Religious Diversity Midterm

Religious Diversity Midterm

1. Post: All of the posts that I have completed are listed below in the blog site.

2. I have been absent one time. I have never been late to class.

3. My digital film is called A Day to Remember. It is approximately two minutes long. I used Windows Movie Maker to edit and create it.

4. I have completed Not A Genuine Black Man, and I have read the assigned pages in the Reader that deal with the questions of the midterm.


5. An example of a “consilience,” would be stigmata. A stigmata is where wounds appear on wrists of a person. Usually the people who get stigmata’s are religious persons like nuns, priests, or monks. They are said to be placed in the exact place of where Jesus Christ was crucified. There was this one video depicted a man from Spain who had stigmata. He not only bled from his pierced hands, but he also bled from the rim of his forehead, in which paralleled when Jesus Christ had the crown of thorns placed on his head. Many skeptics believe that stigmata can be explained scientifically, and that is not at all a miracle. Sociologically one could explain the phenomena of stigmata as adapting one’s qualities. It is common that when people build relationships with people be it their boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, mother, and father, they start to get similar personality traits. They begin to talk like them, think like them, and act as if they were them. This can explain why most religious people like nuns, monks, and saints like Saint Francis of Assisi have this experience. They have such a strong bond, relationship with God that they begin to feel what he must have felt during the time of the crucifixion which explains what is called the invisible stigmata. Thus they begin to take on the traits of Jesus Christ just like any one usually does when they are in such a close nit relationship. Stigmata psychologically can be explained with that person’s state of mind. Many skeptics believe that stigmata are usually caused by a mental illness such as, Munchausen Syndrome. People who have this type of mental illness inflict injury upon themselves to gain attention (www.wikipedia.com). Back in the days of St. Francis, modern day medicine was not around. Therefore people could have had this mental disorder and no one knew about it. Usually when something is unknown and has no explanation, scientific information to back it up at that specific moment, it always then recognized as a miracle. Stigmata has been a phenomenon that has been called a miracle because people did not know how to explain it. Now that there is modern medicine and more information on mental illnesses, it is easier to draw some conclusions on how stigmata actually work and why it happens. Biologically stigmata can be explained much like that of the psychological aspect of it. There could be a chemical imbalance that ultimately lets a person inflict pain on themselves. These explanations can fit into the stigmata because there is the idea that “you don’t know until you walked a mile in my shoes,” well this can very well apply to those who have stigmata experiences. They socially, and mentally they want to feel what Jesus felt at that time so they can ultimately get even closer. I personally do not know who is right and who is wrong, but I believe that people do things for a reason and that things happen for a reason.

6. Memetics can be explained as the study of memes which is, “a cultural accretion of knowledge, a package of several ideas that can be passed onto others” (Jack Hardy, A Journal of Alternative News and Information, http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Memetics.html). This theory of memetics can help explain why there are certain religions that are more successful than others in the United States. The Catholic religion is probably the most popular religion in the United States. It has over a million followers. The reason why is because it is the most popular. It is also the easiest to convert to. There are so many different religions and ideas in the United States one can use the example of the reproductive system. The male has a lot of sperm that wants to travel to an egg. Thus ideas, religious ones, are considered the sperm and the people who will most likely be infected with the sperm are considered eggs. Why is it then that the Catholic religion so easily impregnates the eggs? As stated above the Catholic religion is not very complicated. One can be baptized at any time, and nowadays on the television. The Catholic Church is very open to new people who are willing to convert. Other religions like Judaism are more complicated and there is a longer process to convert. Since the memetics theory deals with copying itself and the replication process of it, it is easy for the Catholic religion to copy itself in the minds of people. The notion of you will not go to Heaven if you do not follow the Ten Commandments, sticks in the mind of people more than others. A meme however is different from a gene in that a gene shows what the phenotype is and then pass it on to its host, but a meme does not stay the same it changes unlike the gene it will be copied in a, “phenotypic state which will, for the new host become the genotype of his meme” (Klaas Chielens, Memetics, http://memetics.chielens.net/index.html, 2007.)

7. Evolutionary theory helps in understanding human migration, cultural development, and social identity because it show that how people have evolved gives an insight to understand why the human does certain things like practice a type of religion versus another. It helps explain why religion evolved in the first place. In this class we have discussed that no one is pure in culture, we all are diversified with many cultures. It has been shown that people evolved out of Africa, thus the question than is why did certain people move from on country to another. Evolutionary theory helps us understand this because it shows that people were created differently to sustain different types of climates, food, and overall survival aspects of their life. Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest applies in this understanding of evolutionary theory in that people begin to compete for survival. The types of substances that people are fighting for are food, land, weather, sex, and the desire for adventure. All of these aspects is what people are competing for to survive. In Africa the weather is very warm and can easily damaged the skin of those with a fair complexion which enables those people to move and find other parts of the world that are not as much in the direct sunlight. People know right away that they do not like something whether it be weather, or food. The culture in Africa is very distinct from other culture throughout the world; perhaps a person did not like the food in Africa and wanted to search for another source of survival. Point being is that Dawkins and Darwin rely on the notion that these instinctual notions we have, are innate, but we also inherit them by nature. This can apply itself to religion in that each religion is trying to compete with other religions; however the one that will win depends on the person that it is trying to reach out for. Religious leaders know who is more vulnerable and who needs religion the most, therefore it will target its message to those people. More over, the person like in deciding that the weather is not their “cup of tea,” will be able to decide what religion fits those best. Like finding a place to live and what a person likes, one will be able to decipher what religion is inherited in them.

8. The notion of “race” is biologically obsolete. It is biologically obsolete because it has been researched that everyone derived from Africa there is really biologically no such thing considered race. There is however culture that perhaps identifies oneself. Though race biologically is non-existent, culturally it is still viable. It is viable in that different types of “races” tend to perform differently than others whether it be in sports, education, creativity, and much more. It is pretty obvious that Black athletes in sports like football and basketball make up the majority of the team. Why is that? It has been stated that Black men are better basketball players because they are usually taller than White males. There are plenty of White males, so biologically this explanation does not make sense, but socially people relate basketball to Black males. Therefore race is already an issue when it comes to sports. People begin to divide who is a better player by the color of one’s skin. Also when it comes to education one always hears that Asians are smarter in math. When I was in high school people always got upset when there was an Asian person in our math class because they would most always throw off the curve. Is it because the person is Asian? Do Asians have something biologically innate in them that make them better in understanding mathematics? Probably not, but the Asian culture is typically more strict in terms of education. Thus race is biologically obsolete but culturally it is still present because people still view Asians as geniuses, and Black athletes as the perfect standard for basketball or football. IQ test also determine how high a person’s knowledge is. It determines where they rank in terms of how well they can problem solve. Those that score high on these exams are usually Caucasians and Asians. Hispanics and Blacks are those that score low on the scale. Because of these tests it has tainted the reputation of Hispanics and Blacks as being below average in regards to education. Thus even though race biologically is not present in society, culturally because of the way society is with exams like the IQ test, and the pressure of athletics to have just the best athletes on a team, race is very visible culturally.

9. A religious idea/ritual/practice that has been transformed in American soil is the idea of Kashrut. Kashrut is an Orthodox Jewish tradition that is commonly referred to Kosher. This practice deals with the preparation of food. There are restrictions on what an Orthodox Jew can eat. There are certain animals that cannot be eaten, and if there is meat present at a table there cannot be dairy products at the same table. If a certain utensil was used to prepare a meal containing meat, that utensil must not interfere with the preparation of a meal that contains dairy. Also the preparation of the meat is regulated as well. The animal must not feel any pain when slaughtered. There are certain procedures in which one must take in order for the meat to be considered kosher. The main reasons for this practice are philosophical reasons, ritualistic reasons, and hygiene. This practice has gotten transformed in the American soil because many states have adopted kosher laws. This has created conflict between the separation of church and state, but still states like New York has passed a law called, “McKinney’s Agriculture and Market Law,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher) which shows that the state got around the separation of church and state issue and still managed to create a law that has the same ideals of the Orthodox Jewish practice of being kosher. Rather than kosher being something that is from a religion, the U.S. has adopted this idea for hygiene purposes when it comes to selling and distributing food products. They have changed it to be something that has nothing to do with religion, but has everything to do with cleanliness in the market place or a better environment.

10. Peter Berger’s “heretical imperative,” this idea is that all religions are somehow related to each other. The idea is that some religions have branched off each other in a reaction against something that the person did not like. King Henry the 8th is one example that comes to mind with the Anglican Church. The former religion he was in, did not allow for one to get a divorce. He reacted against this notion and formed his own religion known as the Anglican Church, but there were still aspects of his old religion that had been transferred on to his new found religion. Therefore there are three ways of thinking, deductive, inductive, and reductive. Deductive is to base a claim or idea based on logic. Inductive is coming to a conclusion after an observation, and finally reductive is explaining something that is complicated using simple language. Berger explains that using inductive reasoning applies to religious pluralism. It applies in that word pluralism is defined as a diversified group in religion, culture, ethnicity, and overall background of the person that remains in one society. Therefore religion pluralism applies to these diversified groups of people. Therefore religion is inductive because since religions usually branch off from another, they take qualities from each other. Since the Judaism is the foundation of Christianity, Christian religions will have similarities to the Jewish tradition; however they will not be identical. Thus the Christian religions like Catholicism used inductive reasoning to come to a conclusion of how they wanted their religion to be formed. This would then attract those diversified groups in the society that did not relate to the Jewish tradition, therefore giving them the option to explore more of the Catholic faith. The point being is that religions are inclusive because they gather information from other previous religions and then make their final adjustments to the religion the religious leaders want to profess.

13. Scientology is one new religion that has influenced North America. It has influenced mostly the Hollywood celebrities. Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard it is described as an, “applied religious philosophy,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology). It is a religion based on rehabilitation, ethics, and morals. It has influenced North America in that it has such strict practices when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs, child delivery, and psychiatry. Since Scientology followers are well-known actors and actresses who have a greater voice in the media than the average person, their religious beliefs when it comes to their Scientology practices, are put out for the world to hear. It has influenced the way people think about pharmaceutical drugs. A lot of Americans are trying to stay off drugs and be natural, which can be seen as an influence from this popular culture.

14. Nietzsche would describe the “death” of God and the rise of new religions as hand in hand. He explains that people are the ones who kill God. He claims that if you kill God than people begin to deconstruct everything about their life, and people see no meaning to life which can become a dangerous point in one’s life. The reality is when God dies; people begin to seek him more. They miss the spiritual feeling of life, and the truth of life and this is when new religions start to emerge. This is how God resurrects. He resurrects in different ways through new religions. Perhaps Hubbard, the creator Scientology, lost faith at one point in his life. God died for him and he needed to find something to console him. Rather than reject God and his presence altogether Scientology was created to fill that missing spiritual void. Thus this new religion of Scientology emerged. I am not stating that this is accurate, but it could be an example of why new religions come into light.

15. Stephen Wolfram’s “new kind of science” support Stephen Jay Gould’s notion of spandrels or unintended consequences/complexities because Wolfram discovered that Rule 110 discovers complexities. He states that from a computer program you can produce any complex system that will have unintended consequences. He claims that one does not need an intelligent designer to create complexities. He rationalizes that the universe was not created by an intelligent designer however it was actually very simple. This discovery supports Gould’s theory in that he believes that the body is probably an unintended consequence a secondary effect of something else. Therefore it supports Wolfram’s idea because he claims that complexity is the result of simpler computational like programs, thus as an unintended consequence of this complexity, arose other substances that perhaps created human life. Thus this then brings into question what religion is. Is religion just an unintended consequence of the brain? Is it a response of the brain that people have in order to go through life day to day? It really is an interesting theory; however I wonder if actually that is simple.

16. Religious “diversity” almost always starts with its founders because like the previous question in regards to Berger’s “heretical imperative,” religions start from one place and branch out. The fundamentals of one religion are its fundamentals because of other religions. Judaism is a perfect example because it is the foundation of the Christian religions. Therefore though there are many different religions that believe in different things, there are many aspects that have derived from the founding religion that is based off of.

17. The tipping point in Brian Copeland’s life which prompted him to want to commit suicide was most likely when he had taken his son Adam to a store to buy some finger paints. During that shopping experience with his son, Adam has asked Brian to get the doll house with a White family. When Brian asked why, Adam replied that because he was told that Black people are bad. The conversation ended with Adam screaming that he did not want to be brown. This is the point where Brian felt sick to his stomach. He did not know that his life as a child would repeat itself in the life of his child. It was at this point where Brian felt the urge to end his life. This was not the only occasion that in which Brian felt the urge to commit suicide. Earlier at his 35th birthday party celebration he overheard a patron at the bar say that he was still, “just a nigger,” (Copeland, 113). By this person calling him a nigger it made him think for a minute that he had done nothing. All of the work that he had accomplished meant nothing, therefore for his child to scream and yell about not wanting to be Black hurt him. All of that work, all of the accomplishments that he had done meant nothing; it didn’t even make his son want to be like his dad.

18. Some of the subtle forms of racism that Brian encountered when growing up in San Leandro was when he was accused of stealing at a store. He wanted to buy a present for his sister and the manager of the store took him in the back room and had him empty out his pockets. He was accusing Brian of stealing, but Brian had earned his money and was not stealing merchandise. His first day in San Leandro as he walked to the park with his baseball bat, and White children were heckling him telling him he could not go to the park, and how he was being followed by the group of children he got scared and ran. When he ran he ran into a police officer and told him what was going on. Rather than the police officer taking him into consideration and showing any type of concern for what this eight year old child had just gone through, the police officer has him searched and places him in the police car as a criminal. Even authorities like police officers who are seen as people who help citizens in need and who protect citizens, was treating Brian as a criminal solely because he was Black in a White neighborhood. The incident when a little girl accused Brian of killing her cat is also another way in which Brian encountered racism. Since Brian and his family were the only Black people in the neighborhood, it was very easy for people to accuse them of a crime.

19. Brian’s experience of racism dovetails with the experiences of Malcolm X in that both their parents desired to be White. Brian’s mother wanted to be White. She would act as the White people because she wanted to gain the respect that White people gave each other. Malcolm X childhood was similar in that his parents wanted to be White as well. When they would sing hymns at church, he would look at them as if they were trying to assimilate to the White way of life. The difference is that Brian did not seem to hate White people. He was sad that he and his family were treated differently, but never once did Brian claim that White people are the devil. Malcolm X is a little more aggressive and extreme when he claims that White people are the, “devils race” (Stone, Piar, 275). Brian seems to accept the fact that for some people race will always be an issue, but Malcolm X is more of to get revenge on what the White people have caused the Black community. Malcolm X believes that Black people are treated the way they are treated because they do not know their history, where as Brian did not know why Black people were treated the way they were. Thus, Malcolm X believes that if the Black people would take an interest in their actual history, they would be able to be superior.

20. The North American Indian religions absorbed and integrated Christianity into their own religious ideas and rituals. It can be seen in the early stories of the Native American Indians because they used the number four when describing spirits. Things that were holy or people that were holy like the gods came in four. Later in the stories from Black Elk, one can see that the number four has changed to number three. In the story titled Visions of the Other World from Black Elk, a man that was not a Wasichu but he held arms open in front of him and his hair was described as long and loose. It was as almost as Black Elk was describing an apparition that was coming to tell the people that the Great Spirit, “God,” was advising the people that they should honor and worship the Great Spirit because all of the earthly things that belong to him. This parallels the image that the Christians give when describing Jesus. Jesus in the Bible was always seen with his arms wide open and described with having long flowing hair. He would also let his followers know that his Father, God, is the creator of all living things. Therefore the stories that the Black Elk tells is very similar to the parables and stories that the Christian missionaries tell about Jesus. Thus it is obvious the connection between the influence and integration of the two religions.

21. Laverne Jacobs felt very confused studying in the seminary to become a priest and then as a priest because his foundation, his beliefs before Christianity was that of the Native American religious experience. His previous cultural background of being a Native American still remained present mind, body, and soul. He still had the urges to participate in pagan worships, and participate in rituals and craft projects of the Natives, but this would mean he would deny his new found Christian lifestyle as a priest. His home community included many Native Americans with the same ritualistic practices that the Christian church forbids; therefore it was difficult for Laverne to coexist in a community like this without feeling that he is betraying his Christian faith. The way he was able to accomplish this desire to be both one with the Native culture and one with his Christian faith, was by attending a United Church for the Native people. During his time there in the convention he was asked to share the Pipe with the Medicine Priest. At this point he was very confused because he did not know if he was to share in this holy experience with the Natives if it would be jeopardizing his Christian faith. He decided to participate in it and prayed to God that he would be protected. When attending the World Council of Churches in Korea, he was surrounded by people from Europe and he felt very alone. Finally Natives came up to him and asked him to participate in prayer. As he prayed, he prayed to God and Jesus. Therefore he did not pray to the pagan gods when participating in Native traditions, he prayed to the God he knew and it made him feel as if his difficulty and conflict between the two religions was going away. He was able to find peace with himself because he considered that everyone has rituals and traditions that are given up for the, “God the creator and Jesus the son in on great symphony of creation” (Stone & Piar, 141).

22. The Native American Church of Jesus Christ practices Peyotism which evolved in the state of Oklahoma. The symbol for this religion is the cactus. A man named Quannah Parker is the founder of this religion. He created this religion because he claimed that he saw a vision of Jesus Christ in a battle with federal troops. The Peyote itself is an ointment that is taken with water along with communion. This religion is different from other Native American religions because they too are talking about Jesus.

23. Frederick Douglass’ described slavery as deception. They were granted holidays like Christmas and were able to spend time with their family. The slave owners would encourage their slaves to get drunk and make bets with other slave owners of which slave would drink the most without getting drunk. The slaves were then to choose between liberty and slavery if they had won, but they were deceived. Rather then enjoying their drinks, they were also pressured to drink from their slave owners as well. The slave owners would take charge of their private life as well as their work life. Some other slave owners like Mr. Hopkins were worse in that he would beat his slaves for the most minor mistakes or occurrences. Overall the slaves were just subjects to be used to create a reputation for the slave owner. It was a selfish act. Mr. Covey did not beat Douglass because he would then be seen as an insensitive man for whipping a sixteen year old boy, whereas Mr. Hopkins is seen as a tough man. It all boiled down to the slave owner. Nothing the slaves ever did was good enough for the slave owner. It is specific in critiquing conventional religion in that if one does not follow a religion to a “T” they will be punished. The Catholic Church has many rules or guidelines to follow in order to get to Heaven. If for some reason you do not follow these Ten Commandments, it is almost as if you have just been whipped. The more times you have been whipped the less of a chance you will have to get into Heaven. Like the slave owners, they did grant a grace period in which they were able to have fun with their families to show that they are not all that bad. This parallels the idea of forgiveness or confession in the Catholic religion. If you did something that would damper your chances of getting into Heaven, one could be forgiven and confess their sins, and then things would be okay, but then they are waiting for the next time that one messes up to, “whip,” them in fear of not being able to get into heaven. Though religion does not physically damage oneself, they do sometime damage someone mentally in fear. People will fear what they do because they will constantly think if they do something bad, they will not get into heaven.

24. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King differ in their actions to liberate Blacks from oppression. Malcolm X has a very military style of liberating Blacks from oppression. He encourages a violent way to get rid of oppression. He seems like a very angry man when reading his excerpts, and feels that the White people are the Devil. This attitude increases more anger within the Black community, in which the Black community will then act in an aggressive manner and violent manner to liberate themselves. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the exact opposite. His way of liberating Blacks from oppression is a much peaceful strategy. He uses non violent actions to make his point. Why should Blacks act in a violent way and express anger in the way the Whites express anger to the Blacks by showing violence? Nothing gets accomplished this way. Martin Luther King, Jr. has an attitude of togetherness of unifying everyone. Malcolm X seems to be dividing people more so when it comes to the White and Black community.

25. Genealogical disassociation is a key factor in understanding the emergence of new religions in America because many of the new religions that emerge have broken off from a previous existing religion. They shy away from the former religion so that they can deny any connection to the former religion and make the new religion seem new in every sense. The real reason this is key for new religions is that it allows them to be autonomous. This is key because if they did not deny their former relations with previous religion, there would not be much of a difference or reason why they branched out from their former religion.

A Day Everyone Remembers

A Day Everyone Remembers

Memetics Theory

Hey everyone found these two good websites that talk about memetics
theory. I found the whole theory pretty confusing, so I went and did
some research and I found a thesis paper that talks about the theory
of memetics, and then this generic website as well. It talks about the
difference between a gene and a meme. It also gives examples different
types of memes as well. Enjoy!

http://memetics. chielens. net/

http://pespmc1. vub.ac.be/ MEMES.html

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