Why Do Religions Exist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Why Do Religions Exist - Essay ExampleIn Sri Lanka, a Buddhist Monk walks effortlessly along a pebbled pathway meditating in a Monastery garden. At the same time, a prophet in Israel announces the coming of the Day of the Lord. Such activities have been going on for more years, and they are likely to continue for longer (Houtman, 2010). Scholars have been trying to explore and comprehend the idea about religion, Nevertheless, for a long time, they have not been commensurate to state precisely what religion is. They have always tried to define religion but always come up with less satisfying results. disregardless of how carefully they define the concept of religion, others will always indicate what the exposition has left out (Evans, 1985). When someone poses a question, what religion is, one may power point to a church, a mosque, a temple, a Sikh Gurdwara or both other sacred place of worship and claim that people who go to this places are religious. He will draw attention to the places of worship and the people who go there. He will also site sacred texts such as the word of honor and the Koran. Many have tried to understand religion based on its effect on society and individual persons. Scholars have been trying to explain the ecumenical existence of religion in all cultures. Every culture has some system of supernatural beliefs however, it is not possible to prove beyond doubt that any supernatural powers such as gods, witches, angels or devils exist. Moreover, these supernatural powers do not always work as effectively as practitioners want. For instance, praying to God for the recovery of a sick person but the person dies, a ritual specialist conducts a rain dance, but it still does not rain or relatives sacrificing a goat at the gravesite of the ancestor-god, but drought still destroys them (James, 2008). Nonetheless, disengaging certain characteristics from the totality of human life and labeling it as religion receives considerable support by the detail that such gestures are clearly different from ordinary ways of behaving. Religious activities often take place in an artificially contrived time, space or a certain mode of consciousness. Liturgical calendars, Sacred places, meditative moods, extraordinary fasting, exceptional communal or private actions, meditating, sacrificing, prophesying, praying, self-denial are some of the gestures that stool a notion of being a stylized divergence from normality. They all have a quality of caricature, play-acting, and sometimes unnaturalness. They stand out so plain from every day such that they are difficult to avoid. They have a special name, and that is religion. However, there is no single anniversary accepted definition of religion (Evans, 1985). Experts disagree with regard to the definition so much that religion is one thing to Anthropologist, another to the Sociologist and Another to the psychologist. Consequently, there is a great renewal of religious theories of the na ture of religion. Definition of religion can be too broad and may include what dominates or appear to be the ultimate push in the human life Children, Home, Work Entertainment among others. Religion can also mean to bid worshippers to the deity by observance of cultish ceremonies and acts of devotion. Max weber argues that trying to define religion as a scholar of religion at the start is a mistake.