Cultural Relativism and Religion: Are We
Born This Way?
Religion is more than
simply a belief in a god or gods, a group of individuals who share a common
belief, or a way of seeking and finding life’s meaning. While religion does seek to provide an
explanation of universal phenomenon and life’s occurrences, not all religions
attribute these ideas to a god concept. What
then, is a substantive explanation for religion? And what role does cultural relativism
play in religious indoctrination?
The family resemblance
model is a philosophical ideology made popular by German philosopher, Ludwig
Wittgenstein. The family resemblance model argues that
things that have been traditionally thought to be connected by one singular
element may instead be connected based on a series of imbricate commonalities. Based on the family resemblance model, religions
tend to share some or all of the following traits:
·
Belief in a god, gods, or the supernatural
·
Explanations of suffering and evil
·
Rituals and ceremonies that include music
or dance
·
Means of deliverance or salvation
·
An authoritative, sacred text and or
scriptures
·
Specialists who interpret the sacred text
·
Explanations for the nature of reality
Many religious beliefs are
based on tradition and cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism involves the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture
from an inter-cultural perspective. The
study of African American History, for example, is unique from the study of the
African Diaspora although both have commonalities. Although many African Americans can trace
their ancestry to West Africa, African Americans have carved out their own
unique history within the context of American culture and society. Traditionally, most African Americans are
Christian based on the religious customs that have been passed down to them
from previous generations. While not
all religions share the same beliefs, many do share the same traits. Buddhism, for example, does not believe in a
higher power, but it does have a sacred text called the Sutras and priests. Individuals who practice
Hinduism believe in karma and reincarnation; how we behave in this life has an
impact on our next life’s cycle.
Due to cultural relativism
and tradition, many of us were born into the religions that we practice;
therefore we are indoctrinated with the religious traditions of our
cultures. Those religions traditions often
include various rites of passage ceremonies such as birth dedications, coming
of age ceremonies, and ceremonies for death. Cultural relativism helps to shape our
perspectives in terms of acceptable and unacceptable cultural norms, but some
ideas that are acceptable within one culture may not be accepted in another. Examples of some cultural but not universally
accepted practices are polygamy, some rites of passage ceremonies, genital mutilation,
and issues related to women’s rights.
Because of the effects of
cultural relativism, tradition, and indoctrination, one might pose the following
types of questions:
§ Are
we all born atheist? An atheist is someone who lacks belief in the existence of
a god or gods. Does a lack of knowledge
regarding the culturally relative view of god mean that atheism comes before
indoctrination?
§ Agnostics
are individuals who neither practice faith nor disbelief in a god; they simply
are unsure. Therefore, maybe we are born
agnostic?
§ A
culturally relative answer to these questions is no, since atheism and agnosticism
are considered choices. Unlike atheism and agnosticism, religion seeks to
provide an explanation for supernatural existence. But from an objective standpoint, should
religion be considered a choice as well?
Cultural relativism is not only about inter-cultural
perspectives, but it also requires that we are objective in how we view others
as we seek to understand them. Everyone’s
perspective is shaped by their cultural and life experiences; the more life
experiences that we have beyond our own culture, the broader our view of the
world becomes. It does not mean that we
will change our own beliefs, but we may become more open to the ideas of
others.
Additional commentary:
I have learned a lot the past few days.
It is hard to write an article and pose these types of questions without
experiencing the feelings associated with cultural relativism. I strongly believe that we are born with a
concept of the divine already in us, but we are too naïve to recognize it as
children. At the same time, my beliefs
may not be someone else’s beliefs, therefore, it is important to remain
objective on certain issues, particularly as I seek to learn more about the perspectives
of others.
I distinguish religion from spirituality, which is
something I will discuss in another article.
My goal is to provide an objective view in the articles since they will
become part of an online database, and I will add my commentary at the bottom
of my blog posts. In the first lecture
for Cultural Literacy for Religion, Dr. Berkson pointed out that knowledge of
how others practice religion provides us with a better understanding of various
cultures, politics, and the world. The idea
of cultural relativism was discussed in the lectures from the African Diaspora,
although he was not focusing particularly on religion in the first few
lectures. I thought it would be
interesting to examine this concept as it relates to religion due to the first
video lecture that I watched from the Souls Beliefs course. It is an open enrollment course on Coursera,
and I encourage you to take it if this is something of interest.
Courses currently reviewing: Cultural Literacy for Religion, The African
Diaspora, and Souls Beliefs.
Dr. Kristy Taylor, DHsc, PhD candidate, University of
Sedona
