Supernatural Beliefs

1
Chapter 14

• Supernatural Beliefs

2
What We Will Learn

• What is religion?
• What functions does religion perform for the
  individual and the society as a whole?
• What different forms does religion take among the
  societies of the world?
• What role does religion play in the process of
  culture change?

3
Defining Religion

• A set of beliefs in supernatural forces directed
  at helping people make sense of the world and
  solve problems.
• All forms of religion are founded on a belief in
  the supernatural.

4
Religion in Societies

• All societies have
• Religious rituals that appease supernatural
  forces
• Sets of beliefs concerning what we would call the
  soul
• Notions about life after death

5
Religion in Societies

• Evangelist Timothy J. Keller thrives in Manhattan
  by embracing the city and identifying with its
  culture.

6
Religion

• Animism
• Belief that people have souls or spirits in
  addition to physical, visible bodies.
• Polytheism
• The belief in the existence of many gods.
• Monotheism
• The belief in only one god.

7
Religion

• Animatism
• Belief in a generalized, impersonal power over
  which people have some measure of control.
• Mana
• An impersonal supernatural force, inhabiting
  certain people or things, which is believed to
  confer power, strength, and success.

8
Question

• ______ is a set of beliefs in supernatural beings
  and forces directed at helping people make sense
  of the world and solve important problems.
• Belief
• Religion
• Ritual
• Superstition

9
Answer b

• Religion is a set of beliefs in supernatural
  beings and forces directed at helping people make
  sense of the world and solve important problems.

10
Supernatural Healing

• A traditional healer from Jamaica uses
  supernatural powers.

11
Magic

• Vodoo, a form of imitative magic, is practiced in
  Togo.

12
Magic

• Supernatural beliefs that involve manipulation of
  supernatural forces to intervene in human
  activities and natural events.
• Imitative magic
• Based on the idea that the procedure performed
  resembles the desired result.
• Contagious magic
• Based on the premise that things, once in
  contact with a person continue to influence that
  person after separation.

13
Sorcery and Witchcraft

• Witchcraft is an inborn, involuntary, and often
  unconscious capacity to cause harm to other
  people.
• Sorcery is the performance of certain magical
  rites for the purpose of harming other people.

14
Wicca

• A modern-day movement of witches and pagans.
• Covens are local groups of witches found in
  major cities in the United States, which are
  presided over by high priestesses.
• Satanists are individuals belonging to a group of
  people who worship Satan.

15
Wicca

• Led by Amy Krinner, a coven of Wiccans practices
  magic in Bayshore, New York.

16
Question

• _______ involves the manipulation of supernatural
  forces for the purpose of intervening in a wide
  range of human activities and natural events.
• Magic
• Witchcraft
• Sorcery
• Religion

17
Answer a

• Magic involves the manipulation of supernatural
  forces for the purpose of intervening in a wide
  range of human activities and natural events.

18
Question

• Unlike magic or witchcraft, ________, stories of
  a culture's gods, their origins, and such, serve
  to explain the large questions surrounding human
  existence.
• legends
• myths
• religion
• tales

19
Answer b

• Unlike magic or witchcraft, myths, stories of a
  culture's gods, their origins, and such, serve to
  explain the large questions surrounding human
  existence.

20
Myths

• Sacred literature that states certain religious
  truths.
• Include stories of the gods, their origins, their
  activities, and the moral injunctions they teach.
• A cultures mythology is closely connected to its
  moral and social order.

21
Social Functions of Religion

• Social control
• Conflict resolution
• Intensifying group solidarity

22
Psychological Functions of Religion

• Cognitive
• Provides an intellectual framework for explaining
  parts of our world that we do not understand.
• Emotional
• Helps reduce anxiety by prescribing
  straightforward ways of coping with stress.

23
Question

• By helping individuals cope with the anxieties
  often accompanying deaths, accidents, illnesses
  and other misfortunes, religion serves a/an
• group identity function.
• cognitive function.
• positive function.
• emotional function.

24
Answer d

• By helping individuals cope with the anxieties
  often accompanying deaths, accidents, illnesses
  and other misfortunes, religion serves a/an
  emotional function.

25
Classifying Religions Anthony Wallace

• Wallace identified four principal patterns of
  religious organization based on what he calls
  cults.
• Wallace uses the term cult to refer to forms of
  religion that have their own set of beliefs,
  rituals, and goals.
• This use of the term should not be confused with
  the definition used to refer to an antisocial
  religious group that brainwashes its members
  before leading them to mass suicide.

26
Classifying Religions Anthony Wallace

• Four forms of religious organization
• Individualistic cults
• Shamanistic cults
• Communal cults
• Ecclesiastical cults

27
Individualistic Cults

• The least complex form of religious organization
  in which each person is his or her own religious
  specialist.
• Vision quest
• A ritual found among a number of Plains Indian
  cultures wherein through visions people establish
  special relationships with spirits who provide
  them with knowledge, power, and protection.

28
Shamanistic Cults

• Forms of religion in which part-time religious
  specialists called shamans intervene with the
  deities on behalf of their clients.
• Shaman
• A part-time religious specialist who is thought
  to have supernatural powers by virtue of birth,
  training, or inspiration.

29
Shamans

• Piaroa Indian shaman Miguel Ochoa is pictured
  here with medicinal plants gathered from the
  jungle village of Aska aja, near Puerto Ayacucho,
  Venezuela.

30
Communal Cults

• Societies in which groups of ordinary people
  conduct religious ceremonies for the well-being
  of the total community.
• Rites of passage
• Any ceremony celebrating the transition of a
  person from one social status to another.
• Rites of solidarity
• Any ceremony performed for the sake of enhancing
  of social integration.

31
Ecclesiastical Cults

• Highly complex religious systems employing
  full-time priests.
• Ecclesiastical cults are characterized by
  full-time professional clergy, who are formally
  elected or appointed and devote all or most of
  their time to performing priestly functions.
• Unlike shamans who conduct rituals during times
  of crisis or when their services are needed,
  these full-time priests conduct rituals that
  occur at regular intervals.

32
Question

• The most complex form of religion is the
  ________, which is commonly found in societies
  with state systems of government.
• individual cult
• communal cult
• ecclesiastical cult
• shamanistic cult

33
Answer c

• The most complex form of religion is the
  ecclesiastical cult, which is commonly found in
  societies with state systems of government.

34
Major Religions of the World
35
Rabbi Naamah Kelman

• Rabbi Naamah Kelman, the first female rabbi to be
  ordained in Israel, is a full time religious
  specialist who works within a hierarchical
  organization.

36
Number of Adherents of Major World Religions
Religion Millions
Christian 2106
Roman Catholic 1105
Protestant 369
Orthodox 218
Anglican 79
Independent 416
37
Number of Adherents of Major World Religions
Religion Millions
Bahai 7.5
Buddhist 375
Hindu 851
Jewish 15
Muslim 1283
New Religionists 107
38
Characteristics of Different Religious
Organizations
Role Specialization Role Specialization Subsistence Example
Individualistic None Food collector Crow vision quest
Shamanistic Part-time Food collector Pastoralism Tungus shamanism
39
Characteristics of Different Religious
Organizations
Role Specialization Role Specialization Subsistence Example
Communal Perform rites for community Horticulture Totemistic rituals
Ecclesiastical Full-time Horticulture/Pastoralism Christianity and Buddhism
40
Religion in the U.S.

• Summary of the findings of two recent surveys on
  religion in America
• Roman Catholicism is the largest single religious
  group, comprising 24 of the adult population.
• Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant
  churches, comprising some 220 denominations,
  represent 36 of the adult population.

41
Religion in the U.S.

• Summary of the findings of two recent surveys on
  religion in America
• Approximately 1.5 of the population is Jewish.
• The Islamic religion is the fastest-growing
  organized religion in the United States.
• The percentage of adults identifying with a
  religious group dropped from 90 in 1990 to 81
  in 2001.
• The fastest-growing group in the U.S. Is those
  who do not identify with any specific religion
  this group went from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4
  million in 2001.

42
Globalization of Religion

• Cardinal Bernardin Gantin represents a part of
  the world that is growing rapidly in the number
  of people practicing Catholicism.

43
Liberation Theology

• A form of Catholicism found throughout South and
  Central America in which priests and nuns became
  actively involved in programs for social justice
  for the poor.

44
Religious Forces of Social Change

• Nativistic movements, found among American
  Indians.
• Cargo cults, found in Melanesia.
• Separatist Christian churches are small-scale
  churches that break away from the dominant church
  to gain greater political, economic, social, and
  religious autonomy.

45
Religious Forces of Social Change

• Mahdist movements is a term to describe
  revitalization movements in the Muslim world.
• Millenarian movements found in Christian areas of
  the world.

46
Revitalization Movements

• Aim to add new life and purpose into the society.
  
• Tend to occur during times of cultural stress
  brought about by
• rapid change
• foreign domination
• perceived deprivation

47
Religious Nationalism

• A phenomenon that is occurring in many parts of
  the world today in which traditional religious
  principles are merged with the workings of
  government.

48
Religion and Nationalism

• On July 4, 2006, this Statue of Liberation
  Through Christ was consecrated at a
  fundamentalist church in Memphis, Tennessee, as a
  way of demonstrating their belief that
  Christianity is the foundation of American
  society.