This Assignment Is Meant for 4Th Or 5Th Form Students (15/16 Year Olds)

WHY BE RELIGIOUS?

INTRODUCTION

This assignment is meant for 4th or 5th form students (15/16 year olds)

In this assignment the relation between religion and culture is explored by focussing at a specific dimension of culture. The assignments are meant to explore the relation between religion and identity. Does identity influence religion or/and the other way round?

Besides you are going to think about the societal and individual functions of religion. In some countries religion is very important, in others it's not. Why is that? What does religion add to people's lives?

RELIGION

"Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs".

Apart from the sole belief in a higher power there are a number of reasons for people to be religious. A healthy religion creates an intimate community of like-minded people. The community is intimate because the honest practice of religion requires allowing oneself the vulnerable, which in turn leads to intimacy. There are few better ways to create a lifetime’s worth of great friends. A healthy religion will always challenge you to grow — especially spiritually, but also mentally and emotionally. The definition of “spiritual growth” is arguable (it may mean different things in different religions) but it’s trivially the case that you will not grow spiritually if you’re agnostic or an atheist. Of course, you can grow emotionally and mentally if you’re not religious; but a good religion will offer tools and techniques to help you along. Religion offers you a purpose in life. This expensive pearl is offered by many religions. If you are Christian, for example, your purpose is to become one with God. If you are Buddhist, your purpose is to break free of the wheel of reincarnation. Science does a particularly shoddy job of offering purposes; the best purpose that it’s come up with so far is “reproduce”, which is fine as far as it goes, but not very inspiring. If you’re not religious, you have to come up with one by yourself. For many, this is not a problem; but for others, the purposelessness of life is a major source of depression and apathy. Naturally, you can’t have miracles without religion. And miracles can come in pretty handy.

RELIGION AND IDENTITY

ASSIGNMENT 1

According to social scientists one of the reasons for people becoming less religious is the growing individualism in society. This statement doesn't account for religion in the USA but still it offers some convincing explanations

In the framework underneath you can read characteristics of individualism and collectivism.

Individualism / Collectivism
Individual autonomy:
Individual Success Important / Group unity and harmony:
Group Success Important
Self-oriented:
Life revolves around self-interests / Group-oriented:
Life revolves around groups or
community interests
Personal goals:
Self Achievement important / Group goals:
Group Achievement important
Unique and independent:
Simple community/family ties / Conforming and interdependent:
Complex community/family ties
Individual privacy:
High Priority / Group belongingness:
High Priority
Nuclear family:
Parents, Children / Extended family:
Grandparents, Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Children
Individual rewards:
Equity / Equal distribution of rewards:
Equality
Competition:
Highly Competitive / Cooperation:
Highly Collaborative

a. Would you think your own country to be mainly individualistic or mainly collectivist. Explain

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b. Looking at the characteristics of individualism and collectivism, what countries in Europe would be mainly collectivistic? Mention 3 countries and explain your answer

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How could you explain the individualistic character of Italy and CzechRepublic?

c. Now have a look at the following map:

And at this one:

d. What conclusions can you draw from these 2 maps. Is there a correlation between the degree of freedom that people think important in their country and the attendance of religious services?

e. STATEMENT: The more individualistic people are the less important religion is

Find 3 arguments for and 3 arguments against this statement

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It may seem elementary, but at some point in every individual’s life, you begin to question your place in this world, asking the big questions of why you are here and what will happen once you’ve gone. It is this search religion may deeply impact people's identity: religion may offer answers those difficult questions. Others may derive meaning from humanistic thoughts, philosophies, Universal declaration of Human Rights, etc. This could be a highly beneficial function of religion: filling a void in our sense of being. And yet the outworkings of religion’s effects on identity are highly disparate. For some, religion makes them a better person: altruistic, generous, concerned with the needs of others rather than their own. Yet these same ideas may inspire hate and condemnatory judgement in others. It can provide an impetus for violence, a mission to further a cause and overcome opposition.

This leads to the question: what’s the relation between religion and your identity?

What is identity:

Definition of identity from the dictionary:

1. The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.

2. The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.

3. The quality or condition of being the same as something else.

4. The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality

Identity can be recognized by: what you think and what you do both as an individual and a group

Example:

The Dutch identity

Populist Dutch politicians like Geert Wilders claim that Dutch culture and identity are disappearing rapidly. But what exactly is Dutch identity? This week the UK helps you understand the Dutch by introducing five typically Dutch phenomena.

1. Jip en Janneke
Jip and Janneke are characters from what’s probably the most famous series of children’s books in the Netherlands. The two characters, the little boy Jip and the girl who lives next door, Janneke, were created for a daily newspaper in the 1950s by author Annie M.G. Schmidt and illustrator Fiep Westendorp. The adventures of Jip and Janneke have been translated into German (Heiner und Hanni), English (Mick and Mandy and Bob and Jilly), Spanish (Mila y Yaco), Hebrew (Yip we- Yaneqe), Bahasa (Tono dan Tini), Chinese (Yiyi & Yaya) and Latin (Jippus et Jannica).
Even though the stories are a bit outdated – they present very traditional role models – they’re still popular with young children. Or at least with young parents. The trick seems to be to reverse the roles of Jip and Janneke when reading to small children.

2. HEMA
If you want to see Dutch culture at its best, consider visiting a HEMA department store. HEMA sells almost everything, from underwear to life insurance and crockery with pictures of Jip and Janneke on it (see no. 1). It’s been said that one in every three Dutch men wears HEMA underpants, and a HEMA smoked sausage is sold every seven seconds. It’s very interesting to see that the department store manages to cater for the widest possible clientele, from people on welfare to university professors, in other words everybody goes to HEMA.

3. Kool & geit
It’s been said that the Dutch have a strong natural tendency towards compromise, summed up in the proverb “De kool en de geit sparen” (literal translation: To save both the cabbage and the goat; pronunciation: the koal an the kite spah-ren). Even though similar proverbs can be found in other languages, like the English “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”, their meaning is not quite the same. The Dutch preference for compromise has, over the last few years, also been named the “poldermodel”. Its derivative verb “polderen”, means to negotiate endlessly with your opponents with the aim of finding a compromise, often on political matters.

4. Verzuiling
During a large part of the twentieth century, the Netherlands was strictly divided along socio-religious lines, a phenomenon called verzuiling (translation: pillarization). Each religious or social group, the most important being Protestants, Catholics, socialists and liberals, had its own newspaper, trade union, political party, broadcasting association, schools, children’s clubs, women organizations and homes for elderly people. To make things even more complicated, the Protestants were divided into two subgroups, hervormden (translation: reformed) and gereformeerden (also translated as reformed).

5. Oranjekoorts
Over the last two weeks, the Netherlands has slowly but steadily coloured itself in orange, a phenomenon known as oranjekoorts (orange fever). Whenever there is a large international football tournament, shop windows, bars, houses and sometimes even whole streets are decorated in orange by fans supporting the national team. It is definitely interesting to ponder the cause of oranjekoorts. Why do the Dutch act like ‘fooligans’ before the tournament? Most probably because it has been a very, very long time since there was something to celebrate after the event.

ASSIGNMENT 2

a. Your identity is constituted by different qualities and characteristics (multiple identity)

What may be characteristic for your identity concerning:

1. Nationality (you are Dutch, English, German or whatever)

2. Gender (in what respect are boys and girls different?)

3. Religion or vision of life (how does religion shape a character?)

4. Age (how does age influence your identity?)

5. Experiences (important experiences in your life)

6. Being European (what if you were born in Africa?)

7. Wealth (difference between rich and poor)

8. Education at school (influence of education)

9. Education at home.

10. Ethnic origin.

Give for each of the aspects above an example of how it influences your identity (so what you want to be, to whom you belong, what you think you are and/or what you do).

______

b. People of different ethnic origin and different countries are said to have different identities.

Look at the map underneath:

A. What people do

B. What people think

Look at the other maps about religion in the Atlas and list the characteristics of (non)religious people

What they think and what they do for 5 different nations

Nationality / What they think / What they do
Polish / They believe in sin / They pray to God outside religious services
Italy

For some people religion may be very important, for others social class, for some people gender is most important for others experiences or age or profession.

d. Give examples of people for which religion is very important.

Evaluation questions

1. What did you learn about the reasons why people might be religious?

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2. What did you learn about the relation between identity and religion?

______

3. What aspects of the assignment did you like?

______

5. What aspects of the assignment did you dislike?

______

TEACHER INFORMATION

The assignments aim at explaining the relation between religion and two relevant concepts:

culture and identity. One reason why people might be religious is that's it culturally determined or has at least a strong relation with certain aspects of culture. An other may have to do with your identity and socialization. Of course there are a number of other reasons both personal and societal.

Speaking about culture and identity the text from Geert Hofstede may be helpful

Social mammals

We humans are social mammals. Very intensely social, in fact. That shows in the uses to which we put new technologies: communicate, organize, trade. It shows in everything we do. Even the most autocratic boss is a group animal. Social drives for dominance and being related are essential for us.

The unwritten rules of our social groups are what I call culture. Culture is biological. It has co-evolved with human nature and with human psychology for over a million years. Competition between groups has honed our collaborative capacity. Culture transmits itself through the generations despite huge societal changes. The formal rules of our institutions cannot work as intended without relations. And relations follow the unwritten rules of culture.

Hidden rules

The tricky thing about culture is that it is never conspicuous. You don't see it, it is not written down, you are never explicitly taught it. But it is there! And we are all very good at it. It helps us know how to greet, eat, negotiate and do all the other social things we do, without having to reinvent the wheel all the time. Culture is social glue that makes us behave in the way we do automatically, without thinking.

Culture (along with a host of other things) also co-determines much of what happens in our lives and our jobs, and that is what I can tell you about. Leadership, trust, transparency, management, humour, rights, religion, you name it; culture plays a big role.

So cross-cultural misunderstandings are just as invisible to most of us as culture itself. And then it is easy to conclude that 'they' are stupid or immoral, instead of just acting properly but according to different unwritten rules.

WHAT DO PUPILS HAVE TO REFLECT ON:

a)Differences (and similarities) – First the students are exploring the definition of religion and the different relevance attached to the phenomenon in different European countries. Besides the different interpretations of religion are discussed. In the assignments the pupils have to compare the relation between culture and religion in different cultures and the relevance of socialisation in the context of religious education. In some countries identity and religion are more intertwined than in others

b)Explanations. Values can often be attributed to a variety of different explanations. We recognise that one explanation rarely explains why people hold different values. Pupils should understand that values can stem from six dimensions.

Religious: the values considering a number of aspects concerning personal life and society are discussed in he assignments. Besides pupils discuss the relation between religion and identity
Social: the aspect of social inequality in connection with religion is raised
Cultural: the cultural aspects of religion (mainly the concept of individualism is raised)
Economic:
Political:
Historical:

c)Values in the AoEV to their own. Pupils need to be able to situate themselves in the discussion about different values and understand that others have similar or contrasting views. This is practised in some of debates

Critical perspectives ( through questioning, metacognition, and critical thinking). This approach has important connections with the aims of the project particularly the development of critical citizenship. Through practicing metacognition, pupils are able to explore not just their own learning preferences but also to develop critiques of the survey questions, the data and its representations and established theories. These are important life skills for the participating pupils. Our aim is that these skills will also help these pupils to envisage a future vision for Europe