Atheist: A person who does not believe that any God exists Theology: The study of the nature

of God and religious doctrine (rules, principles, ideas) Nature of religion and beliefs The word religion Romans used the word religion in circa O BCE Roman empire became Christian in between 300-500 CE and religion referred mainly to Christianity Eventually religion could refer to other monotheistic-traditions (belief in a single-God) The word religion means something concerning a supreme God in the 1800s By the 1900s it was accepted that religion referred to a range of religions and did not necessarily need a supreme God A Latin term religio could potentially describe how the Romans used the word religion, with religio meaning, that which binds down. The Romans were pagans (not accepting God of the bible, Torah, or Koran) and believed in more than one God It has been since said that religion incorporates belief in divine beings that inspire love and devotion, awe and reverence and influence us to act in the right way. Some religious traditions can apply religion quite mystically Philosophy: the study of the general principles of knowledge Some religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism believe time operates as a cycle and other religions like Christianity believe time has a beginning and end point

Ex-1.2
Q1. Define religion. A particular system of belief and worship Q2. Explain why the Latin term re-ligare is a good word to describe religion Re-ligare means to tie back, and religion can be defined as a system that ties people back to a God or Gods or tradition or a society in general. Q3. Discuss your understanding of the term world view. World view can mean how a society sees the world Supernatural the Transcendent Dimension Monotheism the worship of only one God Transcendence an existence above or apart from the material world Immanence the idea that gods or spiritual forces pervade the universe and are present in every aspect of life, as compared with the idea of transcendence Deity a god or goddess Pantheism the idea that God is in everything

Evangelical originally, from the Gospels; from the 18th century CE it refers to a Protestant movement that believes ones soul can be saved only by having faith in the atoning death of Jesus Pentecostals followers of the variant of Christianity that emphasises the gifts of the Holy Spirit Smarts seven characteristics of religion 1. A practical and ritual dimension, including worship, prayers 2. An experiential and emotional dimension, that is, an emotive convent behind ritual and prayers 3. A narrative or mythic dimension, for instance, stories that pertain to a particular tradition such as Judaisms use of the Flood story or the Christian Garden of Eden story, or a Dreaming Story 4. A doctrinal and philosophical dimension: a system of values or laws 5. An ethical and legal dimension: the idea that rules have to be applied to uphold both the values and understandings a religion offers to the world 6. A social and institutional dimension, which includes the actual organisations that constitute the religion 7. A material dimension: buildings, works of art and so on. Ex-1.3 Q2. Define transcendence and immanence and explain how they are different. The two are different because one refers to the existence of spiritual forces beyond or above the material world, and the other refers to the spiritual forces existing in every day life. An example of the characteristics of religion: Judaism The Studies of Reliogn syllabus consensuses Smarts seven characteristics into four sets of characteristics of religion: Beliefs and believers Sacred texts and writings Ethics Rituals and ceremonies Beliefs and believers Practisers of Judaism rely on their beliefs to unify their community, even when spread across the globe Judaism included the belief of one God, the Covenant and their laws Sacred texts and writings The most important scripture is called the Tenach or Tanak The Christians called parts of the Jewish bible, which are also found at the front of the Christian bible, the old testament The first 5 books of the Jewish or Hebrew bible are called the Torah, which was believed to have been constructed by profits of Moses

Prophets are people considered to be messengers of God, who says they are inspired by God or heaven The bible is a collection of sacred scriptures, which have many purposes including: source of inspiration, a record of prophets messages and illustrates the nature of God The Hebrew bible became the most significant symbol of Jewish identity when the Jews were forced to leave their home and their temple was destroyed

Ethics The book of Leviticus, which is one of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, contains the laws that tell Jewish people how to behave ethically and how to live within their fundamental covenant relationship with God, eg. Eating, farming, clothing, bathing, etc. Believe that following these laws will make God happy and grant good things to all Jewish people In many religious systems the main law is a religious law Rituals and ceremonies Jewish people start their Shabbat, rest day, with a meal called the Seder. It places a focus on both scripture and the joy of good food and strengthens family ties Religions can be broken down into different components for discussion, e.g. liturgy (form of worship), text, stories or myths, philosophy, ethics, laws, art, architecture, etc. Ex- 1.4 Q1. Jewish people maintain their identity through their rituals and their sacred texts, which were quite necessary due to the Jewish people being forced from their homelands Q2. The Hebrew Bible is important for the Jewish people because it holds a record of their laws, rituals, daily conduct and other issues important to them Q3. An important Jewish ritual is the Seder which is a meal eaten to mark the start of the Shabbat day, which brings families together and gives focus to both scriptures and the joy of good food The contribution of Religion Religion discusses the basic questions of life and may address the issue of a supreme being or an ultimate cause and reason for life Religious beliefs can help us answer major philosophical questions and these answers can offer comfort, meaning, and a sense of belonging to a society Religion can also comfort, challenge and simulate change in a society especially in the face of a social, or political injustice Religions can also encourage extreme violence when their believers become convinced that their world view is being challenged

Is there a supreme being? Does God exist? A theologian named Paley argued that a watch being made by someone and that the world was made by some sort of sentient being Darwin developed the theory of evolution in 1859 where the world developed by natural processes Creationalists believe that the book of Genesis is literally true and that the earth was created in six days only a few thousand years ago Some people believe that biblical stories were recorded for an alternative purpose other than to provide an exact explanation of the worlds origins Agnostic a person who believes that it is impossible to know whether God or spirits exists and have no firm belief either way Some faiths believe that the cosmos always existed and that gods created worlds out of things that already existed in different forms Why do evil, pain and suffering exist? Buddhism believes that desires, emotions and reactions to things around you do not need to exist In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, pain and suffering are explained through humankinds free will, and could also be explained by the presence of the devil There have been arguments of whether or not God can or should destroy Satan and also whether or not this does not occur due the idea of free will. Is there life after death? Most major religions agree with this point In some religions like Hinduism there is beieved to be a cycle of reincarnation and the good or bad a person does in their life results in an easier or more difficult new life The Chinese believe in honouring the dead by placing offerings on alters

Ex- 1.5
1. What justifies war? This is a question that religions may seek to answer. 2. Not all religions believe in the concept of God

Australian Aboriginal beliefs and spiritualities the Dreaming

Animism primitive or tribal religion; the belief that spirits inhabit all objects and have influence on people and natural events The Dreaming the belief system of the Australian Aboriginal peoples Aboriginal spiritualities are complex areas of beliefs and practices that only those initiated into their complexities can fully understand Dreaming is an appropriate subject to study to try and obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of religion

The Nature of the Dreaming

This religion is strongly linked to the land, and practisers of this religion believe that the land remains alive with religious significance Dreaming is not chronologically distinct from now meaning it has a different order of events from now. All of the Dreaming stories basic outline is that something exists and a story is then invoked that explains who an ancestor transformed this land In the time of dreaming the environment was shaped and humanised by mythical beings that took animal or human form, who are eternal and they have travelled beyond the land of the people who sing about them Indigenous cultures find these stories essential because they explain why things are the way they are, e.g. the shape of the landscape, animals that can or cant be eaten, how people should behave, rituals, etc. Dreaming stories contain all the information needed to live in a place, prosper and understand the story of the land

Origins of the universe Indigenous Australians do have stories about how certain parts of land came to the way they were formed Many stories tell of ancestors who are lying in a state of sleep, and about them waking and doing things There is no general theory regarding where everything (including the universe) came from The universe already existed in some form in most Dreaming stories, and the Indigenous Australians do not have a universal story that explains the creation of everything Scientists have discovered that the Australian civilization extends back as far as 70,000 years or more, but they do not have a formal calendar The Arrernte people of central Australia named 30 changes in the course of 24 hours which included: o The Milky Way stretches out across the centre of the sky o Bandicoots return to their burrows o The shadows are multicoloured o The sky is aflame with red and yellow People use these patterns throughout the day and across the year to help establish when rituals would take place. Each day of repeats these patterns in various forms, and arent cyclical, but more rhythmic or parallel Speaking of a Dreamtime is incorrect, and referring to a Dreaming is more appropriate A Dreaming is not a concept of time but a class of events The term Dreaming is variously translated into Indigenous languages and is referred to two things events which are embodied in the stories about a landscape and actual features of that landscape The cosmology of Indigenous Australian religion isnt some great theory, rather is presented as a code of rules, assumptions, and manners that are illustrated through stories relating to a particular cultural group Stories of the Dreaming

At the start of the story of the creation of the Darling River, something already existed the landscape and the ancestor spirits that are already there. Something then became active and that brings others into the story. Because of that awakening and movement an understanding of the land and the peoples relation to it is given to the people The storys main plot is about the creation of the Darling River, which involved several ancestral spirits, and also tells of the creation of two groups the Ngjyaampaa and Barkandi people. From this story a link between these two people can be drawn. There is an underlying layer of meaning in this story that relates to the relationships between these groups and also their totems, and has implications relation to the use of the river, i.e. the fish that can be eaten. Other stories could leave hints regarding things such as where food can be found, how to prepare it and other aspects of life The Dreaming storys function as the law, an ethical reinforcement system, and a method of marking the progression of events including the growth of each generation. In this way, the Dreaming creates a reality that ensures people can inhabit the land and be at one with the ancestors Through symbology the story can be re-enacted by following the action of the story as it moves around the site

Totem: an object such as an animal, plant or particular landmark through which an Australian Indigenous person is linked to the ancestral being responsible for his or her existence Symbolism and art The art of story telling in Ngiyaampaa country is reinforced by other arts Body painting reflects the symbols of ancestors The creation story can be drawn or painted on various surfaces, and as if looking down from above the site, the ancestors and other elements can brought alive in a map, which can be sold for large sums of money The diversity of the Dreaming The Darling River creation story would have little sense to it if it were told at some other site because the land features make the story real It can also be said that a site doesnt make sense without its story either Australia is divided into particular countries for cultural groups, each with its own domain or country. To pass through someones country you should know the dreaming story related to it Importance of the dreaming for the life of Aboriginal peoples Dreaming stories present an entire world view for Aboriginal people o Ethical behaviour o How to make things o Passport to the land o Explanations of why the land looks like it does o Information about performing rituals

o How to operate love magic o Lives of ancestors o Advice on food gathering and preparation The Connection of the Dreaming, the Land and Identity There are other connections between people and land. The tribute that inhabited a particular area was responsible for a particular animal, which was the totem of the tribe. Thus the kangaroo people, those that came from the tribe that held the kangaroo as its central symbol, were responsible for ceremonies that symbolically increased and decreased the population of kangaroos, as they were needed for eating. But the kangaroo people never ate their totem. They ate other foods, which were the totems of other tribes. This helped the development of a system of tribal interdependence, and there seems to be very little evidence of large-scale inter-tribal warfare, as each tribe considered its food supply to be dependent on the totems of the other tribes, who controlled the supply of that food source through their rituals. These ceremonies are conducted continuously and those who conducted such rituals are rarely allowed to partake in the results of their ritual, so they are performing these ceremonies for other groups Indigenous people often say that they are born from the land and not at particular sites It is these traditions that hold societies together, it can also be argued that it is the way societies bring into being a map for understanding in making their own views of reality work End of Chapter Summary Religion can be a vital aspect of life Students need to interview, visit and experience religion, with care Be aware of the presentation of religion in the media and on the internet and the bias that is usually evident Religion can be defined in various ways Religion is a way of seeing the world, a world view Religion contains a transcendent and an immanent dimension There are several characteristics of religion that help us understand religion These characteristics include beliefs, rituals, experience, sacred stories, ethics, social and material dimensions These characteristics can be identified when applied to a religious tradition such as Judaism Religions contributed to the lives of individuals and society in addressing the important questions of life and influencing society The Dreaming is the central concept in Aboriginal spiritualities The Dreaming is commonly expressed through stories Aspects of the dreaming include the origins of a particular region/country, sacred sites, stories, and symbolism and art The concept of the Dreaming is common, but the stories, characters and expression are diverse across Australia

The Dreaming presents an entire world view for Aboriginal peoples There is an inextricable connection between Dreaming, land and identity.