Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Classifications of Religion'

Dolphins, Chimps & Japanese Religions

September 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Magic and Religion

After recently watching “The Cove” and a Mad Men episode titled “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” — a clever allusion to Ruth Benedict’s justly famous cultural study of Japan, I decided it was time to bone up on Japanese religions.  Japan is a multi-faceted nation and getting your head around its history, culture and people [...]

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Phylogeny of Religions

September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct

Sooner or later any serious student or historian of religion will encounter Jonathan Z. Smith, he of the infamous quip — “there is no data for religion.  Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study.”  A curious statement indeed coming from one of the most prominent historians of religion, whose entire career and oeuvre [...]

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African Witchcraft & American Religion

August 31st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Ritual and Religion

Over at Live Science, Benjamin Radford stereotypically reports — with no irony and little thought — that “Belief in Witchcraft Widespread in Africa” is prevalent:
A new Gallup poll found that belief in magic is widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with over half of respondents saying they personally believe in witchcraft. Studies in 18 countries show belief [...]

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Chimp Attacks & Non-Retribution

August 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Evolution and Selection

A recent study in the American Journal of Primatology examined chimp attacks on humans in Guinea, West Africa.  There were not many — only 11 attacks, all non-fatal, between 1995 and 2009.  Because chimps are often subject to human predation and eaten as bushmeat, one might expect that such attacks would be followed by swift [...]

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Archaeology of Ritual & Viking Religion

August 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Magic and Religion, Pagans and Polytheism, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Archaeologists working in Europe have it good, really good.  Depending on one’s interests, you can research just about anything.  Paleoanthropologists can work on hominid evolution (i.e., Homo heidelbergensis, H. antecessor, H. neanderthalensis), while their colleagues can study a host of fascinating subjects, including the Upper Paleolithic transition, mesolithic hunter-gatherers, incipient agriculturalists, and the usual smattering [...]

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Morality without God, Buddhism as Religion, and Christian Empire

August 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Morality and Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Power and Religion

Incredibly, there are three articles over at HuffPo Religion that I have recently bookmarked for brief discussion here.  There are of course about ten others which reflect the liberal, progressive, ecumenical, and mystical view of religion adhered to by a tiny minority of people, and which will be of interest mostly to the highly educated [...]

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Is “Quantum Consciousness” the Essence of “Spirituality”?

August 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Definitions of Religion, Methodology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In “Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality,” Kingsley Dennis elegantly discusses what has proven to the most intractable issue in neuroscience: consciousness.  Because fluctuations and altered states of consciousness are so often linked to the supernatural-religious, I have examined it in many posts, including Consciousness and the Supernatural, which provides a brief [...]

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A Certain Kind of Islam and the Heinous Oppression of Women

July 31st, 2010 · 2 Comments · Classifications of Religion, Methodology of Religion, Morality and Religion, Power and Religion

Not long ago, I discussed an article on Islam by Cynthia Boaz.  In her article, Boaz attempted to correct several misconceptions regarding Islam and presented us with a progressive, liberal, and tolerant interpretation of Islam.  While there are Muslims outside of the US who interpret Islam in the way Boaz does, there are also Muslims [...]

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Those Mystical Henges

July 30th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Neolithic Religions, Pagans and Polytheism, Ritual and Religion

As I stated in The Supernatural and Stonehenge, it is “incredible that ninety percent of the area surrounding one of the most famous megalithic sites in the world has remained largely unexplored.  No wonder there are so many different theories and arguments about who built Stonehenge, why it was constructed, and how [...]

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Triumph of the Texts: Religion as Word

July 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Methodology of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Nearly 5,500 years ago or about 3,500 BCE, the Sumerians began writing about supernatural matters; in a sense, this marks the origin of what most people today understand as “religion.”  This relatively modern and provincially Western understanding of religion is on full display in Paul Raushenbush’s article introducing HuffPo Religion’s new series on religious texts [...]

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