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No doubt we each have our own definition of religion based on personal experience. But a sociological definition must be broad enough to encompass all kinds of religious experiences. For sociologists, religion includes any institutionalized system of shared beliefs propositions and ideas held on the basis of faith and rituals practices based on those beliefs that identify a relationship between the sacred holy, divine, or supernatural and the profane ordinary, mundane, or everyday. Sociologists do not evaluate the truth of any system of beliefs; they study the ways that religions shape and are shaped by cultural institutions and processes, as well as the ways that religions influence and are influenced by the behavior of individuals. Sociological theorists have tried to explain the rise, attraction, and effects of religion, as well as its relationship to the larger society and its role in the lives of individuals. Other sociological theories have focused on the function of religion in society, the ways in which religion promotes inequality and conflict, and how religious meaning is constructed through interaction. First, religion shapes everyday behavior by providing morals, values, rules, and norms for its participants. Religious practices usually include some type of penance or rehabilitation for those who break the rules: Catholics can confess their sins to a priest and be assigned prayer or good works to redeem themselves; Muslims spend the month of Ramadan fasting during daylight hours to purify their bodies and souls; Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement and also involves fasting, as well as appeals for wrongs to be forgiven.

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Feb 7, Religious liberty is something we take for granted as Americans. Not so long ago I sat in St. I imagined sitting in the cathedral at a time when Catholics were persecuted under Protestant kings, and I also reflected upon a time when Protestants were persecuted under Catholic kings. I thought about my dear friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, who could have been persecuted for being born in a time when their religion differed from the established Church of the nation. Contemplating religion while in a foreign country really brought home how religious freedom is taken for granted in this country and how, even today, religious persecution is still very rampant in our world. The Founding Fathers knew religious persecution quite well. True liberty was the driving force behind the establishment of our government. Why Is Religion Important

Values and Ethics

This was either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not milites Christi soldiers of Christ. Paganism was originally a pejorative and derogatory term for polytheism, implying its Rdligion. The origin of the application of the term pagan to polytheism is debated. In the 20th century, Rellgion came Why Is Religion Important be applied as a self-descriptor by practitioners of Modern PaganismNeopagan movements and Polytheistic reconstructionists. Modern pagan traditions often incorporate beliefs or practices, such as nature worshipthat are different from those in the largest world religions. Contemporary knowledge of old pagan religions and beliefs comes from several sources, including anthropological field research records, the evidence of archaeological artifactsand the historical accounts of ancient writers regarding cultures known to Classical antiquity.

It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century, people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is Why Is Religion Important understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.

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The term pagan is derived from Late Latin paganusrevived during the Renaissance. Itself deriving from classical Latin pagus which originally meant 'region delimited by markers', paganus had also come to mean 'of or relating to the countryside', 'country dweller', 'villager'; by extension, ' rustic ', 'unlearned', ' yokel mIportant, ' bumpkin '; in Roman military jargon'non-combatant', 'civilian', 'unskilled soldier'.

The adoption of paganus by the Latin Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/essay/benedick-and-beatrice-argument-quotes/comparison-of-michelangelo8217s-and-bernini8217s-davids.php an unforeseen and singularly long-lasting victory, Importabt a religious group, of a word of Latin slang originally devoid of religious meaning.

The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church.

Religion in America

Elsewhere, Hellene or gentile ethnikos remained the word for pagan; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. Medieval writers often assumed that paganus as a religious term was a result of the conversion patterns during the Christianization of Europewhere people in towns and cities were converted more easily than those in Why Is Religion Important regions, where old ways tended to remain.

However, this idea has multiple problems. First, the word's usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history.

Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centred on cities. The concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity.

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Third, unlike words such as rusticitaspaganus had not yet fully acquired the meanings of uncultured backwardness used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon see above. Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi soldiers of Christ. V, where the Christian is referred to as paganus civilian : [17]. Paganus acquired its religious connotations by the mid-4th century. Following the sack of Rome by the Visigoths just over fifteen years after Why Is Religion Important Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I[20] murmurs began to spread that the old gods had taken greater care of the city than the Christian God.

In it, he contrasted the fallen "city of Man" to the "city of God" of which all Christians were ultimately citizens.

Hence, the foreign invaders were "not of the city" or "rural". The term pagan is not attested in the English language until the 17th century.]