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Oct 2, 2006 10:10:16 AM
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organising religion does 3 things:
1)it organises a social network which provides support for it's members( example- I'm a member of the church of england, when I went up to university in London from a small west of England village joining in the activities of St mary's, Battersea made the transition from country to city life much less frightning!);
2)it provides continuity with the past, which helps an understanding of how religions change and evolve with time, which shows that religin and spirituality are not absolute nor out of context with the time and the culture of the day( example the C o E is a catholic and apostolic church, tracing it's ordination of priest back to the disiples, yet it is also a protistant church, rejecting papalism. It is also the curator of English history as represented by the buildings it owns and upkeeps)
3)by grouping together like minded people with a shared cultural and social background it helps individuals understand who they are and where they have comefrom which helps in seeing where they are going.
It is not the organisation of religion per se that prevents people from "believing what they want" but the way that religions sre organised which structures the debate. An open minded organisation in religion, politics or any other community group will have a healthy debate and within soicially acceptable limmits a variety of beliefs accross the community; a closed, inward looking intollerant organisation will lead to despotism and fanatisism in relogion and politics alike.
Unfortunately human nature has prooved to be attracted by the conveniance of leting others do the hassle of thinking for you rather than taking responsability and doing your thinking for yourselves. It is the fact that these people want to be told what to think rather than make the effort to think about what they say and do for themselves that leads to the down side of organising religions. Intollerance, racism, fanatacism within communities and between communities is a function of ignorance, fear and lack of reasonned thought, organising religion is an effective way to combat these "evils" or a way of entrenching them it just depends on how the religion is organised.
by mellyc
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