Lesson 26: Religion and Belief Systems

A belief system is a set of beliefs regarding what is true and false,

what is good or bad, what is beautiful and ugly, what is acceptable by
society and what is considered as unacceptable.

A belief system usually possesses the foundational principles on

which a religion, a science, a culture, or a philosophy is based but may
not necessarily be the religion, the science, the culture, or the
philosophy itself.

Meanwhile religion is a belief system that relates humanity to the

transcendental, and just like culture, it has its own set of rules, norms,
values, and rituals, which are generally accepted by its group of
believers.

To better understand the concept, we must first trace the origin of

the term. The word religion comes from the latin word religionem which
means “respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods”. It also
comes from the latin word re which means again and ligare which means
to connect.

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 Photo from Shutterstock

Put together, re–ligare therefore means “to reconnect”, in this

sense, to the to the divine, the sacred, the supernatural, and the
spiritual.

According to Emile Durkheim, “Religion answers all the unanswered

questions of human existence.” Most of the things that human reason
cannot comprehend as of the moment can find answers in
transcendental ideas such as religion.

In the olden times, people had to contend with many spirits, gods,
and deities. This is the reason why animism is usually polytheistic or the
belief in many gods.

Animism is the belief that physical objects are scared and inhabited
by spirits.

Our ancestors usually had a hierarchy or a pantheon for gods and

goddesses.

In Ancient Egypt, their highest god is Ra or Re. Meanwhile,

in ancient Greece, their highest god among many gods is Zeus.

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Photo from https://www.aswangproject.com/ancient-tagalog-deities-in-philippine-mythology/

In early Philippines, we have bathala as the highest god even as

we have diwatas (goddesses of the land) and anitos (spirits of nature) all
around. While animism is often attributed to primitive societies, the
truth is that many animistic practices still survive today.

For example, we offer flowers and candles to the dead in the hopes
of helping them reach the afterlife peacefully. We wish upon a star in
order for our dreams to come true. At closer inspection, many of the
rituals and belief systems developed by religions today have been based
from animism.

Monotheism is the belief in one god while polytheism is the belief

in many gods.

The foundation of polytheism is the belief that there are different

gods and goddesses that typically have physical bodies, and have human
characteristics. Such deities are representations of forces of nature, and
are accorded with their own supernatural capacities.

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Atheism, Agnosticism, and Apatheism

An atheist doesn’t believe in a god or divine being. The word originates

with the Greek atheos, which is built from the roots a- “without” + theos
“a god”.

However, an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in a god or

religious doctrine. Agnostics assert that it’s impossible for human beings
to know anything about how the universe was created and if divine
beings exist.

An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting

any claims that gods exist or do not exist. The existence of God(s) is not
rejected, but may be designated irrelevant.

Photo from
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/why-are-americans-still-uncomfortable-with-ath
eism