Badrinath | Kedarnath | Gangotri | Yamunotri

Contents 1 Approaches to relating to the beliefs of others 1.1 Exclusivism 1.2 Inclusivism 1.3 Pluralism 1.4 Syncretism 2 Religion in relation to other closely related topics 2.1 Religion and spirituality 2.2 Religion and science 2.2.1 Scope of the methods 2.2.2 Goal of the methods 2.2.3 Conflicts 2.2.4 Other alternatives 2.2.5 Usage 2.3 Religion and myth 2.3.1 Myth as "mere story" 2.3.2 Myth as defining and explaining belief 2.4 Religion and Occam's Razor 3 Approaches to the study of individual religions 3.1 Methods of studying religion subjectively (in relation to one's own beliefs) 3.2 Methods of studying religion objectively (in a scientific and religiously neutral fashion) 4 Development of religion 4.1 Religion in modernity 4.1.1 Modern reasons for adherence to religion 4.1.2 Modern reasons for rejecting religion 4.1.3 Present day religious adherence and trends

• Christian scripture states that Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." John 14:6.

• Islamic scripture states: "O you who believe, do not take certain Jews and Christians as allies; these are allies of one another. Those among you who ally themselves with these belong with them. surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." Qur'an 5:51. and "O you who believe, do not befriend those among the recipients of previous scripture who mock and ridicule your religion, nor shall you befriend the disbelievers. You shall reverence GOD, if you are really believers." Qur'an 5:57

• Hebrew scripture states that God said to Israel through Moses: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

• Ayyavazhi scripture states: "The day at which Narayana incarnated as Vaikundar the Kali started declining; the book of perfection, Vedas and all previous scriptures lost their Substances as the Sathasivam came as Vaikundar." Akilam 12:147-150

Inclusivism

People with inclusivist beliefs recognize some truth in all faith systems, highlighting agreements and minimizing differences, but see their own faith as in some way ultimate. Examples include:

Pluralism

People with pluralist beliefs make no distinction between faith systems, viewing each one as valid within a particular culture. Examples include:

Syncretism

People with syncretistic views blend the views of a variety of different religions or traditional beliefs into a unique fusion which suits their particular experience and context.

Unitarian Universalism is an example of a syncretistic faith.

Religion in relation to other closely related topics

Religion and spirituality

It is common to distinguish the concept of "religion" from the concept of "spirituality."

Individuals who ascribe to this distinction see spirituality as a belief in ideas of religious significance (such as God, the Soul, or Heaven) without being bound to the bureaucratic structure and creeds of a particular organized religion. They choose the term spirituality rather than religion to describe their form of belief, perhaps reflecting a large-scale disillusionment with organized religion that is occurring in much of the Western world, and a movement towards a more "modern" — more tolerant, and more intuitive — form of religion.

Many members of organized religion, of course, see no significant difference between the two terms, because they see spirituality at the heart of their religion, and see the church organization as a means of preserving that spirituality. Many of them associate themselves with an organized religion because they see the religious community as a means of maintaining and strengthening their faith in fellowship with other believers. They may see amorphous "spirituality" movements as "religions of convenience," in which individuals can choose whatever beliefs make them feel comfortable at the time, without being bound to any external standard of accountability.

Finally, it should be noted that many individuals, while still associating themselves with an organized religion, see a distinction between the mundane, earthly aspects of their religion and the spiritual dimension. They note that people may take part in organized religion purely for mundane reasons, for example, gaining security from such things as regular attendance at churches or temples, or the social comfort of fervently agreeing with other believers; they note that this sometimes is done without a corresponding spiritual dimension. They then conclude that such behavior is "religious" without being "spiritual." Further, some aspects of religion (for example, the Catholic Inquisition or Islamic Terrorism), are seen by many although not all as completely contrary to the teachings of the religions' founders, who many believe taught tolerance and love. In support of this belief that religions may "lose their way," many cite things such as Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees, who represented organized religion in his context.

Mahatma Gandhi who was born a Hindu wrote the following about religion in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth [2]:

He then went on to say:

Gandhi was instead critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based. He also said the following about Hinduism:

Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:

Religion and science

Generally speaking, religion and science use different methods in their effort to gain knowledge.

Scope of the methods

According to the religious method the sources of knowledge can be a religious leader, a sacred text, or personal revelation. It is not limited in scope and can try to answer any question.

The scientific method requires interaction with the world, which could, for example, consist of synthesizing chemicals in a laboratory or excavating of dinosaur bones. It is therefore restricted to questions concerning such interaction.

The following questions can be approached by both methods but science requires evidence which is open to the scrutiny of other scientists/professionals and the wider public.

The following questions can be approached by the religious method, but not by the scientific method.

Goal of the methods

The religious method asserts it has sought absolute and unchanging Truth. The scientific method, on the other hand, aims at giving the best unbiased answer currently possible. While religious knowledge in the form of sacred texts is considered true for thousands of years, scientific knowledge tends to change rather quickly - 'science advances through disproof of its hypothesis'. - Richard Dawkins.

Some consider Genesis, written more than two thousand years ago, the literal and true account of creation. But evolution theory, often contrasted with Genesis, has itself evolved since the original version was proposed by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species.

Big Bang Theory describes, albeit incompletely, the process of the Universe. Essentially, the Universe will expand, with matter deminishing, until there is a "critical" ratio of matter to dark matter, at which point the Universe will collapse, "marginally". This collapse drives processes of dark matter yet unobserved, probably disturbances in the balance of mutual attractions of dark matter particles (possibly relating to strong interactions), which are able to produce quantities of matter. Production of matter in turn releases small amounts of dark matter, which will eventually agglutinate. Matter, meanwhile, experiences phenomena which eventually lead to a Big Crunch, fueling another Big Bang. This occurs until all matter has been converted to dark matter, at which point the dark matter coalesces to a critical mass, a Singularity.

Matter is neither created nor destroyed, but rather cycles about endlessly from dark matter to matter to matter. The Conservation law is sustained by the fact that the system of the Universe has had no beginning, and therefore did not require a violation of this law to "get it started".

One more thing: dark matter is classified as seperate from matter due to the fact that it has a seperate set of quantum numbers, which behave differently from fermions, perhaps best described as bosons. The possibility that these dark matter particles may exist in violation of the Pauli exclusion principle becomes tenable.

For further confusion, read up on some Quantum mechanics.

Conflicts

The scientific method often took religious beliefs as its first input. Johannes Kepler, for example, tried to model the solar system according to his religious ideals. But as scientific theories change, they start to conflict with those beliefs. Sometimes the religion adopts the new theory, but often a heavy dispute arises.

Famous conflicts between Christianity and science:

Though science does not tell what goals people should pursue, conflicts with religion might even arise in this field if scientific theories indicate that two goals exclude each other.

Other alternatives

Logic and reason

The scientific method uses logic and reason to deduce consequences from theories, but it is not the same as logic and reason. According to science, logic and reason cannot tell which theory is correct and hence cannot make any statement about interaction with the world. On the other hand logic and reason addresses questions, the scientific method cannot answer. Using them, it is possible to deduce complex consequences from more simple assumptions and definitions. Those assumptions can then be based on even more simple assumptions. But as this chain has to come to an end, logic and reason cannot give an answer to every question.

Using common definitions, logic and reason can answer the following questions.

Emotions

Emotions can give answers to any question concerning our goals, likes or dislikes. They might be seen as equivalent with personal revelation and hence as religious, but they do not depend on exterior sources like texts or other people.

Emotions give answers to the following questions.

Usage

The extent to which people apply those methods varies greatly. Naturally scientists tend more to the scientific method and persons with a religious position tend more to the religious method. But especially in the past, many clergy contributed to science and many scientists expressed religious beliefs.

Logic and reason is essential for the scientific method, but is also used by religion, in the form of theology to conclude consequences from religious dogmas.

Religion and myth

The word "myth" has two meanings, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

Myth as "mere story"

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the Vikings, etc., are incorrectly categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development to industrial conditions, are similarly observed by the anthropology of religion. Mythology can be a term used pejoratively by religious and non-religious people both, by defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology meaning that they are not real and not valid paths. Here myths are treated as fantasies, or "mere" stories when in turn they are not.

Myth as defining and explaining belief

The term myth in sociology, however has a non-pejorative meaning, defined as stories that are important for the group and not necessarily untrue. Examples include the death and resurrection of Jesus (which, to Christians, explains the means by which they are freed from sin, as well as being ostensibly historical).

Religion and Occam's Razor

Occam's Razor is the principle that one should not take more assumptions than needed. When multiple explanations are available for a phenomenon, the simplest version is preferred. When deciding between two models which make equivalent predictions, choose the simpler one. Gravity, while more complicated in some ways than a magic stone, has predictive powers that are lacking in a theory of a magic stone causing things to fall and the planets to move in the sky. Thus a magic stone being a simpler theory is irrelevant because it doesn't make equivalently accurate and complete predictions.

Some, such as atheists, secular humanists, and agnostics assert that Occam's Razor makes belief in divine intervention unreasonable. This is because some religions require an individual to make many more assumptions regarding causes in the natural world than Atheistic and Naturalistic explanations require. For instance, some religious beliefs require the believer to assume that an invisible God created the universe, is concerned with our moral behavior for some reason, yet does not reveal himself, and will judge us after death for decisions we made in relative ignorance, sending us to either an assumed Heaven or an assumed Hell. Atheists conclude that such beliefs require myriad assumptions, while naturalistic explanations require significantly fewer assumptions and that the religious beliefs are therefore less reasonable than naturalistic ones. It is important to understand that all predictive knowledge is being referred to here. It does no good to have fewer assumptions in each of a hundred areas of knowledge, yet more assumptions altogether. Also information of a nonpredictive or nonobjective kind is not the kind of knowledge dealt with here. A personal judgement that belief in God is the best way to make sense of the voice in one's head is both subjective and mostly of little predictive power.

William of Occam was a Christian and Franciscan friar who used Occam's Razor to pare away various religious elements other than God around 1300 A.D., long before science had any reasonable theory to explain the existence of life, mind, or conciousness. Needless to say, knowledge has advanced since then, and what William's view of the use of this principle named after him would be today is anyone's guess.

Approaches to the study of individual religions

Methods of studying religion subjectively (in relation to one's own beliefs)

These include efforts to determine the meaning and application of "sacred" texts and beliefs in the context of the student's personal worldview. This generally takes one of three forms:

• 

Methods of studying religion objectively (in a scientific and religiously neutral fashion)

There are a variety of methods employed to study religion which seek to be religiously neutral. One's interpretation of these methods depends on one's approach to the relationship between religion and science, as discussed above.

For a discussion of the struggle to attain objectivity in the scientific study of religion, see Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey (ISBN 1581344589), who argues that some studies performed pursuant to these methods make claims beyond the realm of observable and verifiable phenomena, and are therefore neither scientific nor religiously neutral.

Development of religion

There are several models for understanding how religions develop.

Religion in modernity

In the late 19th century and throughout most of the 20th century, the demographics of religion has changed a great deal.

Some historically Christian countries, particularly those in Europe, have experienced a significant decline in Christian religion, shown by declining recruitment for priesthoods and monasteries, fast-diminishing attendance at churches, synagogues, etc. Explanations for this effect include disillusionment with ideology following the ravages of World War II, the materialistic philosophical influence of science, Marxism and Humanism, and a reaction against the exclusivist claims and religious wars waged by many religious groups. This decline is apparently in parallel with increased prosperity and social well-being. It appears increasingly common for people to engage in far-ranging explorations, with many finding spiritual satisfaction outside of organized churches. This is a demographic group whose numbers are growing and whose future impact cannot be predicted.

In the United States, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, studies show that Christianity is strong and growing stronger, and many believe those areas to have become the new "heart" of Christianity. Islam is currently the fastest growing religion, and is nearly universal in many states stretching from West Africa to Indonesia, and has grown in world influence in the West. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism remain nearly universal in the Far East, and have greatly influenced spirituality, particularly in the United States. Explanations for the growth of religion in these areas include disillusionment with the perceived failures of secular western ideologies to provide an ethical and moral framework. Believers point to perceived terrors such as Naziism, Communism, Colonialism, Secular Humanism, and Materialism, and the havoc wreaked by such movements around the world. Particularly vehement in this regard are Islamic fundamentalists, who view Western secularism as a serious threat to morality itself. They point to perceived decadence, high rates of divorce, crime, depression, and suicide as evidence of Western social decline, which they believe is caused by the abandonment of Faith by the West.

Modern reasons for adherence to religion

Typical reasons for adherence to religion include the following:

Modern reasons for rejecting religion

Typical reasons for rejection of religion include the following:

Present day religious adherence and trends

Christianity is the religion with the largest number of professed adhherents, followed by Islam and Hinduism. These statistics show the number of professed adherents of the major world religions. In addition, approximately one billion people do not profess any belief in a religion. These figures are necessarily approximate.

In ranking religious denominations, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single denomination within Christianity. Sunni Islam within Islam, and Vaishnavism within Hinduism. It is impossible to say whether there are more Roman Catholics or Sunnis, as their numbers only differ by a few thousand, less than .0001% of the total, and exact counts are impossible.