Lecture 3 - Meta-Religion PDF

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The professor's name was Konden Smith. This is lecture #3. This is for exam one....

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Sunday, May 2, y

RELI 160D4 Meta-Religion

- Looking at religion • Usually done from a close perspective - Focusing on the noble men • Defined as a private and personal enterprise - There is a core essence that all religions share • Thought that all religion has something good to each us - Can sideline the bad as “not religion” - The Religions of Man by Huston Smith • Describes all religions as essentially one, after the same ultimate goal - “Every human society is an exercise in world-building. Religion occupies a distinctive plate in this enterprise.”

• Religion is a part of our world construction and maintenance • Power of religion is not coercive - Not external pressure, but a seemingly natural inner impulse • Ex: participating in Easter festivities whether or not you believe in what it means

• Not primarily about abstract ideas about the world, but something embedded within the world

- Meta-religion • Not a single frame of religion • Unique to each place and culture 1

Sunday, May 2, y

• Set of abstract principles or values that each nation assumes to be unquestionable

• Enlightenment secularism in the US - As long as various religious groups adopt, or at least do not threaten, then they are tolerated

• All religions are affected by place and time - Not timeless or universal - Religious liberty • Not simply about doing whatever you want in the name of religion • You surrender the claims of supremacy to that of the state itself - Groups that do not are challenged by local and national government entities

• National definition of religion comes from the Supreme Court and IRS - Government entities sit within structures of influence and power - Minimizes religious influence

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