the
opposite experience and felt church gave them a place of safety and community.
So, can we keep the positives of church without holding onto religious belief?
Already, churches have formed that identify as secular, having no religious
backings, and are more or less focused on providing the positives of church to
their community without the religion.
Every
era of human society has its own unique and new problems. What to do with the
vacuum left by religion is one of ours, and I think it needs to be handled
seriously and with a sober mind regarding the benefits provided by religion.
Most importantly, we should remember that secularism, like religious belief, is
not an all or nothing situation. If we choose to, we can keep the fun parts of
religion that still serve us, and leave behind the parts we no longer need.
http://bigthink.com/daylight-atheism/the-calgary-secular-church
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1357303916301438
https://athphil.blogspot.com/2018/04/mini-biography-of-alan-watts-final.html?showComment=1524880799167#c2886137493862374436
https://athphil.blogspot.com/2018/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html?showComment=1524881641061#c6760416542351231743
"Religion often provides community, a sense of identity, and a common goal to work towards." I'm quite interested in this question of community and the secular forms it may take, particularly since I agreed to participate in the MALA's Fall offering on the subject. Philosophers in the American tradition like Dewey and Royce have had much to say about that; the former concluded his "A Common Faith" by noting the importance of "the continuous human community in which we are a link..." I'm quite sure it is within our species' capacity and best interest to cultivate this capacity to the fullest extent, drawing on the strongest resources ("religion of freedom" etc.) of our tradition. I don't think we have to go to church, for that, but Sunday Assembly and the like are there for those who want it: "Part of a global network of super people who want to make the most of the one life we know we have." www.sundayassemblynashville.com.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is a displace with religion because growing up, in most home religion is forced. As children we do not get the option to determine what we will or will not believe in. So, as we get older and grow more into ourselves whether spiritually or through experiences, we find our own truth.
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