Religion is known as a cultural system that has behaviors and practices, ethics and social organization, worldviews, which relate humanity to the existential category. There are different religions that have narratives, symbols and different sacred stories that focus on explaining the meaning of life or, being able to explain the origin of life and the universe .
Types of religion
From the point of view of the cosmos and nature, people derive ethics, morals or various laws that reveal a preferred lifestyle. According to various estimates, there is an average of 4,200 living religions that are observed in the world and different extinct ones, with which people want to know which religion is the best and follow it. We will also present the classification of beliefs.
In this way, many religions organize behaviors, clergy, definition of what constitutes membership or belonging, holy places and perfect scriptures.
The practice of a religion includes sermons, rituals, commemoration or a veneration of a deity or gods or unique God, festivals, sacrifices, trance, funeral services, initiations, meditation, prayer, marriage services, dance, art, community service or aspects of human culture.
In this way, religion can have a mythology, as it is sometimes used as a synonym for faith, belief system or set of duties, but Emile Durkheim defines it as something eminently social .
A worldwide survey carried out in 2012 reports that 59% of the population is religious and 36% is not religious, where atheists are included in 13%.
In addition, it was corroborated that women are more religious than men and that several of the people follow several religious or religious principles at a similar time, regardless of the tradition that their principles have, which allows them or not syncretism.
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What is religion? – Definition
The definition of religion to this day is a controversy within specialists, one of them is the sociologist G. Lenski, describing it as a shared system of a set of associated beliefs and practices , which are articulated in relation to nature. and the forces that make known the destiny of human beings.
The anthropologist Clifford Geertz adds that it is a system of symbols that focuses on establishing penetrating, vigorous and lasting states of mind with men, which formulate conceptions from an existential order.
By having a wide use of the term, it becomes complex to offer a clear definition in relation to religion or the well-known religious phenomenon . But it is affirmed that being an anthropological fact encompasses traditions, institutions, ancestral cultures, history, mythology, scriptures, mystical experiences, faith and creed, prayers, liturgies, rites, among others.
In this way, it can be said that the word religion is synonymous with organized or religious religion, where institutions support the exercise of various beliefs or ceremonies.
Various human sciences are increasingly interested in the religious phenomenon from different points of view, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology and the history of religions.
But on the other hand, the different disciplines such as the phenomenology of religion focus on studying the manifestations and try to give it a single definition to show the relationship it has with the nature of human beings. From a physiological point of view religion is a way of life and in a broad sense it is an obligation of conscience to fulfill a duty.
How did religion originate? – Etymology
The origin of religion is another of the issues debated for centuries by having two interpretations that are held, in addition to offering a proposal according to the origin of the word that reveal a religious attitude.
Formerly it was used in a sense that is related to divinities, by expressing a fear or a superstitious scruple as mentioned in the texts of Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico VI 36 and Tito Livio in History of Rome from its foundation IV 30.
Religion was the first interpretation related to the cult to the Latin orator Cicero by offering in his work “De natura deorum”, where it is related to the cult and they are called religious by rereading. It also underlines the fidelity that is given to the duties that a religious person manages to contract with the divinity and justice.
Lactantius offers another etymology where the religion derives from the verb religare where the obligation of a bond of piety is made known, where the bond that one has with God is made known.
A concept that highlights the relationship that man has of dependence with a supreme being on whom he depends and that leads to worship him.
For his part, José Ortega y Gasset writes the essay “On the Roman Empire”, where he makes himself known when man believes in something, when reality is unquestionable, he becomes religious.
He also concludes that Religio does not come from religiare as it is said, but that it is the adjective that talks about the original meaning of the noun and Religiosus refers to scrupulous, so it behaves carefully and that the opposite is negligence, abandonment, carelessness and misunderstanding .
Approaches to the study of religion
It is inclined to find its own, distinctive and unique element, being a requirement of the different cultures of the West, being from a more theistic position a distinction between divinity and the rest of the world.
Especially from the point of illustration when developing various definitions in an attempt to collect the own aspects of the religious phenomenon . A place where the most significant are mentioned starting from a Supreme Being, but they do not apply to many religions in East Asia or primitive peoples.
By having a definition from a practice of religion , several proposals are available, such as those of Friedrich Schleiermacher, who reveal a feeling of absolute dependence by distinguishing the types of relative dependence.
For his part, William James emphasizes that it is an enthusiastic character of the adherence of different members of religions, where elements such as feelings, factors of experience, intuitive or emotional are considered, all from an individualistic perspective.
In accordance with the study of the human sciences that have been carried out, another set of definitions was formulated, which consider this phenomenon as a social and cultural field.
As is the definition of the French sociologist Durkheim when he made known that religion is a solidarity system of beliefs and relative practices in relation to sacred things and that it requires a power that it exercises over others.
But with the arrival of the phenomenology of religion, an attempt is made to go beyond forms by looking for the core of the phenomenon in society or in individual aspects. An area that is identified as belonging to religion in relation to the fact of presence or awareness of what is sacred.
In the work of Rudolf Otto in his work “The Holy” that was published in 1917, he manages to identify that the essence of religious consciousness is related to the reverential fear that, being unknown, irresistibly attracts its followers.
Each of these elements that Otto found focused on an absence of the experience of Asian religions, finding an extension in MirceaEliade by having an extension of the sacred when perfecting said definition.
It refers to spaces, things and various sacred times insofar as they are related to the symbolisms and rituals of these religions. So religion is the configuration of existence in the deep dimensions of human experience, which is related to man with what is presented as the transcendent and last with a variation according to cultures or circumstances.
Religious secularism
At the beginning of the 18th century, with the inclusion of humanism in society and the enlightened movement within Europe, spread rapidly to the world, focused on separating the doctrine of the State from the religious doctrine .
At present, the separation of political and religious powers has not been able to conclude, because in various parts of the planet they have still begun and in Western countries, despite the fact that a secularism is preserved within the State, religion has a great influence on laws such as the United States, Polynya, Italy and Spain.
Within Asian countries, a certain secularism is involved within the separation of the State and religion, as is the case in Japan, China, Vietnam and other countries with different religions.
In Thailand or Sri Lanka, more than 90% of the inhabitants are Buddhist due to social debates when confronting the secularism of the State with legal changes . In countries where Muslims lead, the secularism of the State has several approaches.
Turkey or Syria are characterized by being more secular, but others such as Iran or Saudi Arabia define themselves as Islamic. In addition, the Islamic world is characterized by being varied and complex as it has several secular and pro-religious movements.
When referring to Israel, it can be said that it is a secular state by projecting itself as religious, India is very similar although it has a social organization and legislation with influence on religion.
Classification of religions
At present there are different classes of religions according to the criteria chosen , below the religion and its classification:
Theological conception
- Theism : belief in one or more deities, finding within this religion:
- Monotheistic : religions that affirm the existence of a single god who is the creator of the universe. The most numerous are Christianity and Islam, the retailers are Judaism, Zoroastrianism or Bahai faith and Noahism.
- Polytheists : they believe in various gods organized in hierarchies such as Hinduism, Japanese Shinto or ancient religions such as Greek or Egyptian. In addition, several currents of modern neopaganism are included.
- Henotheists : term coined by the German Max Müller in the 19th century, for the belief in a single god where different deities are admitted, such as the Egyptians with Akhenaten. Although it turned out to be a problematic term, it was included academically within polytheism, pantheism in relation to the historical case. Today several neo-pagan sects and cults revive the given term.
- Dualists : religions that suppose the existence of two opposing and opposing divinities, despite the fact that only one of them should be venerated by its faithful, while the other is considered demonic. Including Manichaeism and Catharism.
- Non-theists : there are religions such as Taoism Buddhism that do not accept the existence of other absolute or universal gods, by granting them minor functions such as the Taoist belief in the Jade Emperor. On several occasions these deities are seen as metaphorical resources when referring to natural phenomena or states of mind.
- Pantheism : belief that both the universe, nature and God are equivalent.
Revelation
Division used to talk about revealed or undisclosed religions.
- Revealed religions : they have the foundation in the revealed truth of a supernatural character from a deity, indicating the dogmas in which they are believed and in the norms as in the rites that must be followed.
- Undisclosed religions : they do not have an origin according to a message given by deities or messengers, but can have systems developed in organizations that recognize the existence of said deities and various spirits within nature.
Origin
Another of the classifications that is made by origin or family when grouped into derivation trunks, such as those mentioned by the main families of religions, could be said to be a classification of beliefs:
- Family of Dharmic or Indic religions.
- Family of Abrahamic or Semitic religions.
- Neo-pagan family of religions.
- Iranian religions family.
- Native American traditional religion family.
- African traditional religions family.
Sects or new religious movements
Several recently created religions have a complex status as they are not known as universal religions, which according to anthropology and sociology it is concluded that a sect or religious movement refers to a group of people with common affinities which are cultural, religious , political, esoteric, among others. It is also a pejorative term where new religious movements have emerged.
Although the word sect is related to different groups that have the same affinity, over the years a connotation was acquired that is related to groups of a religious nature, which are classified as destructive sect.
These groups may have a judicial record in different countries thanks to mental manipulation of a destructive nature. A sect is related to the personal cult of a prophet or leader who is not recognized and whose focus is to gain many followers.
What is the largest religion in the world
There are five large religious groups within the world population where an average of 5.800 million people, that is 84%, practice Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the religion of China. Therefore, it is concluded that Christianity is called the most practiced religion in the world, leading with a total of 2,200 million people.
Study of religion
To study religion in depth, there are a number of numerous fields of research, among which the following are mentioned:
- Comparative Religion : deals with a comparative study of ideas, practices, and elements of religions.
- Theology : it focuses on the question of God and the different relationships that exist in the world and is studied separately from another specific religion or referring to one of them in a particular way.
- Organology : religion in particular when dealing with its elements, practices, organization and institutional order.
- Apologetics : focused on defending a religion against attacks or criticism from different directions.
- Psychology of religion: it deals with the aspects of human behavior, mind and operations that are manifested within the religious culture. Explain the reason why the people have certain religious ideas, thanks to the study of their natural needs, environment and inclinations.
- Neurotheology: has a focus on the correlation of neuronal phenomena with subjective experiences by having a spiritual character.
- Philosophy of religion: he deals with religion on different occasions through his interest in the study of transcending it and in nature with a human role. During the second half of the last century it was fruitful in relation to its contributions in logic and epistemology. In addition to exploring the philosophy of religion, faith and discourse of religions.
- History of religion: describes the cultural basis of the ideas and practices of a particular religion, which is why historians of sacred books exercise high criticism with a study of manuscripts to check the validity of the claims.
- Apocalyptic religion: it focuses on studying the holy books of the Bible in different religions and thus finding its apocalypse, so that it is studied, analyzed and discovered secrets of God in order to find the meaning they have with the end of the world.
Organology, organization of religions
The practice of religion throughout history is organized in different ways within society, such as the deposit of knowledge and religious explanations in the shaman or healer.
A figure that is still observed in indigenous peoples within America, Africa and Oceania. Within the first agricultural civilizations there was a development of the cities when a figure of the priest emerged when he was elected within society when he was in Egypt, Rome, Grace and pre-Columbian America.
The monkhood is a much more intense effort within the religious path to the rise within religions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Taoism. Its purpose is to be able to suppose the reunion or protection of the dispersed hermits.
Within religions such as Islam or Hebrew, only people who have an interpretation of the sacred scriptures can have the role of guide in the community of followers, an image of a rabbi that occurs in different religions.
Human sciences and religion
History
Within Greco-Roman antiquity, philosophers focused on explaining the origin of beliefs, believing that religion had been an invention by imposing respect for society, discipline, morality, a sense of good and evil.
Among the hypotheses is Lucretius with the theme “De natura rerum” where it is claimed that men invented the existence of the gods to explain the different wonders and natural mysteries, to have a foundation for what they could not control. An explanation that anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists still maintain,
In the twentieth century, the dominant perspective that was held about the origin of religious experience is located within the feeling of fear, when facing the unknown or what does not have a rational explanation.
A point of view famous by the workers of Rudolf Otto, while later MirceaEliade makes known the term hierophany in relation to the perception of the sacred and thus being driven by a feeling of inadequacy before human reason and the senses.
Within the oldest religions, various members of the hunting or agricultural societies isolated themselves, as a state of sensory deprivation in order to favor the appearance of dreams and visions.
Various hallucinogenic methods or products were considered to be used, as they were process activators. A series of practices that still exist in shamanism, in addition to a series of incenses and special plants such as opium that has hallucinogenic properties, used in Greece, Egypt and Rome.
It has had a historical evolution in some religions by becoming more sophisticated in observing notions of purity in the body and in the spirit, which banish the alteration of the psyche by means of external substances.
Practices that were replaced by prayers, rituals, and a series of contemplative techniques as they became facilitators with religious experiences. An evolution that joins the triumph or fainting of the civilizations that host them, in addition to the pressure of the social environment that they develop and that therefore explains the future of religions.
Sociology and religion
The first sociologists had a different attitude towards religion compared to the philosophers of the Enlightenment , not considering the phenomenon as a passing moment with superstitions according to the history of humanity, but as an essential aspect within the organization Social.
In this way Feuerbach in his work “The Essence of Christianity” focuses on the Christian religion from a psychological point of view and affirms that it focuses on an alignment of various human capacities.
It also deals with various aspects of religion such as dogma, liturgy and symbolism, but Alexis de Tocqueville in his work “Democracy in America” makes an analysis of Catholicism and Protestantism in democratic societies and from a sociological point of view .
In this way, from the first steps of sociology, different authors who have a great reputation such as Emile Durkheim, Max, Weber, Ernst Toeltsch or Ferdinand Tonnies focused on studying the religious phenomenon in society .
Within individualism, religion is observed as a trend that combines both the rational with the irrational, this at the time of articulating each of the religions in the way in which the doctrines that focus on giving global responses to the individual are developed.
Reason why most religious doctrines answer questions that relate to the creation of both the universe, the purpose of life, human nature, a definition between good and evil, eschatology and morale. In the same way, several ethical, symbolic and ritual codes are elaborated, but religion tries to offer a position to be able to live and understand the existence that the human being has in its entirety with common elements.
Within societies, several flames of wars between religions and theocracies have been observed , in other words, societies that are provided with a government that has legitimacy are within a system of ideas about religion.
Within them the divine and sovereign value is afflicted within the civilizations Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, Tibet and the Inca empire. Such cases the law is the legal religious authority as is the case in the United Kingdom where the supreme governor is the Anglican church in both England and Wales.
In the twentieth century, Talcott Parsons notes the relationship that is observed in religion and society, where cybernetics is included by generating a series of values, a modification of norms, influence within social roles and a guide for the different systems that are observed in society, personality and behavior.
This system is considered as a new application in evolutionary theories in religion, a source for Robert Bellah to publish “Religious Evolution”.
It can be concluded that religion for different societies is a symbol within their identity, so that religion appears as one of the main pieces for the moral ordering of societies and acts in an influential way in the legislative order. A relationship that has a beneficial or harmful environment according to the evolution of the accommodation that is achieved.
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology has focused on the study of religious manifestations within societies that do not yet know writing, by looking at their beliefs and practices. One of the disciplines that starts from several foundations when facing religion.
On the other hand, Durkheim’s “Social Facts” theory and Max Weber’s “Ideal Types” are those that have elucidated the relationships that exist in the relationship of religion with aspects of culture in life , where you will find the law, politics, ethics and economics.
But it has not yet been possible to obtain a consensus in relation to the method where the explanatory problem is found, which implies a degree of objectivity and consists of a series of possibilities that a scholar does not have preconceptions in relation to religion and religion. imperative method with different correct answers and answers.
Whatever the form, the first step focuses on grouping and being able to list a series of uses and practices to have similarities or possibilities. As can be seen in the parrot by James Peacock and Thomas Kirsch, where he explains from an anthropological point of view the development of different roles in religions.
After this publication, the various studies have focused on determining the origin of religion, thus since 1965 Evans-Pritchard published in the book “Theories about primitive religion”, a compilation of interpretations and theories is observed. They dispose of the origin of religion within human cultures from an evolutionary perspective.
Among the variant proposals are magic, polytheism, animism, totemism, fetishism, among others, but Evans underlines the difficulty of showing that various manifestations represent the origin of religion and other contemporary manifestations.
The issue of the origin of religion and the problem of religions is considered a thematic objective of anthropology in the 21st century, abandoning an initial interest in the elaboration to religions and their practical manifestations.
Psychology of religion
It arises within the study of compared religions and in the same way with psychoanalysis, it also has a method seen from the measurement with instruments of the different exact sciences, such as laboratory studies in the nineteenth century.
Among the pioneers of the psychology of religion is Wilhelm Wundt when considering four different stages in the history of consciousness: primitive ritual, myths of heroes and gods, totemism and humanism.
For his part, OswaldKulpe introduces other methods to be studied in religion, which are interviews and questionnaires of various autobiographical data. As well as the two trends of psychology in the nineteenth century, an introspective study and the analysis of the objective.
In the United States, psychology emerged as an independent discipline, where Stanley Hall formed a research team that managed to introduce a series of empirical methods to have a better study in religion.
One of his students ED Starbuck publishes the first treatise on the psychology of religion “ThePsychology of Religion”, where he focuses on the coincidences of puberty that have to do with dementiaprecox and religious conversation.
Freud affirms that all religious rites and beliefs are unconscious projects of the different conflicts that are had with the family that confirm the position of the self within society.
In the same way, one of Freud’s students, Carl Gustav Jung, deals with the religious issue in the same way, this when considering religion as one of the profound manifestations from a level of consciousness less deep than the teacher.
From these studies about Alchemy it can be a conscious way to unite an individuated self and thus confirm the theory of archetypes. On the same basis, another of Freud’s students, Eric Erikson, managed to develop evolutionary theory from the consciousness of religious belief in order to unify.
Even at the time that the different approaches depend on Freud and Jung may be more influential, in the same way various interpretations were given in Europe, such as being able to found a psychology of religion from the instruments of Kant’s theory of knowledge.
For their part, modern developments affirm the psychology of religion as a recent field in the study, where a large part of the religious experience is not admitted under empirical criteria and thus achieve a discipline of interest.
Mystical experiences
The mystical or transcendental experiences are considered the basis of the major religions in the religious experience. As mysticism it refers to the way of obtaining in an experimental way the identity, communion or the consciousness of the reality of religions as well as a truth, a state of consciousness or different deities.
Reason why it should be borne in mind that mystical experiences are not related to logical reasoning and intellectual understanding, so a person who develops this facet within his religion is known as a mystic.
In mysticism, therefore, introspection is emphasized compared to extraversion, where a relationship of a much more direct and personal character is established within the individual and the religion he has.
In several determining religions mysticism is the main source of authority in the different interpretations. Within the main religions schools, mystical movements or traditions are distinguished.
Although in principle many religions are characterized by being doctrinally accessible to mystical experiences, in the same way, different religious organizations often do not tolerate them, to consider them as a counter-power when interpreting the meanings of religion in society.
Within Christianity, the Catholic Inquisition or various Protestant reforms pursue variants within Christianity and thus classify them as heresies. For their part, Sufism and Islamism experienced difficulties after the great Reformation.
Liberal or Japanese Buddhism has a clergy that cornered several contemplative approaches that were not liked by having social consequences, within Western intellectuals it is mentioned that mysticism has defenders and detractors both outside and within religions.
In the 19th century, the observation that religion had comes from historical materialism when considering it critically, where Emile Durkheim attributes it as a collective effervescence within the social context.
Heading the psychological interpretation is William James who frames the mystical experience in relation to religions, this being part of a broader and non-exclusive theme.
But in the twentieth century, interpretations such as those of Csikszentmihalyi focus on the theories “State of the flow”, where it can appear in the human mind when performing a series of activities that require meditation and therefore causes a state of happiness.
For its part of scientific exploitation it is much more modern in the fields of contemplation, ecstasy and meditation that is common to the mystique of different religions, which have several conclusions so it becomes an interesting field for science.
Within the cases of the East Asian religions, both mysticism and philosophical speculation do not suffer from historical difficulties. However, the theologians of Christianity are divided to point some to mysticism, while others separate it from science.
Philosophy of religions
Religious knowledge according to the followers of different religions is obtained from religious leaders, personal revelation and sacred texts.
Several of the points of view of the religions see knowledge as unlimited in relation to the scope and capacity to solve any question, while others give a restricted role to the knowledge obtained through the observation of physical phenomena and some religions give it knowledge religious.
Different religious texts are centuries old, such as the “Book of the Dead”, “Gligamesh Poem”, “Bible”, “Majábharata”, “Rig-veda”, “The Puranas”, “Ramaiana”, “Koran” “Puranas.” Each of the texts are not only of interest in religions as they focus on the philosophy of religion , studying various theistic or non-theistic conceptions, mysticism, cosmology of religions, problem of evil, epistemology and broad issues with the section philosophical intellectual.
Main philosophical speculations
Within religions, great philosophical developments are observed which focus on clarifying what is the religious doctrine of human reason , as observed in theistic religions when known as Theology. Many times in East Asia, despite the great and varied philosophical developments, there is no differentiated discipline in the same religion and philosophy, while in shamanic or tribal religions there is no philosophical aspect.
The different philosophical developers of religions have various aspects of religious doctrine, which is why they are explained in various points of view in each religion.
- Pantheism : a philosophical point of view where all reality has a divine nature, which is why the idea of having a sacred entity or a personal God is rejected . Various philosophists such as Spinoza joined pantheism by identifying nature as a god, while eastern religions such as Chinese Taoism and Japanese Shinto have a large pantheistic burden.
- Monism : a philosophical point of view that emphasizes the unity of what exists around it, where it affirms several underlying laws that deny having divisions within it. In this way it moves away from dualism or pluralism. The origins of monism are due to the Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Thales of Miletus, Empedocles or Parmenides. However, monism was a vision of the Neoplatonic philosophers, among whom is Plotinus, one of the most influential philosophers in the Fathers of Christianity.
- Gnosticism : affirms that there is an inherent duality within the manifestation of the sacred. Within the concepts is matter and spirit, good and bad as several different concepts, where they appear opposite to the results of the individual by providing a first to experimental knowledge. It also had a great influence at the beginning of the development of Christianity and the development of Eastern religions.
- Fundamentalism : focuses on affirming the character of scriptures or sacred stories, in order to deny their psychological meanings, at the same time it is known as literalism. It is circumscribed to different theistic religions and has become popular with Protestant movements within the United States by assuming a radical denial of scientific truths. One of them is Creationism, which denies the evolution of species and the theories that have arisen about the origin of the universe, by affirming that the biblical account is authentic.
- Non-theism: ensures the non-existence of deities or an active role to liberate the individual. It is also called atheism as it exists between Buddhism and Taoism. Different variants of Buddhism accept the worship of deities with a psychological role or something symbolic. Observe two variants with a Chinese absorption with the help of loving symbolic foods to corroborate practices that have a psychological character.
- Determinism: one of the philosophical doctrines that states that all types of events are determined by causes and consequences. A religion that is framed in a doctrine of Predestination. Being a point of view that assumes an omnipotent deity leaves nothing to chance. In the Calvinist movement Christian Protestantism was very important . Within religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism there is the doctrine of karma that focuses on a law of cause and effect, but it depends on the intention of sentient beings and this implies a destiny. Through reincarnation, belief in predestination in Hinduism is high and spreads at the popular level by having a distortion of Buddhist thought.
- Syncretism: it focuses on the conciliation of several different and even opposing points of view. Because within religions it implies the power to adopt various elements of different religions. An example is the ritual and devotional syncretism as it is a constant evolution within religions through their history in contact with each other. At present these religions are considered in various Caribbean and American cults that mix Catholicism and practices of tribal religions.
Reasoning
Most of the religions usually have a part of esoteric knowledge and another exoteric.
- On the esoteric side, it focuses on what is secret or discreet, cryptic or that it accesses hierarchical mechanisms by having trust in its members.
- On its exoteric side it focuses on public, intelligible and accessible knowledge.
In the greatest religions the two facets are present. Theistic religions allude to esoteric knowledge as a gift or a blessing when disposing of a deity towards a particular person. Within Christianity the concept of Grace is considered a gift from God , which allows people to enjoy much deeper meanings. Very similar are observed in the Muslim and Jewish religions.
In other religions, esoteric knowledge is affirmed as one of the mechanisms of oral transmission, which is sometimes found outside the sacred or public scriptures. Within Buddhism there is a variant in those that come from Tibetan Buddhism that are esoteric. In addition, Taoism has a contemplative facet where complicated psychophysical methods are found as a strong component of initiation.
Stances in relation to religion
It is important to distinguish between religion and a religious position. As a religion it is claimed to be a system of beliefs, practices, precepts and rituals, on the other hand, a religious position focuses on the way in which one of the individuals can identify with various religions.
On the other hand, there is a position of denying the value or usefulness of different religions, which also adapt them to their personal approaches. In the same way, different positions of religions are observed within the application approaches in society in different topics such as secularism.
- Religious : affirms belonging to a religion or a creed.
- Practitioners : take on a religious message or content and try to put it into practice through practices, celebrations or rituals.
- Non-practitioners : assumes a religious message or content but are not participants in practices, celebrations or rites.
- Non-religious : they explicitly deny belonging to a religion or creed, or they find themselves in disagreement with the contents of religions.
- Atheists : from the Greek “godless”, lives oblivious to a deity that influences society. It refers to two different attitudes, indifference for existence or not believing in their existence.
- Apatheistic : atheism in which a position is maintained to consider the existence of deities and unimportant knowledge, which as a consequence has an ignored debate. According to Étienne Borne, it is an atheism that is carried out in practice.
- Agnostics : position that denies religious truth, affirms that there is no certainty to ensure incompatible truths when representing a true religion. It implies that they lack a spiritual interest, so they do not make affirmations or beliefs about a reality in religious terms.
- Ignostics : or igtheism focuses on the position in relation to the belief of God when knowing the question of the definition of God. He wonders what is meant by God? And after knowing the truth, he will check if God exists or not.
- Atheists : from the Greek “godless”, lives oblivious to a deity that influences society. It refers to two different attitudes, indifference for existence or not believing in their existence.
- Fundamentalism : it is based on the application of a dogma or belief in a literal way, whether religious or otherwise, and which refuses explanations or the potential of extended meanings. It eliminates the possibility of the coexistence of different interpretations in relation to reality, so it needs a disappearance or elimination for the satisfaction of a true criterion.
- Religious fundamentalism : it assumes the different literal explanations of religious texts by denying their symbolic, psychological and temporal meanings. In a general way it is derived in relation to the denial or the desire to eliminate different explanations, religious positions of science or society.
- Anti-religious fundamentalism : it assumes literal explanations of non-religious texts, denying their temporal meanings or ignoring the provisionality of both scientific and social truths. It results in the denial and desire to eliminate explanations from religious positions or different views of one’s own belief.
- Secularism : comes from the Greek “laiku: people” as opposed to klerikus: clergyman. The word secular is defined for those who are not clergy, within the religious organization as well as in a civil society. It affirms the need for the ordination of society without participating directly from clerics and independently from religious influence. The defense implies that those who design, order and apply laws, different uses and customs of a society must be laity, so they leave this function to the clergy for the sphere of religious organizations.
- Interreligious dialogue : although in history the religions of the world have had a contact between them and even the same knowledge, it was not until the 20th century when humanity began to establish the public need for a channel of communication and active in what which is called interfaith dialogue. The first religions and leaders carried out in recent decades in order to increase dialogue as a way to eradicate the different foundations and to contribute to world peace. Among the most famous encounters are those of Assisi in Italy, those of Gethsemane in Israel and those of AbdullahBin Abdelaziz in Islam.