Talk:Religion

Article Checklist for "Religion"

Workgroup category or categories	Religion Workgroup, Philosophy Workgroup [Categories OK]
Article status	Developed article: complete or nearly so
Underlinked article?	Yes
Basic cleanup done?	Yes
Checklist last edited by	Petréa Mitchell 14:39, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

To learn how to fill out this checklist, please see CZ:The Article Checklist.

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If this content comes from wikipedia the source of the content needs to be noted. David Tribe 17:20, 28 January 2007 (CST)

No, created whole-cloth from years of religion classes and reading several dozen textbooks and talking to all sorts of people. I'm flattered that you think I plagarized some other site, however... ^^; Shanya Almafeta 18:21, 28 January 2007 (CST)

It is a fine article that I enjoyed reading, though perhaps the early paragraphs beginning with "Some religions are implicit.." should be moved below the first title line, "The word 'religion'". Thanks. --Grant Sparks 07:58, 26 February 2007 (CST)

Another thing that could be added is categories of things that religious studies covers, such as narrative/scripture, ritual, ethics, religious community, society. At DePaul University we used a list regularly, a few years back. I will go find it and see whether it makes a useful addition. Robert H. Stockman 16:43, 24 April 2007 (CST)

I have just added a section, "defining religion," and basically used it to replace an empty section, "naming religion." I summarized (and footnoted) material on the subject primarily derived from James Livingston's text Anatomy of the Sacred. I have moved "approaches to religion" up from the bottom and filled it in (previously, it was empty).

Robert H. Stockman 16:42, 25 April 2007.

I see we have some additional modifications to the opening section. This is getting usefully fleshed out. Perhaps we should send out a notice to everyone in the religious studies working group to take a lokk ans make suggestions or additions. Robert Stockman 00:03, 14 May 2007 (CDT)

"Judeo-Christian"

"Judeo-Christian" is a misnomer for a group of religions that includes Islam. The religons of the twelves tribes of Israel is different from the religion of Ezra and Nehemiah, is different from the Judaism that emerged after the distruction of the Herodian temple in competition with early Christianity.

You forgot to sign your comment here. There are also some inaccuracies in your depiction of the judeochristian religions; you may wish to fix these. Shanya Almafeta 09:21, 4 February 2007 (CST)

List of religions

This is primarily a list of tables of data about various religions. It says comparatively little about religion per se; but it should. Theorists go on at great length about what religion is, and that is exactly what this article should be about, first and foremost. --Larry Sanger 11:08, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

I fully agree with Larry that a treatment of definitions and characteristics of religions is missing, but that is a notoriously difficult subject. Andries 13:24, 14 April 2007 (CDT)

Comment about South Asian religions, moved from the article page

It will be proper to headline the series as Religions orginating in South Asia

Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbani, which has been in Nepal all the while

Sikkhism's founder Guru Nanak was Born in Nankana Sahib, which is now in Pakistan

Hinduism itself exists also in North Sri Lanka where large numbers of the minority Tamil populationa are Hindus.

Hinduism is also the reglion of Indian indentured [brought by the British] labour now settled in the West Indies, Fiji, Mauritous and Seychelles, as also the large migrant populations in the UK, USA, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa

John SDayal

New Delhi India

List moved to catalog of religions

To improve this article and to demonstrate the distinction between a list of subtopics and an article about the major topic, I've moved the list of religions found formerly on this page to catalog of religions. I hope that we will focus on the religion page on the difficult but interesting topics concerning religion per se: what is it, why it is so widespread, what are the major classifications, how is it studied (although this should be discussed more centrally at a different article, Religious Studies, which would concern the field of research)--and so forth. --Larry Sanger 12:16, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Defining religion

Why does the definition section begin with two virulent attacks against religion? That seems like an incredible bias to me. Criticisms should follow the basic information about a subject (and rebuttals follow that). David L Green 21:48, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

That's a very good question. I was putting quotations in chronological order to show something of the evolution of thinking about what religion is. The problem with putting a basic definition first is that there is no one definition of "religion" used in the field. A history of definitions seemed a better approach. Perhaps I can explain the situation better, though (later today). Robert H. Stockman 8:18 CDT April 26, 2007

The section is good - I liked that there was an attempt to find definitions of "religion" from various religions. Should you care to include this thought, Christian scriptures contain a functional definition: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27) I find this a useful citation as it shows that two bright facets of "religion" (within the Christian tradition) are ethics and piety. Additionally, it meshes with the observation that many religions defined "religion" in terms of "true religion."Eric Messelt 16:12, 3 May 2007 (CDT)

Origin of Religion

I just took a stab at adding a section on the origin and purpose of religion (which are intertwined in my mind) and I updated the other sections a bit. I still have a ways to go with this section, though.

Robert H. Stockman 18:12, 1 May 2007 (CDT)

Theories of religion are missing

I will try to add something about theories of religion e.g. Durkheim, Marx. I hope that others can help.Andries 15:16, 19 July 2007 (CDT)

Excellent, looking forward to that. I am not strong in that material. Robert Stockman 15:57, 19 July 2007 (CDT)

Bias?

Current article under Common Classifications of Religions describes Atheism as the denial of any religious belief, the absence of belief in any deity or deities, or the realization that religious belief is no different than any other superstitious or mythological belief (my bolding for emphasis). I think realization is biased; It's taking the atheist view. To a Christian such as myself, this is a belief rather than a realization.

The problem is, if I simply change this to belief, I think there's then a (perhaps weaker) suggestion that it's a false belief. Personally I think it is, but my bias doesn't belong in the article either!

Is there a more neutral phrasing? Andrew Alder 02:27, 27 August 2007 (CDT)