Giles Fraser has a recent article in the Guardian in which he postulates that the growing interest in practices such as yoga is evidence of 'religious instinct's survival mechanism'. I presume he means a human instinct for religion, or Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer, as Voltaire would have it.
Fraser goes on to say that religion is an 'unstable concept with fuzzy edges'. A quick glance at how religion is variously defined confirms the fuzziness. Having trawled though a number of definitions, I am going to nail my colours to the mast by preferring a sociological one, '..a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called all those who adhere to them.' (Durkheim)
I read the Guardian article this morning as I returned from my weekly yoga class and mused that religion was probably doomed if it hoped to survive on the shaky raft that is our yoga class. We have no unified system of belief. There is nothing set apart or so sacred that it is not available to challenge. There are no chakras or other phenomena that cannot be explained by our understanding of human biology and psychology. We don't use Sanskrit words to mystify the naming of the postures. I have no idea of the world view of my classmates or of my teachers or whether they have faith and if so, what they believe. What's more, I don't really care.
We giggle a lot in our class, but that is not to say we don't take the practice seriously or experience the benefits, which are both physical and psychological. There is a lovely spirit of co-operation and mutual support that if not engendered by the teacher's modelling, is certainly encouraged by it - without any teaching of morals. Religion? I don't think so.
Fraser goes on to say that religion is an 'unstable concept with fuzzy edges'. A quick glance at how religion is variously defined confirms the fuzziness. Having trawled though a number of definitions, I am going to nail my colours to the mast by preferring a sociological one, '..a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called all those who adhere to them.' (Durkheim)
I read the Guardian article this morning as I returned from my weekly yoga class and mused that religion was probably doomed if it hoped to survive on the shaky raft that is our yoga class. We have no unified system of belief. There is nothing set apart or so sacred that it is not available to challenge. There are no chakras or other phenomena that cannot be explained by our understanding of human biology and psychology. We don't use Sanskrit words to mystify the naming of the postures. I have no idea of the world view of my classmates or of my teachers or whether they have faith and if so, what they believe. What's more, I don't really care.
We giggle a lot in our class, but that is not to say we don't take the practice seriously or experience the benefits, which are both physical and psychological. There is a lovely spirit of co-operation and mutual support that if not engendered by the teacher's modelling, is certainly encouraged by it - without any teaching of morals. Religion? I don't think so.