INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS SYSTEM

Lesson 1 F.) And in both organisms and societies, the life of the whole
EARLY FUNCTIONALISM can be destroyed but the parts will live on for a while.
- During the 19th century, the utilitarian doctrines of British - Paul von Lilienfield and Rene Worms, moved from mere
classical economics were increasingly being called into analogies to visualizing society not as just like an organism
question by social thinkers on the European continent. but as an actual living organism.
- Invisible Hand: A metaphor for the unseen forces that move - There is a difference between analogy and reality.
the free market economy.
- The doctrine of the free market and the invisible hand were EMILE DURKHEIM AND FUNCTIONALISM
put into question and were rejected. MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY
- The first generation of French sociologists had ceased to - Refers to connection, cohesion, and integration born from
accept the assumption that social order would automatically homogeneity, or similar work, education, religiosity, and
be forthcoming if only free competition among individuals lifestyle.
were left intact. - Normally operating in small-scale traditional societies,
- At times referred to facetiously as the “big animal theory”, mechanical solidarity often describes familial networks.
structural functionalism sought to understand scientifically Homogenous.
how social systems operate in a manner akin to living - Elements of social solidarity: Collective consciousness and
organisms (organicism). mutual understanding are present.
- Sociological questions are answered through biological ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
insights. Economic problems = Biological answers. - “Organic” refers to the interdependence of the parts.
- Just as the human body is comprised of functional - It gives way to the phenomenon of privatization of religion.
components, including a heart, lungs, kidneys, etc., social - Social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have
institutions such as the educational system, government, law on each other in more advanced societies.
enforcement, and media outlets were explained as - Social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies
functioning interdependently to form stable social systems. through the interdependence of its component parts.
AUGUSTE COMTE - Comes from the interdependence that arises from
- Organismic interpretation of society. specialization of work and the complementarities between
- Comte was moved to proclaim that families were the basic people, a development that occurs in modern and industrial
social cells, social forces were the essential social tissues, the societies.
state and city were the social organs, and the nations of the - Although individuals perform different tasks and often have
world were the analogues of organismic systems in biology. different values and interests, the order and very solidarity of
HERBERT SPENCER society depends on their reliance on each other to perform
- Was moved to claim that “society is like an organism.” their specified tasks.
- Unlike other thinkers who had made this organismic - Preference for individual spiritual practices or spirituality
analogy, Spencer went on to list systematically the ways in (yoga, mindfulness, and meditation) rather than subscribing
which society could be viewed as analogous to an organism. to an institutionalized religion. Heterogenous.
A.) Both society and organisms can be distinguished from - Durkheim: homogeneity. We are interdependent with one
inorganic matter, for both grow and develop. another and that causes our unity.
B.) In both society and organisms an increase in size means an ANOMIE
increase in complexity and differentiation. - A-nomos, lawlessness, normlessness. Transition phase.
C.) In both, a progressive differentiation in structure is - Occurs during and follows periods of drastic and rapid
accompanied by a differentiation in function. changes to the social, economic and political structures.
D.) In both, parts of the whole are interdependent with a - Disconnection from society; no longer valued by society.
change in one part affecting other parts. - Encourage deviance and crime.
E.) In both, each part of the whole is also a micro society or - Pre-industrial | Anomie | Highly industrialized.
organism in and of itself.
 INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS SYSTEM

- Points of Convergence: Different takes on the issue.

ANOMIE IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SOCIETY - Points of Divergence: Different takes on the resolutions of
ANOMIE AS MICRO LEVEL OF SOCIAL ORGS: the issue.
- Afflicts people in certain occupational roles and domestic REJOINDERS TO RELIGION AS A SOCIAL
circumstances (widowhood and divorce). PHENOMENA
- Issue of suicide. RELIGION
ANOMIE AS A MACRO SOCIAL PROBLEM: - Through Durkheim and the early functionalists, we could
- Cuts across individuals’ specific group memberships and theorize that religion assumes a social role.
affects their capacity to function as members of society. - Religion as religare can mean either pagsasama or pagsasanib
ANOMIE AS A PROBLEM AFFLICTING ECONOMIC - “Religare”, to bind together or thinking together.
ACTIVITIES: - A social phenomenon.
- Intervention / Solution: Guild-like occupational SPIRITUALITY
associations will solve the problem. - In societies with organic solidarity, spirituality seems to be
ANOMIE AS A TRANS-OCCUPATIONAL PROBLEM: more applicable.
- Whatever the solution then, it would have to bear upon - Mindfulness, meditation, and yoga.
people’s experiences in their societal roles. - Privatization of religion vis-à-vis religious pluralism.
- Tolerance among reasonable citizens; accept a certain
DURKHEIM ON RELIGION explanation for the diversity of worldviews in their society.
- For him, religion was best studied in its primitive form. His - The deepest questions of religion, philosophy, and morality
main focus was Australian primitive religions. are very difficult to think through. Even conscientious people
- “Australian totemism is the variety for which our will answer these questions in different ways, because of their
documents are the most complete. Finally, that which we particular life experiences (their upbringing, class,
propose to study in this work is the most primitive and occupation, and so on).
simple religion that it is possible to find. It is therefore natural
that to discover it, we address ourselves to societies as slightly
evolved as possible, for it is evidently there that we have the
greatest chance of finding it and studying it well. ”
- The assumption he made was that all the essential elements
of religious thought and life ought to be found, at least in
germ, in the most primitive religions.
- The ambiguity lies in the crucial word “primitive”. The
“most primitive” religion could either be the simplest religion
or the earliest religion.
- Durkheim hoped by a close study of totemism to develop
hypotheses about what religion is, of what elements it is made
up of, from what causes its results, and what functions it
fulfills.
- The simplest case would reveal the most essential elements
of religious life.
- There was a general identification of repressive and religious
laws in primitive societies.
- Offenses against God are offenses against society.
- Primitive religion = mechanical solidarity.
- Being = Existence (god, devil, angels, human, animal)
 INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS SYSTEM

Lesson 2 CLASSICAL: THE THREEFOLD UNITY

SHIFTING WORLDVIEWS - During the period of Greek Antiquity, thought is centered
- Shifting Weltanschauung on the Plurality of Humanity’s on the cosmos.
Worldview. - Cosmos: Unity of realms of the gods, nature, and humanity.
METAPHYSICS - The realms appear to obey a particular cosmic law to which
- Medieval Latin “Metaphysica” (neuter plural), based on harmony and peace are dependent.
Greek “Ta Meta Ta Phusika” (the things after physics). - In ancient (antiquity) thought, the cosmos is all there is.
- For Aristotle and his disciples is the philosophical science of - Classical thought heavily relies on myths narrating
ultimate principles. divinities’ exploits, whether or not they directly involve
- They are to be studied only by one who has already studied human agencies.
nature, which is the subject matter of Physics. INTELLECTUAL ITCH: FROM PLURIFORMITY TO
- Based on Andre Cloots, 1999, it is a mode of thinking UNIFORMITY
things together. - Heraclitan Fire and Thalesian Water.
- Friedrich Hegel, “The object is in one and the same respect - Ancients were fascinated with motion and change.
the opposite of itself: it is for itself, so far as it is for another, - Positing a prime mover.
and it is for another, so far as it is for itself.” That which MEDIEVAL
synthesizes such an opposition only ever “sublates” it - Saint Thomas d’Aquin, Fontaine de Sagesse.
(German, “Aufhebung” means simultaneously to lift up, to - “When Aristotle metaphysically postulated the first cause as
cancel, to suspend, to preserve, and to transcend). Both exigent to explain the cosmos, the Scholastics, particularly St.
cancels it and preserves it in the new synthesis. Thomas Aquinas, took this as an opportunity to merge the
- Immanuel Kant and Metaphysical Principles: “Our reason wisdom of Ancient Greek with dogmatic pronouncements
has this peculiar fate that with reference to one class of its of the Christian Faith.”
knowledge, it is always troubled with questions that cannot - The Medieval world was theocentric.
be ignored because they spring from the very nature of reason - The Middle Ages saw the rise of Christian power and
and which cannot be answered because they transcend the influence.
powers of human reason.” “One class of its knowledge.” - God transcends his creation and creates order, both nature
Critique of pure reason. and humanity.
- Metaphysical principles: God, freedom, and immortality. - In medieval belief, God is said to have two books: Scriptures
- Subject Matter of Metaphysics: Whereas natural science and Physical Nature.
studies objects that are material and subject to change, and - Break of unity in classical thought in two forms:
mathematics studies object that, although not subject to Order of Reality - Creatio ex nihilo (Creation out of
change, are nevertheless not separate from (independent of) nothing). Distinction between the ultimately real God and
matter, there is still room for science that studies things (if the derivatively created world.
indeed there are any) that are eternal, not subject to change, Order of Knowledge - If God is said to be the ultimate real
independent of matter. Such a science, he says, is theology, and the source of being, then the question of truth proceeds
which is the first and highest science. likewise from divine order. God was not simply the object of
CLASSICAL belief but likewise the object and guarantor of knowledge.
- Kenneth Masong, “Our worldview is far from changeless MODERN
and permanent.” “The very ground on which we say that - Epistemologically: Reason over faith.
humanity’s attitude toward religion is founded on the - Anthropologically: Discoveries of the science of Galileo as
intimate conviction that humanity’s attitude as such is always corroborated by Copernicus.
shifting.” “Two things fill the mind with ever new and - The domain of religion recedes into the more spiritual areas
increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily of human life.
we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the - The modern period is anthropocentric.
moral law within me. ” (Written on Kant’s tombstone) - Period of doubt and questioning. (Descartes and Kant)