Question : What is central concept in a religion without god? Discuss.
(2010)
Answer : There are two types of religion. They are religion having God as the central concept and religion without God. There are some religions like Jainism, Buddhism which does not advocate for transcendental entity like God though they do believe in some eternal reality which is known as God in theistic religion. In the religion without God the central concept revolves around morality, virtues and humanity which can bind human kind together. Humanism and moral life refer to a comprehensive life stance that upholds human reason, ethics, and justice, and rejects supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition. Such religions derive their morals from a philosophy of Ethical naturalism, and some acknowledge a science of morality. Religions like Jainism and Buddhism teach is democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. They stand for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. They are not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. Some other religions like Confucianism also advocate the same notion of a life with moral perfection and preach people to go by high moral standards and do well to others.
Question : Can the ‘God’ of Religion be identified with the ‘Absolute’ of Philosophy?
(2009)
Answer : The term Absolute denotes unconditioned and/or independence in the strongest sense. It can include or overlap with meanings implied by other concepts such as infinite, totality, and perfection. The absolute can also be understood as the Ultimate Being, or a characteristic of it, in other religious traditions. Greek philosophers did not explicitly elaborate on the absolute, but, the idea of an ultimate principle drove their inquiries forward. In addition, while medieval philosophers did not use the term absolute, their thoughts on God were the first explicit elaborations on the absolute. Since then, there have been many interpretations of the absolute. Major philosophers who have dealt with the Absolute include the German Idealists such as Schelling, Kant, and Hegel, and British philosophers such as Herbert Spencer, William Hamilton, Bernard Bosanquet, Francis Bradley, and Thomas Hill Green, and American idealist philosopher Josiah Royce.
The term absolute denotes whatever is free from any condition or restriction, and independent from any other element or factor. As with other concepts such as infinite, perfection, eternity, and others, absolute can be articulated only by negating finite concepts. Something that is absolute, in itself, is not immediately or directly accessible by human perception, experience, and comprehension. Thus, the concept of absoluteness is usually defined by negating what are immediately available to human knowledge. In Christian theology and philosophy, the absolute is understood in the strict sense by excluding any form of relativity, which in turn raises questions regarding the personality of God. For God to have a personality He must exist in relation to other beings; however, if God is absolute, then it poses a paradox within God to be both absolute and relative to other beings. Spinoza, for example, denied God’s personality and creatorship. He instead proposed the immanence of God in the creation and a pantheistic oneness between God and the world. As with Spinoza, Hegel attempted to explain the creation of the world without the notion of creation. Hegel developed a pantheistic concept of the absolute and its relationship with the phenomenal world. The question of God’s relativity and absoluteness raises questions regarding God’s nature and His relationships with human beings.
Most contemporary philosophers do not accept the pantheistic explanations given by Spinoza or Hegel. As in German idealism, the question of absolute/relative is also intertwined with questions of transcendence and immanence. Some contemporary theories such as Open theism, for example, approaches these issues from the perspective of God’s dynamic, personal, and relative relationship with human beings. Questions regarding the absolute carried over into modern philosophy. Kant tried to present the conditions of human knowledge and reveal the limit of what is knowable. Kant argued that the content of human knowledge is provided by an object and a priori forms (the way contents are organized) in the mind. While Kant excluded the unconditioned (God, the soul, and the world) from the realm of the knowable, he argued for the necessity of God, immortality of the soul, and freedom in the sphere of morality.
Human beings have a rational reason to believe in them as the fundamental presupposition of morality, which Kant called “rational faith.” German philosophers after Kant such as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, known as the German idealists, returned to speculative metaphysics and developed various theories based upon their understanding of the absolute. The concept of absoluteness was then adopted into a neo-Hegelian British idealism (though without Hegel’s complex logical and dialectical apparatus), where it received an almost mystical exposition at the hands of F.H. Bradley. Bradley (followed by others including Timothy L.S. Sprigge) conceived the absolute as a single all-encompassing experience, along the lines of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta.
Question : Can atheism be a religion? Discuss.
(2005)
Answer : The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, in its article on Religion, lists some characteristics of religions.
Belief in supernatural beings (gods).
A distinction between sacred and profane objects.
Ritual acts focused on sacred objects.
A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the gods.
Characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration), which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual, and which are connected in idea with the gods.
Prayer and other forms of communication with gods.
A world view or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some specification of an over-all purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.
A more or less total organization of one’s life based on the world view.
A social group bound together by the above.
In addition, it should be noted that theism itself does not qualify as a religion based upon the above - and for most of the same reasons that atheism does not qualify. When you stop to think about it, theism - the mere belief in god(s) - does not automatically entail almost any of the beliefs or practices listed in either the above letter or the above definition. In order to have a religion, you need quite a bit more than either simple belief or disbelief.
This fact is clearly reflected in the real world, because we find theism which exists outside of religion and religion which exists without theism. Although people who self-identify as atheists are usually assumed to be irreligious, some sects within major religions reject the existence of a personal, creator deity. In recent years, certain religious denominations have accumulated a number of openly atheistic followers, such as atheistic or humanistic Judaism and Christian atheists. As the strictest sense of positive atheism does not entail any specific beliefs outside of disbelief in any deity, atheists can hold any number of spiritual beliefs. For the same reason, atheists can hold a wide variety of ethical beliefs, ranging from the moral universalism of humanism, which holds that a moral code should be applied consistently to all humans, to moral nihilism, which holds that morality is meaningless.
The French philosopher Auguste Comte, Erich Fromn and John Dewey developed a secular religion known as positivism, which emphasized reason and logic.They later systematized it as the Religion of Humanity, complete with priests and a calendar of saints. Humanism has two core beliefs, with two important implications. The core beliefs are: People should learn to think for themselves, not just blindly accept what they are told by figures of authority. This is because authority figures too often have an agenda of their own, frequently the enhancement of their own wealth or power. And even when this is not the case, authorities are themselves often uninformed or confused. Values are based in the human person.
In order to know whether a given course of conduct is meaningful or right, we can ask ourselves whether it promotes the maintenance or development of the normal capabilities of human beings, such as thinking, feeling, and physical health. Humanism is a down-to-earth philosophical movement that represents a turn toward the satisfaction of human needs, both material and spiritual, and the fulfillment of human potential, here and now. Humanism therefore lacks much interest in the supernatural and theological. This doesn’t mean that Humanists are necessarily atheists.
Though it may come as a shock to some, there are many religious Humanists. (Christians and Humanists alike would do well to keep in mind that there was a time when Christian thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas consciously incorporated the humanism of Aristotle into Christianity, and that eminent Humanist thinkers like Erasmus were Christians.) Linking religious and secular humanists is the belief that nothing should be accepted on faith. There must always be good evidence for beliefs, religious or otherwise. This is the most fundamental tenet of rationalism. But nothing specific to Humanism precludes belief in God. Indeed, the controversy concerning the existence of God is far less relevant to values than ordinarily supposed. On the whole humanism does include the morality attached to the concept of religion it certainly lacks the element of supernatural power that really makes the definition of religion complete in its traditional sense. Hence humanism can’t be categorized as religion.
Question : Religion without God.
(2002)
Answer : Atheism, as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of belief in the nonexistence of a god or gods, or the rejection of theism. It is also defined more broadly as an absence of belief in deities, or atheism. Many self-described atheists are skeptical of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Others argue for atheism on philosophical, social or historical grounds.
Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere; and some religions, such as Jainism and Buddhism, do not require belief in a personal god. The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion. With the spread of free thought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and has been increasingly used as a self-description by atheists. Writers disagree how best to define and classify atheism, contesting what supernatural entities it applies to, whether it is an assertion in its own right or merely the absence of one, and whether it requires a conscious, explicit rejection. A variety of categories have been proposed to try to distinguish the different forms of atheism or religion without God.
Some of the ambiguity and controversy involved in defining atheism arises from difficulty in reaching a consensus for the definitions of words like deity and god. The plurality of wildly different conceptions of god and deities leads to differing ideas regarding atheism's applicability. In contexts where theism is defined as the belief in a singular personal god, for example, people who believe in a variety of other deities have been classified as atheists, including deists (such as Thomas Paine) and even polytheists. Atheism is most contrasted with agnosticism when the definition of atheism used is the assertion that deities do not exist. However, the two positions are compatible for those atheists who do not assert any knowledge of the non-existence of deities, and some atheists self-identify as agnostic atheists. The allocation of agnosticism to atheism is disputed; it can also be regarded as an independent philosophical view.
Others in turn advocate that it lies within the realm of atheism. With respect to the range of phenomena being rejected, atheism may counter anything from the existence of a deity, to the existence of any spiritual, supernatural, or transcendental concepts, such as those of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Question : What do you understand by Religion? Do you think that the belief in the existence of God is an essential feature of religion? Discuss.
(2001)
Answer : Religion has been defined in a wide variety of ways. Most definitions attempt to find a balance somewhere between overly sharp definition and meaningless generalities. Some sources have tried to use formalistic, doctrinal definitions while others have emphasized experiential, emotive, intuitive, valuation and ethical factors. Definitions mostly include:
Sociologists and anthropologists tend to see religion as an abstract set of ideas, values, or experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. For example, in Lindbeck's Nature of Doctrine, religion does not refer to belief in "God" or a transcendent Absolute. Instead, Lindbeck defines religion as, "a kind of cultural and/or linguistic framework or medium that shapes the entirety of life and thought. It is similar to an idiom that makes possible the description of realities, the formulation of beliefs, and the experiencing of inner attitudes, feelings, and sentiments." According to this definition, religion refers to one's primary worldview and how this dictates one's thoughts and actions. There is a tendency in the sociology of religion to emphasize the problems of any definition of religion. Talal Asad has gone so far as to say "there cannot be a universal definition of religion because that definition is itself the historical product of discursive processes"
Other religious scholars have put forward a definition of religion that avoids the reductionism of the various sociological and psychological disciplines that reduce religion to its component factors. Religion may be defined as the presence of a belief in the sacred or the holy. For example Rudolf Otto's "The Idea of the Holy," formulated in 1917, defines the essence of religious awareness as awe, a unique blend of fear and fascination before the divine. Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as a "feeling of absolute dependence." The Encyclopedia of Religion defines religion this way: In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels,a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of intimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life.
When more or less distinct patterns of behaviour are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture." Other encyclopedic definitions include: "A general term used... to designate all concepts concerning the belief in god(s) and goddess(es) as well as other spiritual beings or transcendental ultimate concerns" and "human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine."
While superstitions and magical thinking refer to nonscientific causal reasoning, applied to specific things or actions, a religion is a more complex system about general or ultimate things, involving morality, history and community. Because religions may include and exploit certain superstitions or make use of magical thinking, while mixing them with broader considerations, the division between superstition and religious faith is hard to specify and subjective. Religious believers have often seen other religions as superstition. Likewise, some atheists, agnostics, deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition. Religious practices are most likely to be labeled "superstitious" by outsiders when they include belief in extraordinary events (miracles), an afterlife, supernatural interventions, apparitions or the efficacy of prayer, charms, incantations, the meaningfulness of omens, and prognostications.
Moreover there is always possible to have a religion without belief in God. These are called atheist religion. Jainism and Buddhism are such religions in which there is no concept of god as such but they also believe in some kind of divine power which is usually identified with the concept of God. Religion without god is logically possible. But practically such religions do believe in some supernatural powers and that is why they full the criteria of being religion. As the definition of the religion implies, belief in some supernatural power is the most important element of religion, a religion devoid of this element looses the true spirit of the traditional concept of religion.
Question : Religion is generally viewed to be based on beliefs in the supernatural. But some thinkers (e.g. Auguste Comte, John Dewey, huxley, Erich Fromn) reject the supernatural and try naturalistic reconstruction of religion. Critically consider some of the major attempts in this direction.
(1998)
Answer : Many say the etymology of religion lies with the Latin word religare, which means "to tie, to bind." This seems to be favored on the assumption that it helps explain the power religion has. The Oxford English Dictionary points out, though, that the etymology of the word is doubtful. Earlier writers like Cicero connected the term with religare, which means "to read over again" (perhaps to emphasize the ritualistic nature of religions?). Some argue that religion doesn't really exist - there is only culture. Jonathan Z. Smith writes in Imagining Religion: "...while there is a staggering amount of data, phenomena, of human experiences and expressions that might be characterized in one culture or another, by one criterion or another, as religion, there is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar's study. It is created for the scholar's analytic purposes by his imaginative acts of comparison and generalization. Religion has no existence apart from the academy."
It is true that many societies do not draw a clear line between their culture and what scholars would call "religion." This does not mean that religion doesn't exist, but it is worth keeping in mind that even when we think we have a handle on what religion is, we might be fooling ourselves. Definitions of religion tend to suffer from one of two problems: they are either too narrow and exclude many belief systems which most agree are religious, or they are too vague and ambiguous, suggesting that just about any and everything is a religion. A good example of a narrow definition is the common attempt to define "religion" as "belief in God," effectively excluding polytheistic religions and atheistic religions while including theists who have no religious belief system. A good example of a vague definition is the tendency to define religion as "worldview", but how can every worldview qualify as a religion?
Some have argued that religion isn't hard to define and the plethora of conflicting definitions is evidence of how easy it really is. The problem lies in finding a definition that is empirically useful and empirically testable. So far, the best definition of religion I have seen is in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It lists traits of religions rather than declaring religion to be one thing or another, arguing that the more markers present in a belief system, the more "religious like" it is:
This definition captures much of what religion is across diverse cultures. It includes sociological, psychological, and historical factors and allows for broader gray areas in the concept of religion. It's not without flaws, though. The first marker, for example, is about "supernatural beings" and gives "gods" as an example, but thereafter only gods are mentioned. Even the concept of "supernatural beings" is a bit too specific; Mircea Eliade defined religion in reference to a focus on "the sacred" and that is a good replacement for "supernatural beings" because not every religion revolves around the supernatural.
The French philosopher Auguste Comte, Erich Fromn and John Dewey developed a secular religion known as positivism, which emphasized reason and logic. They later systematized it as the Religion of Humanity, complete with priests and a calendar of saints. Comte divided the progress of mankind into three historical stages:
Humanism has two core beliefs, with two important implications. The core beliefs are: People should learn to think for themselves, not just blindly accept what they are told by figures of authority. This is because authority figures too often have an agenda of their own, frequently the enhancement of their own wealth or power. And even when this is not the case, authorities are themselves often uninformed or confused. Values are based in the human person. In order to know whether a given course of conduct is meaningful or right, we can ask ourselves whether it promotes the maintenance or development of the normal capabilities of human beings, such as thinking, feeling, and physical health.
Humanism is a down-to-earth philosophical movement that represents a turn toward the satisfaction of human needs, both material and spiritual, and the fulfillment of human potential, here and now. Humanism therefore lacks much interest in the supernatural and theological, or in an afterlife. This doesn't mean that Humanists are necessarily atheists. Though it may come as a shock to some, there are many religious Humanists. (Christians and Humanists alike would do well to keep in mind that there was a time when Christian thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas consciously incorporated the humanism of Aristotle into Christianity, and that eminent Humanist thinkers like Erasmus were Christians.) Linking religious and secular humanists is the belief that nothing should be accepted on faith. There must always be good evidence for beliefs, religious or otherwise. This is the most fundamental tenet of rationalism. But nothing specific to Humanism precludes belief in God. Indeed, the controversy concerning the existence of God is far less relevant to values than ordinarily supposed.
