Religion Midterm

Religion is related to beliefs and rituals that involve faith in a spiritual nature and can be linked to inherited traditions, knowledge and wisdom associated with life. The idea of religion refers to ones personal practices related to faith as well as a larger, more universal system of beliefs. Religion is described as the following in the Encyclopedia of Religion:

"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 ultimacy 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." (Religion [First Edition]. Winston King. Encyclopedia of Religion).

During the Renaissance era, religion was strictly confined to Catholic beliefs. The church held supreme power. However, the church suffered from a low level of morality within its clergy. Many were living a luxurious lifestyle and had illegitimate children; they were more concerned with secular powers rather than religious affairs. The church also limited economics by prohibiting charging interest as well as forming unions. In addition to that, the Church was paid a tithe amounting to 10% of a persons annual earnings.

In 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses on the corruption of the Church, including its practice of selling indulgences. Luther claimed that the only thing indulgences granted was an increase in both greed and profit to the church and they had no holy relation. As a reaction to the promotion of indulgences received by Johann Tetzel, papal commissioner for a German church, Luther made a list of 95 discrepancies within the church and dispersed them for everyone to read as well as mailed it to the Archbishop. Although others had attacked the church prior to Luther, he started a revolution and focused all of society on the wrong of the church. Copies of his 95 Theses were soon translated into German and other languages and were spread throughout Europe. Within two weeks his opinion had reached all of Germany and two months all of Europe knew about it. This sparked the Reformation.

Another major argument concerning religion took place during the Scientific Enlightenment and Revolution between religious beliefs and scientific facts. Scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler hypothesized about space and the development of the universe. Their emerging scientific theories conflicted with the Church and orthodox beliefs. This placed pressure and doubt on the Church.

In addition to rising theories during the Scientific Enlightenment came the encyclopedia. In this book, authored by Diderot, people could learn anything they wanted to know about anything. The encyclopedia was an entire set of books for people to access and study from. The Church, of course, did not favor these books and took possession of them, forbidding that any more be printed. From the era of the encyclopedia's creation came the term deism. A deist is one who celebrates the works of God based on reason rather than assurance, however believes that the Bible is flawed and that God does not interfere with how the universe runs. Diderot wanted people to be able to believe what they want, in order to do that they would have to be given all the information.The Church was greatly opposed to this and wanted people to believe what the preached.

This issue is still popular in our society today, religion and science still conflict. Theories such as the big bang theory contradict the Bibles truth on the creation of earth in 7 days. The same with the scientific theory of evolution debating the creation of human kind by means of Adam and Eve. Also, another major problem if the topic of stem cell research. The Catholic Church strongly disapproves of stem cell research but controversy scientists do not. Stem cells are taken from embryos and religious beliefs doesn't allow for them to be destroyed.However, they could be used to save another already existing life. What one believes to be correct is based upon their own personal views of truth and what is right. All of society doesn't believe only one theory; there are those who support the scientific theories and those who have conviction in what is told religiously in the Bible.

Currently, because of our "flat world platform", as according to Friedman, technology has progressed in a way that nearly everything can be supported with scientific proof. There is an explanation for almost everything and if has not yet been discovered, because of advances in knowledge, it at one point will be. Based upon this, eventually opinions of the Bible, supported only by faith, will be disproved and replaced with scientific fact and hard evidence. By this time, religion and faith will play a role in only a small percent of peoples lives while others believe in what can be verified by reality. There will always be a quantity of people who have faith in religious beliefs because showing the Bible to be false after it has been advocated for hundreds of years is nearly impossible. However, when there is scientific evidence proving a theory not supported by the Bible, a majority of people will favor that.

In conclusion, religion at one point played a major role in people lives at one point and was valued daily. As time and knowledge progressed religion became less of a necessity to people. The scientific Revolution brought new ideas and theories making religious beliefs less credible. The "flat world" progresses in what can be supported by hard evidence and makes even less cause for the role of religion. Eventually, this will progress and the position that religion plays in individuals lives will decrease.