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Religion as set of values or set of practices?
I attended a very interesting seminar yesterday on religion and democracy that deconstructed Samuel Huntington’s notion that Christianity is necessary for democracy.
One of the aspects that jarred though, was the definition of religion as a set of values (rather than a set of repertoires). Take Islam, I cannot come up with a set of defining values that differentiates it from any of the other major religions.
I think it’s because I see values as universal, whereas religious practices are specific. Values such as doing good unto others as you would be done by, respect for the sanctity of life, honesty, bravery, trustworthiness, kindness etc. belong to all the great faiths and traditions of the world (and from a Muslim perspective, this is because they spring from the One Source). It is in the practices that religions differ. I pray the salat in a specific way, whereas Christians might kneel in prayer with their hands together, or chant on a rosary etc.
Anyone willing to take a stab at proving me wrong?
Tags: Islam & Muslims
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January 17th, 2008 at 7:34 am
As a non-religious person (I’m an apatheist, indifferent to the concept of God) I’m unsure as to just how religious people view it.
It’s clear that humans have worked out these ways of living together, and people like me with no religious underpinnings for our behaviour manage to behave well.
Which is why the idea that one set of practices is more “right” than another is so odd. But there’s more to it in the head isn’t there? Consider the whole Reformation thing, where the practices (adult baptism, statues vs no statues, priest vs lay leader, and so on) were utterly vital to people. Vital to the point of killing.
Doesn’t this mean that religion is not about behaviour here on earth except as it relates to how God is supposed to want people to act? It’s not about behaving as is right, but as is required. Clearly there are plenty of people who think killing is right if they think God says it is. So the little things - the number of beads on a rosary, the words of a prayer, the direction you face when praying, the number of times you pray - those are as important as the big things - killing and sex and conquering - because it’s all just based on What God Says. If you think God says “do this” then you do it, no matter what it is.
Once you think that right or wrong is what God says, then having a statue in church or baptising at 21 instead of 1 is as evil as murder. And people who do it differently are evil.
So if you think your values derive from your God rather than from your humanity, then religion is about values. If you think your values are from your humanity (because you look about you and see everyone, no matter the religion or lack of same, manage to have many of the same ones) then you see the religion you practice as a set of ways that put you in contact with whatever “God” is to you, and that do it better than someone else’s.
(of course that is the monotheistic religions. How does Buddhism fit into this? As just another way for people to explain why it’s important to be nice to others because some people are too selfish to manage any other way?)
Zebee
January 18th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I think you’ve made an important point Zebee. As a theist, I see human morality as common and inherent in human beings because that is the way God has made us) which is different from the rules and rituals of religions. Islam calls it the natural fitra - the inbuilt coding if you will - that all human beings have from birth to assent to goodness, it’s our environment that clogs the fitra pipes as it were.
Because morality is a part of the human condition - then as you say for me Islam is a set of practices that are the best way (for me) that I have found to put me in contact with God.