Summary Of Religion And Human Experience By Ninian Smart

As Ninian Smart stated in his writing of Religion and Human Experience it is impossible to simply give religion one single definition instead Smart tries to give a description of what it means to be a religion. In this description he sees religion as “Is a six-dimensional organism, typically containing doctrines, myths, ethical teachings, rituals, and social institutions, and animated by religious experiences of various kinds.”-Ninian Smart. In this statement Smart says religion should be seen as an organism with the idea that all religion are continually moving, growing and changing just as an organism would. Another way to driver the comparison of religion to an organism is the fact that all religions are uniquely their own but do have some
core similarities that make them up. These similarities are the six-dimensions the smarts talked about in this definition of religion. The doctrinal dimension addresses each religions relationship between the divinities or in some cases ultimate reality and humans and the nature of the relationship. These relationships, how the work and came to exists can be known as a system of doctrines. The second dimension is mythological this dimension focuses on the sacred stories of each religion or “myths” that are continuously passed down through the generation. The content of these stories or myths are used to explain who or what the religion believes is the divinity and how it became. These scared stories can be in a book form such as the bible or Quran they could also be stories that are verbally passed down through generation. The third dimension is the ethical dimension these are the rules or guideline set out by the religion on how those who practice should act. These rules are set up to judge how good or evil a person is by how closely they follow them. The fourth dimension is ritual, for the purpose of these dimensions ritual is define as the reenactment of myths that express and confirm the religions thought and beliefs through these actions.