When trying to decide what religion is, many think religion is a group of people who worship and believe in a higher power. As Jessica, our professor in Intro to Religion, pointed out definitions such as this could make the love of a specific football team an example of religion. So while we ponder the ideas that make up the definition of religion, it might be crucial to look into the definitions of important authorities in the matter and how they came to know what they know. I am talking about four very smart men in a variety of fields of study, all with their own perspectives: Frazer, Freud, Durkheim, and Marx.
James George Frazer is an authority in the field of comparative anthropology and he is the author if the famous work, The Golden Bough. Comparative anthropology is the study in which a variety of human groups are compared to each other. These anthropologists do this mostly by reading and studying comparative myth or sacred stories. Frazer theory was that people started with the belief of magic, sympathetic magic to be exact. This magic was making something happen by taking action. When magic failed and people couldn’t believe in it anymore, people moved on to something else to believe in, this was the beginning of religion. Religion in this sense was the ideology that power comes from something external. Religion, as it pertains to Frazer and anthropology, recognizes external power and the idea that believer must entreat said power through prayer.
Sigmund Freud, known mostly in the field of psychology, created the field of psychoanalysis. His definition of religion has to do with the mind and he feels religion is an illusion (Pals 71) and that religious beliefs are erroneous (Pals 65). He most commonly refers to religious behavior as resembling mental illness (Pals 66). Freud and other psychoanalysts believed that they could use free association to get a better handle on the reasoning behind why people have religious beliefs. Freud believed with every fiber of his being that everyone has an Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex is the idea that every man wants to kill his father in order to have intimate relations with his mother. Because of this the father becomes a totem and the mother becomes the taboo. While some people believe his belief in the comparison between mental patients and religious worshipers is very extreme, Freud is only trying to help people and show them what they do not want to admit is the truth.
Emile Durkheim is a man who knows his stuff when it comes to the field of sociology. His most commonly know work is The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. His source of information comes from looking at the mind and how people think in groups. His idea of religion is that it is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that are set apart and forbidden. He continues his idea by explaining that the believers united into one moral community called church and those who adhere to them (Pals 99). He thinks humans are not just individuals but that they always belong to something or someone. Their motive is always a social one. He believes the first religion was totemism and the totem is an example to illustrate the concepts of the sacred and the profane. Much of his research was devoted to totemism and the ideals that go with it. Although he rejects Frazer’s idea of god, he believes the group is bigger than the sum of its parts, thus there is a ‘god.’
Lastly, Karl Marx who was an economic philosopher had some different insight into the idea of religion. Marx used information from history, class structure, and money and property. His most known work is the Communist Manifesto. His definition of religion is that it is the sigh of the oppressed creature (Pals 141), pure illusion (Pals 138), and the opium of the people (Pals 141). By people in the last definition he means the proletariat, or the poor people. Because often the classes were divided into two parts the proletariat and the bourgeoisie (rich people) those in power often fed the everyday workers the idea that their status would be better in the next life if they just grinned and bore it. This system was set up to keep the oppressed, oppressed by means of ‘religion.’ He believes those being fed these ideals should liberate themselves. He also believes that God is a projection of our own goodness and creativity which we alienate via oppression. Like Freud, his ideas and opinions were often not liked but most of the time it was because he knew people better than they knew themselves.
Of all of these men I find the ideas and information by Durkheim and Frazer more easily related to. I like Frazer’s progressional idea because there is always something to look forward to after the current belief fades. I like Durkheim because he instills a sense of community and strong beliefs in us as believers. While both Marx and Freud have valid arguments, they are a bit too extreme for me to back. For more information about these men and their theories, read Daniel L. Pals’ Seven Theories of Religion
Works Cited
Pals, Daniel L. Seven Theories of Religion. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.
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