RELG 101 Lecture 6: Intro to Religion Week #6
Document Summary
Religion is individual religion is about individual experiences of something that is beyond words, and the feeling it causes forms the basis for religious institutions. Religion is social religion is inherently a social act, embedding un in cultures and relating us to those around us. Religious ideas ultimately refer us back to the group and the group determines what religious life looks like. Religion is religion religion cannot be reduced to anything besides religion, and only explanations that take religion as a distinct part of human existence are meaningful. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. Challenges functionalists who argue religion serves to strengthen social bonds (durkheim: functionalists have decidedly positive view of religion, marx does not. Challenges idealists (hegel) who believed that ideas are central to existence: marks material concerns as secondary, marx does not. To understand life you must understand its material existence.
