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Religion

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Is religion still seen as a traditional impediment to modernity or with globalization the growth of particularly conservative ideas about religion and identity contributed to the collective consciousness?

Presented by

GAURAV MUNDRA

Email: - gaurav.mundra@

Man has social, moral, and emotional needs. The first or social needs were met by his early belief in a Supreme Being who is also the Father of mankind. The second, or moral needs, find their support in belief in a Supreme Being who is Judge of the good and the bad and is Himself free from all moral taint. The third group of needs, the emotional, were satisfied by his belief in a benevolent Supreme Being from whom comes nothing but good. Man has other needs, too. He seeks a rational cause and this is satisfied by the concept of a Supreme Being who created the world and who orders it in a way that makes sense, in a way that is dependable. Man also needs a protector and finds it in this Being who is omnipotent. And thus in all these attributes this exalted figure furnished man with the ability and the power to live and to love, to trust and to work, and to sacrifice unworthy objectives for more worthy goals beyond. We thus find, among a whole series among races, a notable religion in diverse forms. Religion refers to those aspects of life that relate to the determination of the total meaning of existence. It is concerned, in particular, with three grand questions about human existence: its origin, its purpose, and its destiny.

In Nineteenth-century people developed a new consciousness of community, productivity, time and motion and new ideas about human nature, religion, and behavior. The words modern and modernity   describe a consciousness shaped by rapid changes in most areas of western life throughout the nineteenth century. Modernity is based on a series of dichotomies, such as meaning and matter, body and soul, society and environment, civilization and wilderness, subject and object, reason and emotion, and many others. Modernity is not a messenger of some universal human nature. Modernity’s essence is not some unity of humanity, immediately perceived or postulated, but a pure difference in existence. Major peculiarity of modernity is distinction between culture and nature. Previous to modernity they existed in hybrid form. This distinction is shown in figure below.

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After writing in brief about religion, its evolution and modernity, I draw attention to the question. Before answering the question, we must look into reasons for the question to be answered and then elaborate upon the method I would follow in answering the question.

This question arises as with passing of time, religion has changed its form. New forms of religion can easily grow as almost everyone, skeptical or uninterested in religion and metaphysics, has faith in something. They are not notice initially, unless they are so distinctive to demand widespread change. But in our culture, where many people officially have no religion at all, and those who have can chop and change, new faiths have much more scope and can become more distinctive. (Evolution as a Religion: 1985, 17). Religion survived in its many forms because it helped to ensure the survival of the group by giving identity to the individual. Thus, in today’s era, there are diverse forms of religion, like Swaminarayan, Osho. There are other traditional and new religions also in addition to these. Several forms of religion, in spite of having basic principle that ‘God is One’ forces to think that distance among religion, is due to modernity, which changes mindset of followers or is religion themselves is responsible for this gap. This question tries to cover all these aspects.

After elaborating circumstances in which this question arise, I will now answer the question, in two parts, i.e. first I will answer first part of question that ‘Is religion still seen as a traditional impediment to modernity’ and then based on the conclusion of first part I will answer the second part of the question, i.e. ‘with globalization the growth of particularly conservative ideas about religion and identity has contributed to the collective consciousness or not?’

The general observation on the first part of the question is that ‘religion is no more seen as a traditional impediment to modernity’. In today’s world, with society becoming individualized, religion cannot create a significant change as religion is effective only when there is a society, willing to work in a certain framework. But today’s society is individualized and few individuals inspired by religion does not pose impediment to modernity. Since religion cannot be extinct from a society, as it is a motivating principle of any society, religion has changed its form and religion is becoming synonymous with modernity. For this, I will elaborate upon essential of religion and then elucidate how these essentials are altered by modernity.

Now, I’m presenting essentials of religion.

For any religion, to have foundation, there are three vital characteristics to exist. Every religion must have an Almighty, a reason for faith in that religion, should have devotees who believes in that faith and should have preachers, to spread message of that religion to numerous peoples. Preachers have in-depth knowledge of religion so that they can make distinction from other religion and make others to believe in their religion. Basic point for preachers, of any religion, was to live in peace and to do no hurt to living being. Without any of these three characteristics, no religion can persist itself for a longer period. For every religion, God is omnipresent, that is, there is energy of Supreme Being in everyone.

Another essential of religion is that, it assembles individuals, with same mindset. Thus religion exists in a society and family is one unit of society. In a family, there is a head of a family, whose presence is essential to preserve social and religious customs, within a family. Every member of family is advised by him to follow religious customs and tradition.

Other essential of religion is that, it imparts distinction between male and a female. Religion imparts males with more power compared to females. Females have responsibilities to manage household activities and males are responsible to protect its family and earn money for need of a household. Females are not allowed to perform certain activities. For ex. in Hindu religion, worship of God is carried out by males and males have to perform rituals after death of family member. Even women presence at certain place and time are not allowed, as in case of menstruation cycle female cannot enter a place of worship or in kitchen. There are certain rituals which are performed on male bodies. In case of Muslims, ritual of circumcision is performed as after this ritual male body is considered to belong to society. In case of females, a ritual is performed in South India at the first menstruation cycle of girl child but the aim of ritual is to tell girl child that her childhood is in last part and its time to get prepared to have responsibility of household. Females has to follow a certain dress code, for ex. in Muslims, females has to cover up their body. In Hindus, females in household have to cover up their face in front of elder male member. Thus, one can assert that religion has imparted more autonomy to males.

Apart from these essentials, there are other activities, which religion asks its followers to perform. Followers should visit holy places and perform some charity work. In Hindus, holy places are “char dhams”. Muslims had to visit Mecca, once in a lifetime. There are huge contributions in Christians, to perform charity in name of Jesus.

Religion specifies a fix time and place for worship. Central marks of a religion are belief in a personal deity and explicit worship that goes with it. (Evolution as a Religion – Pg. 155) In Hindus, morning and evening are considered auspicious for worship. In Muslims, there is a compulsion of five times “namaz”. In Christians, on Sunday there is a community prayer in Chruch.

Environment is also one of the concerns of Religion. In Hindus, Gods are related to environment objects like Sun, fire and animals like tortoise and rat. Hindus, Jains are supposed to be vegetarian. Jainism considers particles in air as living and in order to save them, they cover their mouth. Also, appearance is considered as identity to religion. A Muslim male, is expected to wear a “cap” with beard on his face and a female to cover his body with “burka”. A Brahmin puts “janaiu” around his chest, “choti” on head and Christian puts “cross” around his neck.

There can be various other essentials for different religions but these points have covered most of them. Now, I will present relation between modernity and tradition, based on different reading and then explain effect on basics of religion with modernity.

Modernity is a name, not a reality; it signifies something, perhaps even something highly evocative, but it cannot by its nature capture all of illuminations and depth of darkness. Humans have a need for system which again becomes societally accelerated in the fields called modernity; so that while all people seek order, only moderns seek to place everything in order. (Dialectic of Modernity: Pg.-107). Thus, modernity has spread itself ubiquitously. But in this process of spreading, modernity has generally being opposed to tradition in contemporary analyses of social and political change (Evolution as a Religion: Pg.-3). There are arguments concerning the modernity of tradition and its correlation, that modernity incorporates traditional aspects and are based on a rather different view of historical processes, sequences, and end products (Evolution as a Religion: Pg.12). In a process of incorporating tradition, modernity has destroyed tradition and superseded it. (The Modernity of Tradition: Pg.3). This has given rise to modern culture as modernity is also capable of self-reproduction. Modern culture both undermines and serves modern existence. (Dialectic of Modernity: Pg. -108)

Reading’s shows arise of modernity, its relation with tradition and existence of modern culture. With modern culture, traditional practices are changing. This change is also visible in essentials of religion. Before presenting change in basics of religions, I would answer that why there are rise of religions, other than traditional religions, with modernity.

As stated above, many religions have emerged. This is due to modernity and the principles of traditional religions. All traditional religions have rigid principles, and action of an individual was expected to follow religious tradition and customs. With modernity, individuals prefer to act with their own will and do not follow traditional customs. Such individual acts are not accepted by society, thus, these individuals start looking for new society, which allows them to act in their own will. This gave an opportunity for new religions to emerge. For ex., in Hindu religion where there are millions of Gods and its complex for any devotee to worship one God. Also, there are various restrictions for lower castes. This allowed new religion like Swaminarayan (SN) to come into existence. SN worships one God and all castes are treated equally.

With modernity and information age, it is easier to gain access to information regarding the teachings and activities of other religions. Even those without professional religious training can easily gain information of this kind, making it easier to form new religious movements without the necessity of being bound to a single tradition in one's own society, merely by adopting personally appealing elements from a variety of sources. Also, it is now possible for any religion, even small new religious movements, to spread beyond national borders, allowing them to engage in overseas proselytization activities, and leading to new, hitherto unseen religious developments. For ex., Rajneesh's movement, which originally started in India in the 1960s is often considered to be multinational religion.

After giving reasons for emergence of new religion with modernity, I will now elaborate how essentials of religion are altered by modernity.

Basic idea of Almighty, devotees and preachers are must for any religion but with modernity these forms are altered. With modernization and advent of new technologies older concepts are no longer relevant. Earlier forms of Gods, in forms of idols have changed into digitalized form of God. A follower can now worship image of God with a click of button, on internet. This has helped to sustain faith of follower in religion. Technology has also helped in keeping the traditional customs of religions alive as seen in case of Singapore where the Islamic call to prayer is recited five times a day from radio. Also, way of spread of religion has changed. Earlier, preachers have to move from place to place to increase followers but now, electronic media like Internet and TV have become tools to popularize religion. For ex., Saibaba, an Indian religious movement which also became popular in Japan, is attributed to internet. Number of TV channels in India, are helping in increasing followers of different religion. In globalization, sender, message and receiver remains same but form of message changes, which is important, that is, preaching by human being has been replaced by electronic media, also.

Another significant change in essentials of religion due to modernity is distortion of family values. Members of family are becoming distant with each other as with modernity and thus, with unequal development, family members have to migrate in search of job. With distance, decision of family members are becoming independent of each other. Also, there is a loss of traditional customs as with migration, individuals enter into new society and adopts customs of that society, after considerable time.

With modernity, distinction between males and females are diminishing. This is evident from present scenario. New religions like Swaminarayan are giving females a distinct identity. In this religion, females has a separate temple and ‘grukul’ and all activites of females are carried out at one place. Females are independent to take their own decision, regarding any matter. These religions are trying to project females identity different from earlier one. Thus, we observe that females have now entered into the areas which were considered to be dominance of males.

With modernity, the concept of leisure has entered into social sphere and this has dominated the traditional concept of visiting holy places and performing charity work. This can be seen from various aspects of life. In Hindus, there is a concept of ‘char dham’ yatra. One of the reason for this was to have interaction with other cultures. Now form has changed and it has become a leisure activity with family members.

With modernity, there is a concern for enviornment by those socities, who had been malicious to environment in their path of development. Also, with modernity, outer look no more remain as an identity for religion. In case of Muslims, it has not remain compulsion to have beard, or in case of Hindus, where a ‘Brahmin’ no more has a ‘choti’ or ‘jainu’.

Thus, we had seen that modernity is a perspective that sees traditional religion, inherited values (indeed the past in general) as inappropriate to modern life and modifies them. This confirms the statement that “religion is no more traditional impediment to modernity.”

After analyzing first part of question, “is religion still seen as a traditional impediment to modernity”, I will discuss second part that “with globalization the growth of particularly conservative ideas about religion and identity has contributed to the collective consciousness or not?” Before answering the second part, I will prepare base for the answer and would elaborate upon concepts involved in answering the question. Then I would relate these concepts to answer the question.

First of all, I will elaborate on globalization. Globalization can and does mean very different things depending on how we look upon it. One thing, though, remains certain is that, it cannot have just one meaning, be it a triumph of universal Reason or a smooth expansion of the modern Western civilization. Broadly, globalization can be defined as the process in which one society is influenced by another society either socially or economically and this process goes on. But one can be sure that the globalization has given birth to a global culture and this emerging global culture is excessively hedonistic and has glorifying pleasure. Consumerism is gradually becoming the new world religion, and multinationals are doing their best to propagate this new culture and religion.

Another concept involved is identity, i.e. distinctiveness. Identity is formed through the community in its various meanings, its traditions and cultural traits. Identity is a combination of genetic and cultural components, which has evolved through time in response to the force of natural selection. As such, our identity has a natural history. At its most basic level, identity begins with the immediate family- first born, second born, sister, brother, mother, daughter etc. Further, our identity, again like in other social animals, is extended to the "group" or extended to family. This extension of the self to the group is evidenced from the earliest hunter-gatherer "societies" to recent collectivist societies such as the Bedouins.

Religion, the another concept, is fully discussed above.

After having described terms, now I will illustrate that how these are affecting collective consciousness.

Collective consciousness means that not only individuals but society is also becoming conscious. This term is significant in globalizing era as with globalization and availability of information, societies are becoming conscious of themselves as well as of other societies. When the subject becomes conscious of itself, it destroys one form of consciousness after another. (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action: pg.–5). It means that consciousness is created by a society and in the process of creating it, vigorous change takes place, in forms of consciousness. Thus, it is not possible to ignore the intrinsically social character of “structures of consciousness” (The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Pg. - ix).

Thus, we can observe that with globalization there is rise in collective consciousness. The tendency towards globalization is making the emergence of the new forms of consciousness. Moreover, living in the 21st century is becoming a complex predicament for the human psyche. Technology and globalization had put individuals in uneasy contact with everyone in the world. Deprived of isolation, our self-identity is threatened.

Now I will elaborate upon particular conservative ideas about religion and identity that had contributed to collective consciousness.

Conservative ideas are those traditional ideas which resist changes and when they are forced to change, their form of resistance also changes. Conservative ideas were in existence in past and they remain in a society but they are noticed only when their form changes. Conservative ideas about religion and identity that have contributed to collective consciousness are fundamentalism and power. Fundamentalism is aspect related with religion and power is aspect related with identity. This statement does not mean that fundamentalism and power are not related with identity and religion, respectively but their contribution to collective consciousness can be studied well by relating them with religion and identity. Also, it is difficult to categorize aspects related with identity and religion as identity belongs to individual, individual belongs to society and society is related with religion. So, several aspects of religion and identity are interrelated. Fundamentalism and power existed in society but they are now noticed because of change of their form. Now, I will present how they had changed their form and how change in form has given rise to collective consciousness.

I would begin with the conservative idea related with religion, which is fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism is a new term that has appeared in the twentieth century as a tendency, a habit of mind, found within religious communities and paradigmatically embodied in certain representative individuals and movements. It manifests itself as a strategy, or set of strategies, by which beleaguered believers attempt to preserve their distinctive identity as a people or group. Feeling his/her individuality to be at risk in the contemporary era, these believers fortify it by a selective retrieval of doctrines, beliefs, and practices from a sacred past. These retrieved "fundamentals" are refined, modified, and sanctioned in a spirit of pragmatism: they are to serve as a bulwark against the encroachment of outsiders, which intensify with globalization, who threaten to draw the believers into a syncretistic, areligious, or irreligious cultural milieu. With globalization, the formation and act of fundamentalist society at one place is communicated to large numbers of societies and they became aware of happenings of distant society. Even those societies, raise their voice who had no direct or indirect connection with the fundamentalist society. This process goes on and gives rise to collective consciousness. This consciousness of the spiritual history of humanity is a recent discovery (A History of Religious Ideas: Pg.-xvi) Example can be seen in case of Afghanistan, where clash between two groups, one supporting liberalization and other forcing fundamentalism society, no more remains local and there was remarks and support for former group. In this process, consciousness created by fundamentalist society is superseded by consciousness created by outside interference.

The particular conservative idea about identity that has contributed to collective consciousness is power. Power was existent in the past but with globalization power has changed its form. Earlier power was divided, that is, no one has entire power. But with globalization power is concentrating at one point, whether it is the case of country like USA or company like Microsoft. This concentration of power accomplishes mass exploitation as resistance is negligible. With globalization, there is open competition for power but the entity which gets success ousts others and in the long race becomes the sole leader. Entities may be nation, company or society and if any other entity challenges the sole leader, had to face fatal consequences. USA emerged as leader, after cold war and now, USA is a super-power. Countries like Iraq had faced fatal consequences for not following its order and one can be sure that there are list of many countries like Iraq, who will fall prey to a superpower. In case of Microsoft, competitors are either acquired or ousted from market by Microsoft. Same is case in Gujarat, where in recent riots minority community had to face fatal consequences. This concentration of power has given rise to collective consciousness because a single entity cannot survive in opposition to concentrated power. This is visible in cases described above. Lots of nations has formed group against USA, there is a case in USA court against Microsoft dominance and in riots, not only peoples from Gujarat and India but also from abroad had shown their concern.

Thus one can assert that “with globalization the growth of particularly conservative ideas about religion and identity has contributed to the collective consciousness.” Also, the globalization of religion should be cosidered as an inevitable historical process hepling in propagation of modernity.

In the light of above discussion, the conclusion is that “yes, religion is no more traditional impediment to modernity and with globalization the growth of particularly conservative ideas about religion and identity has contributed to the collective consciousness.”

Bibliography:

1) Lloyd l. Rudholph, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph 1999 : The Modernity of Tradition

© University of Chicago.

2) Peter Beilharz 2000 : Zymunt Bauman - Dialectic of Modernity © Peter Beilharz.

3) Jurgen Habermas 1998 : The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity © Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

4) Midgley 2002 : Evolution as a Religion © Mary Midgley

5) Mircea Eliade 1978 : A History of Religious Ideas © University of Chicago

6) Jurgen Habermas 1995 : Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action © Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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