New Word List Word List. Save This Word! See synonyms for religion on Thesaurus. We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms. Idioms about religion. Words nearby religion relievo , relig. Words related to religion church , creed , cult , denomination , doctrine , morality , myth , mythology , prayer , ritual , sect , spirituality , superstition , theology , communion , devotion , observance , orthodoxy , pietism , piety.
How to use religion in a sentence We will reclaim our history, and our country, for citizens of every race, color, religion and creed. Without these secondary benefits, religion would not exist. But it is equally true that all of these benefits are available in secular culture. Therefore, what distinguishes religion is the connection to superhuman powers, which are not present in a country club or rock concert.
One of the most interesting sections of the book is on the role of religion in producing emotional energy, a concept Smith borrows from Randall Collins. We are emotional energy seekers, drawn to locations where one can get recharged, which is why Smith doubts that religion will go out of business.
This idea and others lead Smith to argue that religion is a natural element of what it means to be human. Yes, religious institutions will change, some will die, there will be winners and losers.
But human creativity will develop new religions to replace those that no longer have cultural resonance. One of the most theoretically rich sections of the book is on the role of attribution for religious people—the way humans ascribe actions to superhuman powers, rationalizing, explaining, and finding connections that make life meaningful.
At one level, this chapter might appear to be very functional and even positivistic, explaining away religion. However, Smith makes a strong case that explaining how religion works does not dismiss the potential ontological reality of religion, including the placebo effect of prayer. Indeed, he strongly rejects determinism and theories that attempt to explain with a single theoretical lens all aspects of religious reality.
After wading through the first hundred pages of the book, I decided that the audience for this book is not undergraduates, even very bright ones. The book presupposes too much knowledge of various theorists that Smith is slaying.
At a personal level, it has very little resonance. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. Style: MLA. Kids Definition of religion.
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