How do you define religiousity? (Sumblog 2)

How do we conceptualize religiosity? I think that our discussion in class about the Universal and the Relativistic was very thought provoking. Especially in how those two differ but are still not great definitions for what being a religious person means. I think that this is where a lot of things can get lost and also where we can over generalize ideas, beliefs and values into one overarching religion or another.

In case you missed class or just have forgotten, Universal is the idea that all humans are moral believing beings. Everyone has faith in something. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a specific religion, or anti-religion or even something scientific. People have a faith that there is something bigger than themselves. While this I believe isn’t inaccurate. As we discussed in class it’s a sociological nightmare because of how much this would vary from person to person. Next is the idea of Relativism. This is where the “historical manifestation of the sacred varies widely.” Basically what it’s saying here is that religions are content specific, so what is going on in a person’s life, who that person is, where they are located and a whole bunch of other factors all have a huge impact on what and how that person is religious. They also say that religion has a definition, while it changes through our development and our understanding of religion; it is mainly a way for sociologist to create boxes for people to fit in. This is mainly because as much as boxes limits us, we all feel the need to organize and identify who we are. That sometimes requires us to put labels on all the different ways we see ourselves and identify ourselves.

I think that it is difficult to define what it means to be religious because of how much variation there is not only in religions but also on how to determine how religious a person is. For me, at least presently, there is no concrete way to define religion. I do lean more towards the relativistic side that religions are very much based on what is going on in and around a person’s life. I mean I can’t imagine growing up in the household I did ever affiliating with another religion other than the ones my family was offering because I wouldn’t know where else to go. I think there are also major factors in how we understand what it means to be super religious and not religious at all. Some people view super religious as going to church 3 times a week and then if you never go to church you’re not religious. Others think that reading the word of God is enough. While even others think that there isn’t just one God and we should understand that all creatures on earth collaborate together to create a life force to which we all unify and live. Religiosity is very complicated, and I don’t know how long it will take to concretely define it. Nor do I think that even if we get there will it be defined that way for long.

 This is an example of how a group defines what it means to be religious based off their beliefs. I think this is interesting because it just shows how specific some religions identify the levels of belief. Also it shows that everyone is trying to organize people into boxes, even if those boxes can sometimes be labeled or not look at the full picture of how a society feels thinks and acts.