Elements of Religion
ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
James Fieser CONTENTS 1. Methodology.
2. Indigenous Beliefs and Practices.
3. The Great Religions.
4. Religious Rituals.
5. Religious Myth.
6. Religious Experiences.
7. Religion and Social Conflict.
8. Religious Pluralism. CHAPTER 1
METHODOLOGY: LOOKING AT OTHER PEOPLE’S BELIEFS Consider the following exchange from an advice column, and pay special notice to its account of "the most religious people on earth":
Dear Mr. Angst: I watched one of those nature shows on TV the other day. They showed a giant bird with a nine foot wing span that eats only bones. I mean it eats huge bones, like from horses and elephants, which the bird swallows whole. I'm wondering: if the bird's stomach acid is strong enough to digest a big bone, then why doesn't the stomach acid also dissolve the stomach itself? Signed, Bird Bone
Dear Bird Bone: I'd like to have used your question as a sounding board to address weightier questions, such as "what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable barrier," or "could God create a rock so large that he couldn't move it?" Unfortunately, I'm familiar with the bird you're talking about, and there's no real paradox here. The Valdostian vulture you refer to indeed swallows whole the bones of large animals. However, its stomach digests the skin and cartilage attached to the bones, and the bones themselves pass right through the bird, completely intact. As the bird flies around, a stream of bones drops from its hinter region. The most interesting part of this phenomenon, though, is the reaction from the villagers below who get pelted by the falling bones. The vultures have their greatest feast during the dry season when famine drives large animals into starvation. It is also during such droughts that villagers beseech their gods for rain. So, a long time ago, villagers prayed for rain and, from their perspectives, the gods showered them with bones. Thinking that their communication
James Fieser CONTENTS 1. Methodology.
2. Indigenous Beliefs and Practices.
3. The Great Religions.
4. Religious Rituals.
5. Religious Myth.
6. Religious Experiences.
7. Religion and Social Conflict.
8. Religious Pluralism. CHAPTER 1
METHODOLOGY: LOOKING AT OTHER PEOPLE’S BELIEFS Consider the following exchange from an advice column, and pay special notice to its account of "the most religious people on earth":
Dear Mr. Angst: I watched one of those nature shows on TV the other day. They showed a giant bird with a nine foot wing span that eats only bones. I mean it eats huge bones, like from horses and elephants, which the bird swallows whole. I'm wondering: if the bird's stomach acid is strong enough to digest a big bone, then why doesn't the stomach acid also dissolve the stomach itself? Signed, Bird Bone
Dear Bird Bone: I'd like to have used your question as a sounding board to address weightier questions, such as "what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable barrier," or "could God create a rock so large that he couldn't move it?" Unfortunately, I'm familiar with the bird you're talking about, and there's no real paradox here. The Valdostian vulture you refer to indeed swallows whole the bones of large animals. However, its stomach digests the skin and cartilage attached to the bones, and the bones themselves pass right through the bird, completely intact. As the bird flies around, a stream of bones drops from its hinter region. The most interesting part of this phenomenon, though, is the reaction from the villagers below who get pelted by the falling bones. The vultures have their greatest feast during the dry season when famine drives large animals into starvation. It is also during such droughts that villagers beseech their gods for rain. So, a long time ago, villagers prayed for rain and, from their perspectives, the gods showered them with bones. Thinking that their communication