Religion
Religion is an Ideological Institution setup and organized by the Accumulating Classes to satisfy one or more of our Seven Essential Needs by providing System friendly satisfactions.
Related Terms
Religion > Narrative, Sacrilization
Other Definitions
We can break sociological definitions of religion into two categories substantive and functional.
Substantive definitions revolve around the content (or substance) of a religion. Like, religion is the belief in spiritual beings[1] What religion is.
Sociologists and others who have provided substantive definitions -> Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Joachim Wach, Melford Spiro, Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud
Functional definitions "describe the utility of the effect of that religion" on individuals and society.[2] What religion does.
Sociologists and others who have provided functional definitions -> Clifford Geertz, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Joachim Wach, Melford Spiro, Romain Rolland, Sigmund Freud
Notes
Religions satisfy our Cognitive Needs to know and understand by providing System friendly answers.
Religions are typically constructed by elite members of the Accumulating Class for the purposes of social control.
- The Aztecs used their cosmological order to support a two-class political system, and a productive system with a focus on excellence and productivity. [3]
This definition excludes grass roots Connection Framework, spiritual systems rooted in Connection Experience. As soon as a Connection Framework is infiltrated and co-opted by members of the Accumulating Class, the spiritual system transforms into a Religion.
Origins
Sigmund Freud suggest religious ideas arise from
- an expression of the son-father relationship (see totem and taboo, related to religions where "totem animals" become sacred)[4]
- the need to defend oneself against the "crushingly superior force of nature."[5]
- The "urge to rectify the shortcoming of civilization..."[6]
Footnotes
- ↑ Tylor, Edward. Primitive Culture. London: John Murray, 1903. Note, Tylor's theory later criticized as evolutionary and ethnocentric (not all religions believe in or emphasize "spiritual beings" (Confucianism). Distinguished between "primitive" and "modern" spirituality, lower versus higher forms.
- ↑ Furseth, Inger, and Pål Repstad. An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006. p. 16.
- ↑ Carrasco, David, and Scott Sessions. Daily Life of the Aztecs. London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
- ↑ Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. New York: Anchor Books, 1961. p. 21
- ↑ Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. New York: Anchor Books, 1961. p. 21
- ↑ Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. New York: Anchor Books, 1961. p. 21
