Definition of Religion free essay sample

Aaron Everette Intro to Religious Thought Dr. Gibbs September 11, 2009 The Definition of Religion Melford E. Spiro a contemporary anthropologist defined religion as â€Å"an institution consisting culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings†. I prefer this definition of religion over Paul Tillich’s for one its less complicated as Tillich’s. Also because religion is basically a institution in a sense as some of us go to a place of worship in some form of another. Those places can be considered institutions for the ones wanting to worship there godly figure.Religions are culturally patterned, they interact with each other is some shape or form weather it’s through its worship figure or the way the religion is based on its believes its views of the world, the people. For instants Muslims believe when they die they go to a heaven of some sort and meet Allah. Christians believe when they die if they tried to live without being very sinful, Christian and believed in the god they go to heaven and meet Christ himself. We will write a custom essay sample on Definition of Religion or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Atheists believe in science and don’t believe in gods or worship their views say that when they pass there remains will be soaked into the earth and they come back as part of the land.So Many religions interact with each other either in bad ways or good ones. Another things Spiro States in his definition is that religion is â€Å"culturally postulated superhuman beings†. These superhuman beings Spiro is referring to would be for Christians it would be Jesus or God, for Buddhists it would be of coarse Buddha for Muslims they believe in Allah even though they have never seen or know what this figure looks like they heard his word through a massager named Muhammad.These Superhuman figures are for some a sense of hope in troubled time that we can turn too or a way to live a better live for others. We can believe worship whatever we like or what works for us that’s the great thing about the freedom of religion. Spiro’s definition is best fit cause its blunt bu t it makes you open up your mind to thing to understand others way of live.