Are you Religious,

Spiritual or Both?

Define:

Spirituality

Religion
 Are you Religious
Spiritual or Both?

Spirituality – A personal affirmation of a special supernatural

connectedness to the universe.
- Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to
material or physical things. (Oxford)

Religion – The principle, institutional, and ritual expression of spirituality

that is associated with world religions and denominations. (Kelly, 1995)
- A particular system of faith and worship. (Oxford)
Why is religion practised?
 Why is religion practised?
▪ Intuition
▪ a feeling that there is more
▪ need to respond to something, someone, outside everyday
experience

▪ Fear
▪ Danger, sickness, death, failure, nature, meaningless lives,
personal challenges, need for security

▪ Comfort
▪ help deal with unbearable pain, loss, grief, and suffering

▪ Wonder
▪ Sense of awe – need to express awe and thanks for creation
Why is religion practised?
▪ Questioning
▪ Mortality, meaning of life, (Essential questions)
▪ Where are we? Why are we here? What does it all mean?

▪ Identity
▪ Who are we? Just animals or more? Defined only as flesh
and blood? The need to know who we are

▪ Culture
▪ Sense of identity within a group
▪ The need to belong to a community

▪ Rote and Habit

▪ Because my parents did
Common Features of Religion
 Common Features of Religion
▪ Belief in the supernatural and a spiritual place beyond
our physical material world

▪ Belief in the existence of a soul

▪ A search for perfection or salvation

▪ A life of faith and worship

▪ Set of answers about the most pressing human

questions
 Common Features of Religion
▪ A collection of sacred writings or scriptures…

▪ Organized institutions…

▪ Significant founders or inspired leaders who

introduced or spurred the development of the faith…

▪ Rituals and festivals that represent and celebrate

common beliefs and practices…
 Common Features of Religion
▪ Techniques for focusing or concentrating one’s
awareness…

▪ Rules of conduct to help followers lead an honourable

life and to provide order and purpose to individual and
community life…

▪ A system of ethics that offers a guide to moral

behaviour…

▪ An enriching impact on the lives of adherents…

▪ A strong sense of community…

 Belief Systems
Religious or Spiritual, or Both?

Spirituality – A personal affirmation of a transcendent connectedness to

the universe.

Religion – The creedal (written), institutional, and ritual expression of

spirituality that is associated with world religions and denominations.
(Kelly, 1995)
5 Types of Belief
Systems

Theos = God (Greek)

Polytheism
Polytheism
Poly = many (Greek)

▪ Viewed as many powerful gods at work

▪ gods distinguished by particular functions
▪ like a specialist caretaker
▪ often take on human characteristics
▪ others take on the form and characteristics of objects
found in nature
▪ trees, sacred herbs, cattle, animals and animal-human hybrids
▪ represents much of the world today
▪ Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism
▪ contemporary tribal religions in Africa and the Americas
▪ Romans and Greeks
Monotheism
Monotheism
Mono = one (Greek)

▪ belief in the existence of a single god

▪ god created all of reality and is totally self-sufficient
▪ tends to be exclusive in nature
▪ deny the existence of the gods of any other religious faiths.
▪ some monotheistic religions believe Supreme Being has
human characteristics
▪ able to communicate, love, show kindness and compassion
▪ i.e. Christianity
▪ Some consider attributing human qualities to God as
blasphemous
▪ i.e. Islam
Pantheism
Pan = all (Greek)

▪ belief that every existing entity (humans, animals, etc.)

is a part of God

▪ Universe and God are identical - God and nature are

one

▪ do not view God in personal terms

▪ i.e. having a personality, making decisions, interacting with
humans
Atheism
Atheism
A = without or not (Greek)

▪ A person who is without a belief in any God - Atheist

▪ Confined to one factor: the existence or non-existence
of a deity.
▪ Not a religion in the sense that Christianity, Islam, and,
Judaism are.
▪ Does not offer a complete guideline for living, as do most
religions.
Agnosticism
A = without + gnōsis = knowledge (Greek)

"I don't know & you don't either.“

▪ a concept, not a full religion

▪ implies uncertainty about the existence of God
▪ a belief related to the existence or non-existence of
God
▪ many people have started with an Agnosticism, and
added a moral code, rituals and other items to create a
belief system with many of the attributes of a religion
Agnosticism
A = without + gnōsis = knowledge (Greek)

"I don't know & you don't either.“

▪ Main principle of "Agnostic" is that God's existence can

neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current
evidence

▪ Theologians and philosophers have tried to prove, for

millennia, that God exists. Others have attempted to
prove that God does not exist.

▪ Neither side has convincingly succeeded at their task.

▪ Are Agnostics also Atheists?

 WORLD RELIGIONS (HRT3M)
My Personal Credo Assignment

A Credo (Latin for ‘I believe’) is a statement of beliefs that

defines who you are in terms of your:

• ideals
• values
• morals
• ethics
• opinion on right and wrong

Consider the characteristics that describe your personal

belief system and create an illustrated statement that
reflects your outlook on life from either a religious or
social perspective (or even both)
It will be done on an 8 ½ X 11 blank sheet of paper.

Your text can be either in point form or paragraph form and

should be supported by visuals demonstrating your beliefs.

Visuals may be a combination of hand drawn and computer

generated symbols.

Evaluation: 15 Marks
T - 5 Marks - Text Clarity & originality of statement
A - 5 Marks - Illustrations Varied & meaningful
C - 5 Marks - Writing Mechanics Neatness / Spelling & grammar
Aesthetics Visual clarity & colour
▪
Spectrum of Religious Belief

▪ Each religious group has subgroups that

express their faith differently

▪ The current “fundamentalist” trend stretches

across all religious traditions, as do
conservative, moderate, liberal and cultural
trends

▪ Individuals are usually not a pure type, but hold

a range of beliefs along the spectrum
Spectrum of Religious Belief

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

Fundamentalist
▪ One who believes in the strict, literal interpretation
of scripture.
▪ hold religious truth as more valid than any other
sources of knowledge
▪ Example: Creation - A literal understanding of the
creation story from scripture is true and scientific
evidence to the contrary is not valid

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

 Conservative
▪ Holding to traditional attitudes and values and
cautious about change
▪ Believe in traditional formulations of faith, yet give
credence to other sources of knowledge.
▪ Scripture is taken literally, with some careful explanations
of texts that are difficult to apply in the modern context.

▪ Example: While holding strongly to the creation stories in

scripture, scientific evidence is considered in its own
context.

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

 Moderate
▪ view their religious beliefs as important in making
decisions and evaluate other sources of knowledge on
their own merits
▪ Scripture is seen as authoritative for religious practice
but not in scientific and historical matters

▪ Example: A belief that God created the world held

together with a belief in the big bang theory and
evolution

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

 Liberal
▪ see scripture as a collection of religious writings that
convey religious and ethical lessons
▪ beliefs are guided by science, reason, and only the very
core teachings of one’s religion

▪ Example: The beauty of creation indicates the

existence of a Creator, but the mechanics of creation
are best explained by science

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

Cultural
▪ Do not practice the religious tradition they identify with
▪ often have limited knowledge of its teachings
▪ May celebrate important religious holidays, pray in
times of crisis or hold to a religious belief on a particular
issue
▪ Example: The vast majority of people in the Canada
express a belief in a God(s) and identify themselves as
members of a religion, yet only a minority attend
religious services

Fundamentalist Conservative Moderate Liberal Cultural

 Religious Pluralism
What does this idea mean to you?
Define it…
 Religious Pluralism
▪ Worldview - one's own religion is not held to be the sole exclusive
source of truth, truths and values exist in other religions.

▪ Acceptance that two or more religions with mutually exclusive truth

claims are equally valid.

▪ Understanding that exclusive claims of different religions are upon

examination, to be variations of universal truths.

▪ Promotion of unity, co-operation, and improved understanding

between different religions.

▪ Condition of harmonious co-existence between adherents of

different religions.
 Religious Pluralism
The positive attitude toward the existence of many faiths in
one society.
The policy regarding the diversity of religious belief
systems co-existing in society.

Does Canada demonstrate this??

Religion around the world
 Major Religions of the World by
Percentage of Adherents

▪ http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/03/23/graphic-a-demographic-breakdown-of
-the-world-of-religion/
Major Religions of the World by
Percentage of Adherents
World
World
Canada 2011
Population by religion Canada (2001)

CANADA 29,639,035 %
Catholic 12,936,905 44%
Protestant 8,654,850 29%
Christian Orthodox 479,620 2%
Christian other 780,450 3%
Muslim 579,640 2%
Jewish 329,995 1%
Buddhist 300,345 1%
Hindu 297,200 1%
Sikh 278,410 1%
Eastern religions 37,550 0.01%
Other religions 63,975 0.02%
No religious affiliation 4,900,090 17%
Ontario 2011
Population by religion Toronto (2001)

Roman Catholics (31.4%)

Protestants (21.2%)
Islam (6.7%)
Christian Orthodox (4.9%)
Hindu (4.8%)
Jewish (4.2%)
Buddhist (2.7%)
Sikh (0.9%)
no religious affiliation (18.9%)

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?LA
NG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0
&GK=0&GRP=0&PID=105399&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHO
WALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0
^ "2001 Community Profiles, Toronto, Ontario (City)" "2001 Community Profiles, Toronto, Ontario (City)". Statistics Canada.
2001.
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/profil01/CP01/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=3520005&Geo2=PR&Code2=35
&Data=Count&SearchText=toronto&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=35&B1=All&Custom=. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
Review
▪ Religious Impulse
▪ Instinct or inner need to believe in the
supernatural or sacred that is beyond our
physical realm
▪ Addresses this sense of ‘something’
beyond our reality
▪ Defining Religion and Spirituality
▪ Common Features
▪ Belief Systems
▪ Religious Spectrum