Is religion a basic human need?
Uhh...
I don't know...(do I really care?)
Uhh...
I guess so...
sure...
yes(?)
Blame it on the speed at which a response was expected. Blame it on my headache. Blame it on anything, but don't blame it on me for not having thought about it before. Is it wrong that I had never thought of this question before? (It can't be bad. I'm sure "normal" people don't think about this. It's completely normal.) Anyway, what do I think?
Well, this discussion we had was an interesting one. I was at a table of 8 people including myself, one of my best friends, a campus minister, a theology professor I currently am taking a class with (brilliant man that I did not want to engage this discussion with for fear of sounding stupid or spending all my energy on impressing him), and four people who were more or less strangers. Just as we were sitting down to talk I was already feeling apprehensive (what have I gotten myself into? a campus minister? my professor? seriously! seriously? seriously! I had to be at this table. Awesome...not...) I felt totally inadequate and fully undereducated. (Okay, cool. I came. I thought about this for a few minutes, Can I go now? Is this really necessary? I'm just going to look and sound like a fool. Even if I don't say anything, I'll still seem stupid. Oh, my goodness!)
Is religion a basic human need?
...yes...I vote yes.
How do we define a basic human need?
(oh, crap)
We all shot out ideas of how we would define this proposed idea of a 'basic human need' and came to a consensus agreeing that a basic human need is whatever it takes to promote the well being of a person as they strive for a healthy survival. (Sure. That sounds great. I don't really know. I guess that will work.)
Okay, so how do we define religion?
(oh, I've got this one!)
organized spirituality.
Lots of other things that could go in to defining religion were put on the table. The necessity of some sort of faith. A feeling of or belief in something transcendent. Worship. Prayer. Moral code of law. We tossed so many things on to the table--even the idea of relativity--but in the end it came down to religion is some sort of organized set of beliefs. With this, we recognized that not everyone believes in God but everyone believes in something, not everyone worships a transcendent being but everyone worships something. The guy who just sped by might worship his motorcycle. The kid down the hall freaking out about the anatomy test tomorrow might worship academic success. Whatever we worship is what drives our life and defines our view of success or failure. Everyone has something that fills that role for them.
So, is an organized set of beliefs somehow necessary for promoting a person's well being?
(takes a deep breath...)
I've gotta be totally honest here, I don't remember much of the rest of the conversation. There were more questions:
if you agree that physical and psychological needs are equally important, where do spiritual needs fall? look up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Thank you 3 semesters of being a psych major.
do you think that freedom of religion is important for a socially just state?
perhaps. maybe it is more the choice that is important. are you really free if you cannot choose what you believe? I would vote no. Therefore, I would say that yes, freedom of religion is necessary.
are people complete without religion? (does religion make someone fully human?)
I think everyone has religion. Everyone worships something in an organized sort of way. Whether that is the OCD way you wash that motorcycle every Thursday afternoon or the color coding system you use to make anatomy notecards or going to church or temple or praying every morning or journaling before going to bed. This idea of being fully human is odd. I think there's always something missing. If we were "full" we would be God, no? To be human is to be imperfect.
This all gave me quite the headache. Literally. But I believe it was a really good exercise.
I have no witty conclusion to add here, no deep insight, nothing.
The End.
No comments:
Post a Comment