Definition Of Religion

The task of defining what a religion is, is certainly not an easy task. For countless millennia mankind has worshipped a pantheon of deities whether that is the Sun as seen within ancient Aztec culture or whether that is the God of the Hebrews. Therefore a definition of what is Religion must be accessible and far encompassing as it seems it must address a myriad of beliefs which differ in scope. The three definitions I have chosen in order to analyse focus primarily on the nature of the Belief within a religion. For example Marx saw Religion as a means of enslavement in order to maintain the status quo through the impartiality of an ideology which maintained absolute equilibrium leading to stagnation and thus a lack of change. Thus the belief in a religion is simply the reaction of the oppressed to offer them a shade of comfort in a “heartless world.” Tylor focused upon the notion of belief as defining religion, in that Religion itself is formulated by primitive man explaining what he did not understand by giving all things Anima`s to explain what they could not understand. He claims belief in spiritual beings to be Animism and that mankind has carried the resultant ignorance. Feuerbach`s definition is certainly thought-provoking as his definition of God being a construct of Man, rather than traditional vice versa. Feuerbach as with Tylor and Marx, focus on the nature of belief within religion, I have chosen this as I would prefer to focus upon the belief of religion, rather than the practice due in part to Freud’s insistence the practice of religion is a neurosis which has spread through the generations, and also as I would prefer to be able to make comparisons between the three definitions with the nature of belief being a funda...

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... primitive man could not understand, and as such are of the result of the ignorance of early society. Tylor therefore argues that the idea of a belief in a God or Gods is the result of the “survival” Religion surviving, Tylor claims that Religious survival is due to some being guilty of limiting and relying on an outdated custom whilst science can explain away such phenomena away. This explanation is difficult to categorise, as it is certainly a sociological explanation, as well being anthropological and psychological. Studies analysed by Keleman have identified that children seem to identify some objects in a similar method of Tylor`s animism in that things are given morality – positive or negative based on the likelihood of causing harm to the child. This could be evidence supporting Tylor`s argument that through knowledge such things become more than good or bad.