What Even IS a Religion?: Crash Course Religions #1

Summary

In this Crash Course Religions episode, John Green explores the complex and multifaceted nature of religion. He challenges the conventional understanding by questioning the definition of religion and whether practices like yoga or even fandoms could be considered religious. Green discusses the historical evolution of the concept, from its roots in 16th-century Western Europe to its global implications today. He highlights the significance of how societies define religion, as it affects legal protections, tax exemptions, and the recognition of certain practices, emphasizing the importance of being aware of these definitions and their impact on people's lives.

Takeaways

• 😯 The concept of 'religion' is complex and varies depending on cultural and societal contexts.
• 🤔 John Green admits uncertainty around defining 'religion,' highlighting its multifaceted nature.
• 🧘‍♂️ Yoga exemplifies the ambiguity of religious classification, being seen both as a spiritual practice and as a form of exercise.
• 🏛 The debate over whether yoga is religious or not shows that definitions of religion are influenced by who benefits from the classification.
• 🌟 Religions can be seen as frameworks that help individuals organize and make sense of their lives, but this definition is not all-encompassing.
• 🏞️ Sociologist Émile Durkheim defined religion as a system of beliefs and practices surrounding the 'sacred,' which varies widely across cultures.
• 📜 Religions can be creedal, focusing on shared beliefs and often linked to sacred texts, or votive, emphasizing actions and practices.
• 🏛️ The historical concept of 'religion' as a separate sphere of life is a relatively recent development, originating from the Protestant Reformation.
• 🌍 The colonial era brought European definitions of religion into conflict with indigenous practices, often leading to misunderstandings and misclassifications.
• 🏢 The way a country defines religion can have significant legal and societal impacts, influencing issues like tax exemptions and legal protections.
• 🚫 The denial of religious recognition to certain practices can lead to persecution, as seen with Rastafarians and their use of marijuana in various countries.

Q & A

What is the main challenge the speaker, John Green, acknowledges at the beginning of the script regarding the concept of religion?

John Green acknowledges that he doesn't know what religion is, highlighting the complexity and the difficulty in defining it, which is a challenge that many people face when trying to understand or describe religion.

How does the script illustrate the ambiguity of classifying yoga as a religious practice?

The script illustrates the ambiguity by mentioning two contrasting cases: one where the U.S. state of Missouri wanted to reclassify yoga classes as taxable recreational businesses, and another where parents in California sued a school district arguing that teaching yoga was promoting Hinduism.

What are the two categories of religions mentioned in the script, and how do they differ?

The two categories of religions mentioned are 'creedal religions', which are linked to a shared belief system and often associated with a sacred text, and 'votive religions', which focus on actions rather than beliefs, such as the Soto Zen school of Buddhism.

What does the script suggest about the definition of religion being influenced by societal context?

The script suggests that the definition of religion is not universal but is specific to the societies we live in, shaped by historical, cultural, and political contexts, and can serve particular interests within those societies.

How does the script relate the historical development of the concept of 'religion' to the Protestant Reformation?

The script relates the historical development of the concept of 'religion' to the Protestant Reformation by explaining that the idea of religion as a private, personal belief system traces back to the 16th-century Western Europe during this period, where there was a dispute over the Church's authority.

What are the implications of how a government defines 'religion' according to the script?

The script implies that how a government defines 'religion' can have significant legal and social implications, such as determining which practices receive legal protection, tax exemptions, and which may be marginalized or criminalized.

What example does the script provide to show how the concept of 'religion' can be used to exclude certain groups?

The script provides the example of the Chinese government detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in re-education camps, despite the Chinese Constitution granting legal protection to 'normal religious activities', to show how the concept of 'religion' can be used to exclude certain groups.

How does the script describe the relationship between religion and the concept of the 'sacred' as per Émile Durkheim?

The script describes the relationship between religion and the 'sacred' by quoting sociologist Émile Durkheim, who defined 'religion' as a system of beliefs and practices surrounding the 'sacred', which is anything a community has given special meaning to.

What does the script suggest about the diversity within religious practices?

The script suggests that there is no single way of doing religion and no defining quality that unites all religious practices, emphasizing the importance of being conscious of the definitions used and aware of who is policing its boundaries.

What is the 'Ultimate Concern' as defined by Paul Tillich in the script, and how does it relate to religion?

In the script, Paul Tillich's definition of religion is described as 'the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern', suggesting that religion involves a belief or series of beliefs that structure and animate a person's life, even if there is no single idea about what that ultimate concern is.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Defining Religion: A Complex Endeavor

The paragraph introduces the complexity of defining religion, noting that even the host, John Green, is unsure of what constitutes religion. It compares the difficulty of defining religion to defining other abstract concepts like art or literature. The paragraph discusses the contentious nature of the term 'religion' and provides examples of how different groups interpret activities like yoga as either religious or secular, depending on their perspective. The theme music plays, and the host humorously distinguishes between two cameras for different aspects of the topic. The paragraph concludes by acknowledging the difficulty in defining religion and the high stakes involved in such definitions, as they impact people's lives.

05:04

📚 Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Religion

This paragraph delves into the historical and cultural aspects of religion. It discusses how the concept of religion as a separate sphere of life is a relatively recent development, particularly in Western Europe during the Protestant Reformation. The paragraph highlights how the Reformation influenced the modern understanding of religion as a personal, private belief system. It also touches on the colonial era, where Europeans encountered and often misunderstood or misclassified non-Christian religious practices. The paragraph emphasizes the impact of these historical and cultural perspectives on current definitions and legal protections of religion, noting that these definitions can have real-world consequences for religious freedom and recognition.

10:07

🌟 The Ultimate Concern: Exploring Religion's Many Faces

The final paragraph of the script wraps up the discussion by emphasizing that there is no single way to practice or define religion. It introduces a definition by philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich, who describes religion as 'the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern.' The paragraph invites viewers to reflect on their own ultimate concerns and how their beliefs and practices align with them. It also sets the stage for future episodes, promising to explore the diversity and complexity of religious beliefs and practices further. The host invites viewers to join the conversation and support the series on Patreon, and the paragraph ends with a teaser for the next episode, which will tackle the question of how many religions exist.

Keywords

💡Religion

Religion, in the context of the video, is explored as a complex and multifaceted concept that varies in definition and practice. It is presented as a system of beliefs and practices that help people make sense of their lives, often involving a higher power or a set of ethical principles. The video discusses how religion can be both creedal, with shared beliefs and sacred texts, and votive, focusing on actions rather than beliefs. The script uses examples such as Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism to illustrate the diversity within religious practices and beliefs.

💡Spirituality

Spirituality is mentioned as a concept that is distinct from, yet related to, religion. It is often used to describe a personal, often non-institutionalized, search for meaning and connection to something greater than oneself. The script points out the common phrase 'I'm not religious, but I am spiritual' to highlight how some people differentiate between organized religion and their individual spiritual practices.

💡Yoga

Yoga is highlighted in the script as a practice that has been both reclassified as a recreational activity and also considered as promoting a religious tradition, Hinduism. This dual perspective on yoga exemplifies the ambiguity in defining what constitutes a religious practice. The video uses the legal disputes over yoga in Missouri and California to illustrate how the classification of religious practices can have real-world implications.

💡Creedal Religions

Creedal religions are defined in the video as those with a shared belief system, often linked to a sacred text. This term is used to describe religions like Christianity, where there is an expectation of agreement on core beliefs, such as the divinity of Jesus. The video contrasts creedal religions with votive religions, which emphasize actions over beliefs.

💡Votive Religions

Votive religions are those that stress what people do rather than what they believe. The script uses Soto Zen Buddhism as an example, where the focus is on actions like meditation, cooking, and caring for others to build mindful awareness. This concept is introduced to show that not all religions fit the creedal model and that practice can be as central as belief.

💡Sacred

The term 'sacred' is used to describe anything that a community has given special meaning to, which can include objects, places, or concepts. Sociologist Émile Durkheim's definition of religion as a system of beliefs and practices surrounding the 'sacred' is mentioned. The video expands on this by suggesting that the 'sacred' can be quite diverse, even extending to pop culture figures like Taylor Swift.

💡Reformation

The Protestant Reformation is discussed as a historical event that significantly influenced the concept of religion as a personal, private belief system. The video explains how Martin Luther's ideas about the separation of church and state and the emphasis on individual interpretation of the Bible contributed to the modern understanding of religion as a personal matter.

💡Colonial Era

The colonial era is mentioned as a period when Europeans encountered and often misunderstood or misclassified the religious practices of colonized cultures. The video uses this historical context to discuss how the European model of religion, which was based on Christianity, was imposed on diverse traditions, leading to a biased understanding and classification of what constitutes religion.

💡Religious Freedom

Religious freedom is discussed in relation to how different countries define and protect it. The video points out that the legal protection of religious activities can be conditional and selective, as seen in examples like China's treatment of Uyghurs and India's citizenship law that excludes Muslims. This term is used to highlight the political and social implications of defining religion.

💡Ultimate Concern

The concept of 'ultimate concern' is introduced by philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich as a way to define religion. It refers to a belief or set of beliefs that structure and animate a person's life. The video suggests that while there may not be a single definition of religion, the idea of an ultimate concern can be a valuable framework for understanding how people find meaning and purpose through their beliefs and practices.

Highlights

Introduction to the complexity of defining religion.

Confession of uncertainty about the definition of religion.

The problematic nature of the term 'religion' and its varied interpretations.

The example of yoga being reclassified in Missouri as a recreational business, not a spiritual practice.

The legal dispute in California over teaching yoga in schools as a form of religious promotion.

The subjective nature of what is considered religious based on who is defining it.

The historical development of the concept of religion as separate from other aspects of life.

The idea of religion as a framework for organizing and making sense of life.

The debate over whether practices like veganism or capitalism could be considered religions.

The distinction between creedal religions with shared beliefs and votive religions that emphasize action.

The importance of recognizing the diversity within and between religious traditions.

The sociological perspective of religion as a system of beliefs and practices surrounding the 'sacred'.

The impact of legal and societal definitions of religion on issues like tax exemption and legal protection.

The historical context of the Protestant Reformation and its influence on the concept of religion.

The colonial era's influence on the Western understanding of religion and its encounter with non-Western traditions.

The contemporary implications of how religion is defined, including legal and social consequences.

The philosopher Paul Tillich's definition of religion as 'the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern'.

The invitation to consider one's own ultimate concern and how it shapes beliefs and practices.

Transcripts

All right, I guess we’re doing this.  They’ve been asking for it for years.  

Praying for it even. I’m John Green  and welcome to Crash Course Religions.

So let me begin with a confession: I don't know what religion is.

But I also don’t know what art is, or what literature is, or for that matter what biology is.

Like, is studying viruses biology? I don’t know, because I don’t know whether viruses are alive.

To say that “religion” is a fraught word would  be a fairly dramatic understatement. Like,  

think of the ways many people  answer questions about religion:  

I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.  I don’t go to church, but I do follow  

my star chart. I don’t practice a  religion, but I do practice yoga.

Yoga is a fascinating example, actually.  In 2009, the U.S. state of Missouri’s  

government pushed to reclassify yoga classes not as tax-exempt spiritual practices but as  

recreational businesses, in the same  taxable category as gym memberships.

But a few years later, in 2013, some parents in California sued their kids’ school district,  

arguing that teaching yoga during PE  was promoting Hinduism to students.

So which group was right? Well, that’s  the thing, whether something counts as  

religious or not often depends on who’s asking the question and who benefits from the answer.

[THEME MUSIC]

We’ve fought wars over it, built societies  around it, and pretended we weren’t home when  

people knocked on our doors about it. That’s right, we have two cameras this time. Camera  

two is for silly fun times and camera  one is for serious religion business.

But what is religion, really? What  unites Hinduism, Christianity,  

and Wicca under the same umbrella? And what sets “religions” apart from other stuff people do,  

like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance  or wearing the same jersey every time  

you watch the world’s greatest  fourth-tier English soccer team?

Well, we can think of religions as  frameworks that help people organize,  

shape, and make sense of their lives. But if that's our only definition, then is veganism  

a religion? What about capitalism? What about organizing your entire life around the exploits  

of 11 23-year-old men in South London? Or over-identifying as a Texan? Like, yeah,  

it’s a big state. It’s very impressive.  But it’s not that big. I’ve seen bigger.

So yeah It’s tricky because no single  definition contains all the ways people  

do religion. And the stakes are high, because how we define what counts as religion – and  

what doesn’t – has impacts on all of our lives, whether we’re religious or not.

When we use the word “religion”  what we often mean is belief in  

a higher power, — a trait that English  philosopher “Lord Herbert of Cherbury”  

proposed back in the 17th century as one of five fundamental truths about religion. God,  

I’m so good at pronouncing the names  of Lords of Cherbury. Like is that  

a job? Is mispronouncing British lord  names a job? Because if so, sign me up.

And to credit, it’s true that lots of  religious traditions involve gods and  

goddesses. Except for the ones that don’t, like many forms of Jainism and Buddhism,  

which focus on ethical behavior  and self-transformation.

So OK, what if we defined it more broadly?  Let’s say a religion doesn’t have to have  

a higher power, but it needs a shared belief system. Again, for some traditions, that’s fair.

Like, for most Christians, it’s really  important that everybody’s on the same  

page about the whole “Jesus is savior”  thing. Religions with shared beliefs  

are called creedal religions and  are often linked to a sacred text.

But even this broader interpretation doesn’t cover everything. Right, Like, the Soto Zen  

school of Buddhism emphasizes action over beliefs, building mindful awareness through meditation,  

cooking, and caring for other people. We sometimes call these votive religions,  

traditions that stress what people  do rather than what they believe.

And of course, many religions focus on belief  and action, like Islam’s emphasis on both correct  

doctrine, or orthodoxy, and correct practice,  or orthopraxy. And within a religion, there can  

be disagreements – profound ones, ones seen as  worth killing and dying for – over this stuff.

In truth, no single idea unites every  religion. Not “belief in a god,” not  

“prayer,” not “prepping for the afterlife.” The term “religion” is sort of like the word “sports,”

which lumps together soccer, synchronized swimming, curling—and even pickleball,  

which its adherents genuinely  seem to treat like a religion.

The way we define religion is specific to the societies we live in — just like the practices  

themselves. Sociologist Émile Durkheim said that “religion” is a system of beliefs and practices  

surrounding the “sacred,” basically anything a community has given special meaning to,  

like crucifixes, landscapes, or altars. But  his definition also leaves a lot of room for  

other things to be considered “sacred,” like Taylor Swift or Diet Dr. Pepper. I’m not afraid  

Because there’s no shared feature of  these systems we call “religions,”  

it’s all the more important to be aware of whose  interests are served by the definitions we use.

Like, a lot of yoga teachers disagreed with  Missouri’s reclassification of the practice.  

They believed that yoga studios had more in common  with churches, which don’t have to pay sales tax,  

arguing that yoga is more than exercise and  can’t be separated from its spiritual ties.

But in the California school case, the judge  acknowledged that yoga is religious, yes, but  

ruled this kind of yoga wasn’t religious enough.  Not in the way school kids were learning to do it,  

anyway. For one thing, the kids called the  lotus position “crisscross applesauce.”

And you can tell that’s not a joke  because we’re staying at camera one.  

They literally called it crisscross applesauce.

So how did we get to this point? Was there ever a time when religion was…simple? Mmm…not really.

In the United States today, we often use the word  “religion” to imply a special sphere of society,  

set apart from the rest of life. It’s sort of  separate from politics or culture or the economy,  

but also overlaps with all of them in many ways,

including that I don’t want to hear my uncle’s opinions  

about any of them at Thanksgiving  dinner. Which is also not a joke.

But until just a few centuries ago,  most languages didn’t have a word  

for the kind of religion we’re  talking about in this series.

Like, the Arabic word “din” originally meant  “custom” or “law.” But when it appears in the  

Qur’an, it sometimes gets translated  as “religion,” which is kind of like  

interpreting an ancient word for “horse”  to mean “car,” an invention that didn’t  

exist yet. Even the Latin word “religio”  originally just meant “rules,” at a time  

when many Roman emperors were seen as divine. Caesar’s law was god’s law.

The idea of “religion” as a private,  personal belief system traces back to  

a very specific time and place:  16th-century Western Europe.

During the Protestant Reformation, Christians  disagreed over how much authority the Church  

should have and whether it was valid  for the Church to sell indulgences,  

which were these, like, little  pieces of paper letting people  

off the hook if they donated  to the church building fund.

Martin Luther — the guy who kicked off  the Reformation by purportedly nailing  

ninety-five hot takes to a church door — radically  argued for a separation of church and state.

Basically, he thought the government  should worry about stuff on Earth,  

and let the Church handle the afterlife.  This idea served Protestants' interests,  

as it broadened Christianity to allow ideas and practices other than those okayed by the Pope,  

the shot caller/big boss/CEO/Yes  Chef of European religious authority.

The Reformation also redefined the everyday meaning of “religion” in Western Europe:  

as a personal, private  relationship with the divine.

It wasn’t long before Europeans took this model  of religion on the road. During the colonial era,  

between the 15th and 20th centuries, Europeans  encountered other ways of doing religion  

while colonizing cultures in Asia, Africa,  Oceania, and the Americas. They found that  

many Indigenous peoples’ traditions related to  their ancestors or the land, rather than a deity.

For example, Native Hawaiians honor the  sacredness of the Mauna Kea volcano,  

considered to be the physical  embodiment of the gods,  

as well as ‘aumākua, or ancestral spirits  who provide families with guidance.

This didn’t vibe with European thought, which  assumed “religions” to be Christianity-shaped,  

with a founder, sacred texts,  clergy, rituals, and a church.

Now, we’re going to explore more of what  stemmed from that in our next episode.

But for now, what’s important to know is that  this prevailing model of “religion” hasn’t  

always existed. It served very particular  interests in 16th-century Western Europe,  

as it does now — prioritizing  some traditions over others.

And this has tangible impacts outside  of the religious sphere. Like,  

calling something a “religion” can come  with some distinctly Earthly perks — like  

tax exemption and legal protection and  baptismal hot tubs. And when this label  

gets denied to some traditions, that  can create real-life consequences.

Many countries today have laws  protecting religious freedom — or,  

the right to follow the religion of  your choice. But how those countries  

define religion determines who is  actually afforded that freedom.

For example, the Chinese Constitution  officially grants legal protection to  

“normal religious activities,”  but since 2017, the government  

has detained over one million Uyghurs and  other Turkic Muslims in re-education camps.

In India, a controversial 2019 law created  a fast-track to citizenship for refugees  

from some religious groups, but  specifically excluded Muslims.

And governments have sometimes weaponized their  classification of religion as a way to demonize,  

control, and exclude certain people. Often,  

religious practices that aren’t officially  recognized are deemed illegitimate or illegal.

Like, many Rastafari adherents have been  incarcerated for smoking marijuana — a  

substance they view as a sacrament, but one that’s  criminalized in many countries, from the U.K. to  

Cuba. In North Korea, where unauthorized religious  activity is prohibited, Christians and followers  

of Korean folk religion have been arrested,  tortured, and even executed by the government.

The big takeaway is that there’s  no single way of doing religion,  

no defining quality that unites these practices.  But that’s what makes it so important to be  

conscious of the definition we’re using —  and aware of who’s policing its boundaries.

I’ll leave you with one more slightly jazzy  definition, from philosopher and theologian  

Paul Tillich, who called religion “the state of  being grasped by an ultimate concern.” Throughout  

this series, we’ll find no single idea about what  that ultimate concern is, the shape it takes,  

or how we’re grasped by it. There are many  ways people define and debate religion,  

contest it and make sense of it, practice it  and live it. Over the course of the series,  

we’ll try to make sense of them together.

But this idea of an “Ultimate Concern,” a belief  or series of beliefs that structures and animates  

your life, can be a very valuable thing to  have. And of course, it can be dangerous, too.

I wonder if you have an Ultimate  Concern–or, I guess more to the point,  

if you’re conscious of what  your ultimate concern is,  

and how beliefs and practices in your  life tend to that ultimate concern.

In our next episode, we’ll ask,  “How many religions are there?”  

and again find out that the answer…  is complicated. I’ll see you then.

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash  Course Religions, which was filmed at our  

studio in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was made  with the help of all these nice folks. If you  

want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone,  forever, you can join our community on Patreon.