In this there are three major types of religious groups to think of as well. Established religions which have been around for so long everyone gets along with them fine and there is little to no problems with them. Second is a sect of a religion or a group of people that have split off from their religion keeping their original teachings intact and in doing so show a disagreement with the teachings of the current group. Third is a cult which is a new group that is seen as a danger or threat to the public usually and often there are problems stirred up by people on the outside looking in.
One thing that is talked about is the fact that religions continue to secularize themselves or another words change themselves as the culture they are around changes in order to continue or survive. They mostly keep their major tenets but often will change others or become more open to allowing other things that they once never did, or will change their teaching to incorporate new findings as that�s how their hero or god(s) used their powers.
In this though there are fundamentalists that continue to grow in their strengths. These are people that want to basically get back to the originality of how the religion first was, which as is said in the handout is basically impossible. For instance in early Christianity women had to pray a special way, wearing certain clothes, and had to be in a certain position. I forget exactly what it was but I remember learning about this in taking a Christian history class at BIOLA. It was quite interesting to see how much a religion can change. And as such in seeing some of what we would consider today radical ideas.
There is another branch growing and that is Evangelicalism which is not as strict as fundamentalists, however, they are still conservative in approach.
Now in talking about cults and in them being just new religions it would be helpful to know there are magic cults and religious cults. The magic cults believe that they can draw in nature powers to help them attain things or help them hurt things they don�t want. For religious cults basically it is forming a new supernatural being or knowledge of some kind.
And as I touched on in Question 1 is the baby boomers which in today�s age accounts for the largest population group in the world today. These people are basically having a thirst for knowledge and are wanting to know the truth and wanting to be almost told what to believe. They are more open to being told things and are interested in self-improvement things and as such our very own book stores shelves are filled these days with what else but self-improvement topics. There are three major groups of baby-boomers and that is loyalists which are those who have never changed their religion and have stayed within the organization. Dropouts are those who have left their group and are looking or have found a new group. And Returnees are those who have gone from one religion to another and then have come back.
Question 4:
How should we study religion? Well I think if you really want to study religion you are going to have to put your personal feeling behind during certain portions especially those of your own religious group if you have any. You must study religion from a historical, psychological, sociological, physical, and academical
standpoints. You must also study religion in the believer�s perspective as well to get an all around feel for what you are studying. You must try to see things the way a believe does. This may sound hard to do especially with your own religion but it can be especially fun and interesting. Personally I've studied my own
religion from a historical standpoint in several classes and lecture series and found it extremely interesting and fascinating. I never once felt threatened or offended because I put the "religionism" out
of it and learned about where the "religion" started.
There are different ways to study religion they are theology which is studying the religion as someone who is in the religion believes in it, there is no questioning the truth of the religion as you are trying to see how one who believes it to be truth would see it. Religious studies are a way of looking at religion from the outside in, another words looking at it�s historical aspects mostly as well as those mentioned above. Phenomenally looks at religion as a whole not just one individual religion and how it�s phenomena interacts with it�s members or society as a whole. Sociological approach is trying to find where, how, and why this religion started in a specific social platform or group. Psychological studies of religion attempt to see what is it in our mind makes us want to know religion and what effects does religion have on our mind. Historical study of religion is basically how it sounds, throwing out the spirituality of the religion and studying the history of it, where it started, when, who, etc. And the Anthropology of a religion is how did religion develop in humans.
In these studies there are many different approaches to the studying of the religion in the first place. For instance Smart tells us of three different approaches: Antipathy, Sympathy, and Empathy. Antipathy is looking at the religion in an attempt to prove it wrong or show it�s flaws, Sympathy is trying to look at a religion only in the positive and not looking outside of the religion or trying to see where it might be wrong, Empathy is a peace between the two, looking at a religion without partisanship.
Berger has three approaches of his own: Reduction, Deduction, and Induction. Reduction is basically the same as antipathy except it�s trying to destroy where religion started from and it�s importance. Deduction is basically another positive approach but not taking into consideration anything could be wrong. Induction is to look at both sides and to try to gain what the believer sees and try to take down what they say to you un-biased.