AUSOC101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: New Religious Movement, Civil Religion, Religious Pluralism

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Augustana Faculty - Sociology
• Course: AUSOC101
• Professor: Tara Milbrandt

Document Summary

Religion: a set of organized beliefs about the supernatural or spiritual worlds that guides behaviour and joins people into communities of believers. While there are other definitions of religion, one key component of religion is faith. Faith: a belief system based on conviction that does not require objective evidence to substantiate its claims. Civil religion (secular religion): exists when sacred symbols are integrated into the broader society regardless of their individual religious affiliations (ex. Judeo-christian symbols permeate american society -- in god we trust ) Like other religions, civil religion involves intense emotions that come with patriotism, nationalism and reverence of national symbols such as the flag, the. Charter of rights and freedoms and the christian-based holidays such as. Tylor would have considered civil religion to be the most highly evolved since patriotism does not rely on the concept of a god or the supernatural.