Religious Relativity Essay Sample free essay sample

Relativism is the theory that truths. values. and norms are different for different people. depending on their cultural. economic. political and spiritual backgrounds. The theory of spiritual relativism requires pupils to digest other people’s spiritual beliefs and patterns. at the same clip acknowledging their ain beliefs and patterns as merely one system in a universe of diverse. yet every bit legitimate. spiritual systems. In todays society we see an array of people practising. sermon. and larning faith. We find people everyday that recognize their ain beliefs to be beliefs and nil more but we besides see people who consider their beliefs to be the truth and keep that truth to be the highest. I believe it is wholly possible for us to step outside of our ain belief system and to digest and understand other people’s spiritual beliefs. I believe faith instructors exemplify the theory of spiritual relativism the best. Religion instructors can really good believe in Christianity. Buddhism. or Hinduism but they recognize other faiths as good. Religion instructors don’t preach to their pupils. they simply explain each faith and the background behind it no affair what they themselves believe in. The teachers’ intent is non to prophesy to the pupils. The instructor merely provides an overview of each type of faith in a non-biased manner. The academic survey of faith requires us to follow relativism as portion of our methodological analysis so that we can appreciate every faith we learn about. Methodology is the procedure and a manner of seeking and having cognition. Relativism is needed. I think my beliefs have affected the manner I study faith this semester. I don’t name myself a Christian or Catholic but I do believe in God. That’s about every bit far as my spiritual beliefs go. I don’t keep my faith or beliefs to be the highest and I don’t think they are superior to all other beliefs or faiths. I am really unfastened and happen it really interesting to larn about other faiths and see what different people believe in. Religious relativism is really easy for me to grok and is really easy for me to pattern. Bing that I don’t see my points and positions to be the â€Å"absolute truth† so it is really easy for me to appreciate other faiths. beliefs and patterns. Each faith has it’s ain beliefs and patterns and it is critical for us to understand that. â€Å"Ethnocentrism is the position that one peculiar cultural group is someway superior to all others. The word ethnocentrism derives from the Grecian word ethnic group. intending states or people. and the English word centre. A common parlance for ethnocentrism is ; tunnel vision. In this context. ethnocentrism is the position that a peculiar cultural group’s system of beliefs and values is morally superior to all others† ( All About Philosophy. Bagish. Page 3 ) . Therefore. ethnocentrism is a bad construct when we are covering with cross-cultural acquisition. If one doesn’t follow relativism into their life so cross-cultural acquisition will be impaired. Adopting relativism will assist us to see things that others believe and things that we are non familiar with from person else’s position before we jump to decisions or do rough opinions. By following relativism we will understand that all positions have no absolute truth. that there is no individual sp iritual belief that can be universally true and that everyone has differences in perceptual experiences. I don’t believe there are fortunes where relativism shouldn’t be applied. However. I can understand why people in the old yearss would rebut the theory of relativism. For illustration. some faiths such as Hinduism are considered to be orthoprax and hence. would necessitate anyone who believed in their faith to stress pattern. or attachment to the jurisprudence. as the pre-requisite for redemption. Besides. pre-contact native Hawaiian faith was really much an orthoprax faith and required for their trusters to make all kinds of different things to demo that they were true followings. For illustration. in pre-contact native Hawaiian faith. trusters would execute rites such as forfeit and offerings to the God. Ku. When looking at faith in this sense. I can understand why people who whole-heartedly give everything they have into a certain faith wouldn’t be unfastened to any other faith or belief. Though. when looking at most orthoprax faiths. I can state why the followings of those certain faiths would dislike the issue of relativism. On the other manus. in today’s society we don’t truly find people who pattern pre-contact native Hawaiian faith and in America we hardly see people practising Raja yoga. So. we can besides state that relativism should be adopted by most people in today’s society. Particularly in faith categories. The intent of a faith category is non to prophesy and rock the pupil into believing or following a certain faith. the effect of the category is to supply the pupils with information and the theory that relativism can assist them appreciate the survey of different faiths. I believe that a pupil who is larning about faith decidedly has a duty to esteem all the beliefs and patterns of others. Religion category is based upon larning and appreciating others’ beliefs. patterns. and values. It wouldn’t do sense for a pupil who holds their faith to be the highest and the most baronial to analyze faith because everything the instructor tries to explicate to this pupil would be undistinguished. This pupil would non be able to larn about new faiths in a non-biased manner. There is a batch of intolerance nowadays when it comes to religion. I don’t think anyone should digest intolerance. particularly in faith. Everyone who surveies religion should cognize that there are differences in perceptual experience no affair what and no individual spiritual belief can be true for anyone. The theory of spiritual relativism requires pupils to digest other people’s spiritual beliefs and patterns. at the same clip acknowledging their ain beliefs an d patterns as merely one system in a universe of diverse. yet every bit legitimate. spiritual systems.