Lesson video

Hi there.

My name is Ms. Marks and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And our lesson today is entitled Defining Religion and it forms part of our unit of work on the Psychology of Religion.

I can't wait to do the work with you so let's get started.

By the end of our lesson today, you'll be able to explain why religion can be hard to define and apply one way that scholars have found to define it.

So first of all, let's think about our key words for today.

And our key words are behaviour, belief, belonging, religion, and ritual.

So behaviour relates to how someone acts, the things that they do.

Belief is an acceptance that something is true without having to have proof.

And the verb of belief is believe.

Belonging is being part of something bigger than yourself.

Religion is a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practises.

People who follow a religion are known as religious.

And a ritual is a way of doing something with the same actions in the same way each time.

It's often a very special action.

And in our lesson today, we're going to do two things.

Firstly, we're going to be defining what religion is and then secondly, we're going to look at the three B's.

So, defining what religion is.

Andeep, Sofia, Lucas, and Aisha are going to tell you about a group of people, and I want to see if you can think of who this group of people might be.

So Andeep says, "This group of people go to a special building each week." Sofia says, "This group of people wear special items of clothing." Lucas says, "This group of people share strong beliefs." And Aisha says, "This group of people sing together when they meet." Do you know who they could be talking about? Could they be talking about football? Well, let's have a think.

There's a special building that people might visit each week as the football stadium.

There might be strong beliefs that the football fans will have that their team is the best.

I know football fans who believe these things about their teams. There might be special clothing that football fans wear, like the kit of the team or maybe one special player that they wear the number for.

And there could be songs that football fans sing together like chants at a game.

But does that make football a religion? Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or tell me.

Well, people can feel very strongly about their football teams and feel very committed to them, can't they? But then people can also feel committed to their favourite bands, different hobbies, clubs, or other activities that they do.

Does this make them religions too or is this something different about religions to clubs and hobbies? And what could that different thing be? So one way we could try to understand what religion is is to look at the word and the root of that word and where it came from.

It might give us a clue as to what the word can mean.

So the word religion comes from ancient Latin and it has this stem religio, and that gives us this word religion.

And religio was meaning a tie or a bind.

So when something's tied tight, think of a rope tightening two things together or when someone's bound to something.

It's like a commitment that's been made or you're wanting to make a connection and join with this other thing other than yourself, or it could be seen as an obligation to something.

And so from that, can we see how religion might be to do with making a choice, wanting to join, and wanting to be bound to something and make a commitment.

So now we can see that religion could be to do with a bind or an obligation to something.

Now the original use of the word back in ancient Latin probably was connected to being bound to and obligated to of being greater than yourself, perhaps supernatural god or gods.

But we know that now, the word is used in a more broader way and people may not define religion as always being a bind or an obligation to God or gods, but it can still be a helpful way of understanding what this term means.

While some religions do have a belief in one God, but others have a belief in many gods and some religions don't have a belief in God or gods at all.

If you look at something like Buddhism, which many people consider to be a religion, there isn't a belief in God or gods.

And then some religions do have a special place or a building they might go to or a special person they'll look up to and maybe a book that they'll read and consider as very important.

But not all religions do.

So actually it can be very hard to define exactly what a religion is.

And we're not alone in this and this is a discussion that's been happening for a long time around what do we actually mean by religion? Well, let's have a check and see what we've learned so far.

Which of these statements is correct about defining religion? Religions always include belief in God or gods or goddesses.

Religions are the same as clubs, sports, and hobbies.

Or religions often involve a commitment to something.

Which of these is most correct? Well done.

Yes, it's C.

It can't be A or B because not all religions do have those beliefs and religions aren't really the same as clubs, sports, and hobbies.

So they often involve a commitment to something.

So religions may often have a sacred book or important text, but not always.

And they may often have a building where people meet, but again, not always.

And religions will often have a belief in God or gods or goddesses, but not always.

And they'll often have a founder or like really important person.

There are lots of actions and beliefs that many people do consider to be part of religion.

So for example, rituals, that's one of our key words, a special action that happens the same way each time that it is done.

Or actions each day that people might do like prayer or meditation.

Often in religion, people will remember really important stories to do with a religion or someone who's particularly important.

They might read a holy text or a special book within a religion to know about these stories and actions.

With every religions there will often be a belief that humans, some humans have special messages for others, so they may have been given a special message for others to help lead them.

And often religions will have beliefs about life's ultimate questions.

So some of those really big questions that don't have sort of simple answers, religion can help to answer that for people.

So let's look at your example for Christianity.

So yes, there are rituals and actions in Christianity like breaking bread and wine together, which is a very important thing that happens within Christianity.

Remembering important stories about the life of Jesus is important within Christianity.

Christians will often read a holy book like the Bible to see stories about God and their religion.

One of them could be about how God made the world.

Christians will hold important beliefs, particularly around the life of Jesus and that he was sent by God to give a message to humans.

And finally, one of those ultimate questions that Christianity could answer is, well, why is the universe here and who made it? And Christianity would answer that God created the universe.

So let's do another check.

Do all religions have a belief in God, a holy text, and a special building where people meet? No, that's false.

Why? 'Cause not all religions have a belief in God or gods and goddesses, and not all religions have a holy text or a special building where people meet.

These may be common in many religions but not all of them will have that.

Well done if you got that right.

It can also be hard to define what a religion is because there's a difference between what the religion teaches and what people may do as part of their faith.

So you could have a difference between what's written in a holy text, for example.

Here we've got the Torah and how people might actually live out their religion.

We've got an image of different people praying here in Judaism.

Let's look at an example.

One example of this could be someone who's a secular Jew.

So here we have Michael who's gonna explain to us what it means to him to be a secular Jew.

Michael says, "My family is Jewish and we take part in festivals like Pesach and Hanukkah.

I like being part of a community with a shared history.

I don't believe in God or Gods and I consider myself to be an atheist.

I am Jewish and I am a secular Jew." So he may follow the teachings of Judaism in a different way to someone else who's Jewish.

So it can make us question what does it mean to actually be Jewish then? Lucas is thinking about this difference between how a person might live their religion and what it teaches and if this actually matters when we're defining it.

So Lucas says, "I have a Muslim friend.

His family don't pray five times a day, even though that's the teaching.

Also, I have a Christian friend who doesn't go to church every week.

Shouldn't I look at how people follow a faith as well as the teachings?" I wonder what you think about that.

Here's some more views from our pupils on this and let's see if you agree with what they say or maybe you've got your own view.

So Jun says, "We should look at the teachings and traditions of religion.

These are the parts which have lasted through time." Aisha says, "If someone decides that they're religious, they don't have to follow all the beliefs and actions in that religion to be part of it." And Izzy says, "It's more important to look at the lives of religious people to help define what religion is." I wonder if you agree with one of those more than the others or if you've got your own view on this.

Let's do another check.

Is it true or false that all the people who follow a religion will have exactly the same religious beliefs as each other? That's right, it's false.

But why is it false? Different people in a religion can hold different beliefs to one another and still be part of the same religion.

And this is important when we're thinking about how we define what religion is, isn't it? Izzy discussing what religion is.

Which one of them has the more accurate view and why? Let's read them.

Lucas.

"Religion is hard to define because it is beliefs that people have, which could vary from person to person.

Religions are often about God or gods and goddesses, but not always." And Izzy.

"Religion is easy to define because it is teachings about God that people read in a holy book.

People read this and believe things about God from what they read.

All the people in a religion will believe the same things." Which one's more accurate and why? Well done for your hard work there.

Lucas had the more accurate view of what religion is.

But why? We could say Lucas is more accurate because he shows that religion isn't easy to define because not all religions have beliefs about God or gods and goddesses.

And Izzy was less accurate because she thinks religion is easy to define, always to do with God, and that each religion will have one holy book.

So Lucas has shown that it's actually quite difficult to define what religion is.

So the second part of our lesson is around the three B's.

Now, social science is really important when we're looking at religion and religious people and social scientists are academics who may investigate religions and religious people.

Social scientists will use evidence to back up their claims about religion.

Whether or not you're a member of religion, you can use social science as a tool to help you understand religions through looking at how people live and behave.

In this lesson we'll use social science to look at how religion can be defined, but how could social scientists investigate what religion is? Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or tell me.

Well, here's Izzy explaining to us how social scientists could investigate what religion is.

Izzy says, "Social scientists could ask people questions in a survey or they could interview them.

They could ask people who follow a religion as well as those who don't.

Social scientists could attend a religious ceremony and watch what happens or even take part.

Social scientists could also look at how people have talked about religion in the media and online." So these are all part of the tools that a social scientist could use to look at what religion is.

So through using those tools, here are three of the ways that social scientists have defined religion.

There isn't one overall definition that every social scientist has agreed on, but here are three broad ways that they have said what religion is.

The first one.

Religion is beliefs about God, gods, or supernatural beings.

That was very focused on what people believe.

Number two, religion is about how a person experiences it according to their own worldview.

So it's about that individual person and how they are experiencing what they see as their religion.

And three, religion is when groups of people do rituals and certain actions together.

So that definition is looking at more than just one person, groups of people together as part of this thing called religion.

I wonder if one of those is more helpful to you.

Have a think about which one you think is the best and why.

You can pause the video and talk to the person next to you or tell me.

Let's do a quick check.

Social scientists have one agreed definition of religion.

Is that true or false? Well done if you said that was false, but why? Well, different social scientists have developed different definitions for religion.

We saw that earlier that some are focused on what people believe, others may go on what people do, and others on how people may experience it themselves.

So there isn't one agreed definition but there is one way that several social scientists have agreed on for how to define what religion is and it's called the three B's.

Because there are lots of actions and beliefs that generally people consider to be part of religion, so they can be brought together into these three B's.

And those are belief.

So things that people may hold to be true without necessarily any proof.

Behaviour, the actions that people may do.

And belonging, the way that people may feel connected to one another.

And these three together can help us understand what a religion is.

So let's look at an example together for the religion of Islam.

So there are many beliefs within Islam that Muslims may hold and one of them is that most Muslims believe the Qur'an is the direct words of God.

There are many important behaviours in Islam and one of them could be that most Muslims would avoid eating pork and drinking alcohol.

And there's lots of ways that Muslims may feel connected and like they belong and one of them could be that many Muslims will pray together at a mosque during a week.

So let's do a check.

Which of the three B's is missing from here? We've got belief, belonging, and? Well done, it's behaviour.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned so far in this lesson.

This has two parts and the first part is for you to decide if each of these statements is true or false.

If it's false, you need to correct it to make it true.

I'll read them to us.

Social scientists are not interested in religion.

There's one agreed definition for religion.

The three B's is a way that religion can be defined.

The three B's are blessings, boundaries, and baptism.

And religious rituals are an example of behaviours that people may do as part of a religion.

Your answers may look like this.

Well done if you've got this right.

So social scientists are not interested in religion is false because social scientists are interested in religion.

There is one agreed definition for religion is false because there's no one agreed definition.

Different people have different ideas of how to define religion.

The three B's is a way that religion can be defined.

The three B's are not blessings, boundaries, and baptism.

They are belief, behaviour, and belonging.

And yes, religious rituals are an example of behaviours that people may do as part of a religion.

Well done if you've got all of those right.

So the second part of our task is that we're going to apply what we've learned about the three B's to one religion we already know about.

It could be a religion we studied in this lesson or it could be another religion that you already know about.

And what you're going to do is choose the religion and then decide what beliefs there could be in that religion, what ways that people might show belonging in that religion, and then what behaviours there could be that are part of that religion.

And complete the table below.

So good luck and I'll see you in a minute.

Well done, everybody.

So let's see what we've written down.

I've done an example of Christianity, but you may have done a different religion.

If you did do Christianity you may have put different ideas, but this is what I thought of.

So, the beliefs that are in that religion that I wrote down are that God created the universe, that Jesus rose from the dead and that there is life after death.

Ways that people might show belonging in that religion is the Christians might meet together each week in a church, they might eat bread and drink wine together to remember the actions of Jesus.

And behaviours that people may do as part of that religion is that many Christians will read the Bible to remember the stories of Jesus.

And many Christians will pray each day to communicate with God.

Well done.

So before we go today, let's recap what we've learned so far about defining religion.

Well, it can be difficult to define what religion is and it's not always about beliefs in God or gods and goddesses.

The lived experience of religion is not always the same as what it teaches.

Social scientists will often investigate religion and there are different ways that social scientists have defined religion.

And one way that religion has been defined is the three B's of belief, behaviour, and belonging.

Well done for your hard work today and I'll see you soon.