Evolutionary origin of religions The evolutionary origin of religions theorizes about the emergence of religious behavior during the course of human evolution. Nonhuman religious behaviour[edit] Humanity’s closest living relatives are common chimpanzees and bonobos. These primates share a common ancestor with humans who lived between four and six million years ago. It is for this reason that chimpanzees and bonobos are viewed as the best available surrogate for this common ancestor. Barbara King argues that while non-human primates are not religious, they do exhibit some traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion. Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, argues that many species grieve death and loss.[5] Setting the stage for human religion[edit] Increased brain size[edit] Robin Dunbar argues that the critical event in the evolution of the neocortex took place at the speciation of archaic homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago.
Chinese folk religion Altar to the Five Officials worshipped inside the Temple of the Five Lords in Haikou, Hainan. The Chinese folk religion has a variety of sources, localised worship forms, ritual and philosophical traditions. Among the ritual traditions, notable examples includes Wuism and Nuoism. Overview[edit] Communal ceremony at the Temple of Shennong-Yandi in Suizhou, Hubei. The Temple of the Town God of Beijing. Chinese folk religion is very diversified, varying from provice to province and even from a village to another, for it is bound to local communities, kinship, and environments.[19] In each setting, institution and ritual behaviour assumes highly organised forms.[19] Temples and the gods enshrined acquire symbolic character, with specific functions involved in the everyday life of the local community.[19] Local religion holds aspects of natural belief systems such as animism and shamanism.[20][21] Philosophical framework[edit] Divine efficacy[edit]
Qualia In philosophy, qualia (/ˈkwɑːliə/ or /ˈkweɪliə/; singular form: quale) are what some consider to be individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term "qualia" derives from the Latin neuter plural form (qualia) of the Latin adjective quālis (Latin pronunciation: [ˈkʷaːlɪs]) meaning "of what sort" or "of what kind"). Examples of qualia include the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky. Daniel Dennett (b. 1942), American philosopher and cognitive scientist, regards qualia as "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us".[2] Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961), the famous physicist, had this counter-materialist take: The sensation of color cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves. Definitions[edit] Saturated colors are a commonly used example of a quale. There are many definitions of qualia, which have changed over time. Daniel Dennett[edit]
Chinese spiritual world concepts Chinese spiritual world concepts are cultural practices or methods found in Chinese culture. Some fit in the realms of a particular religion, others do not. In general these concepts were uniquely evolved from the Chinese values of filial piety, tacit acknowledgment of the co-existence of the living and the deceased, and the belief in causality and reincarnation, with or without religious overtones. Practices and Beliefs[edit] Modes of Communication[edit] Figures[edit] Gwai ren (貴人) - Someone who can help you. Objects[edit] Peach wood sword (桃木劍) - the definitive weapon used for demon exorcism during Taoist exorcism.[8] The ones from Long Mountain in Jiangxi province are particularly valued as the premium quality peach wood swords.[8]Stone tablets (石敢當) - the tablets are placed at main doors, junctions of small avenues, three-way junctions, river banks or ponds to gather positive energy and ward off evil spirit. Finance[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit]
God In monotheism and henotheism, God is conceived as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith.[1] The concept of God as described by theologians commonly includes the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is purported not to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. Etymology and usage General conceptions Oneness Main articles: Monotheism and Henotheism Theism, deism and pantheism St.
Taoism Taoist rite at the Qingyanggong (Bronze Ram Temple) in Chengdu, Sichuan. Taoism, or Daoism, is a philosophical, ethical, and religious tradition of Chinese origin that emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao (also romanized as Dao). The term Tao means "way", "path" or "principle", and can also be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. While Taoism drew its cosmological notions from the tenets of the School of Yin Yang, the Tao Te Ching, a compact and ambiguous book containing teachings attributed to Laozi (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ; Wade–Giles: Lao Tzu), is widely considered its keystone work. Taoism has had profound influence on Chinese culture in the course of the centuries, and clerics of institutionalised Taoism (Chinese: 道士; pinyin: dàoshi) usually take care to note distinction between their ritual tradition and the customs and practices found in Chinese folk religion as these distinctions sometimes appear blurred. Spelling and pronunciation[edit]
Spirituality Philosophical and theological term In modern times, the term both spread to other religious traditions and broadened to refer to a wider range of experience, including a range of esoteric traditions and religious traditions. Modern usages tend to refer to a subjective experience of a sacred dimension and the "deepest values and meanings by which people live", often in a context separate from organized religious institutions. This may involve belief in a supernatural realm beyond the ordinarily observable world, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning, religious experience, or an encounter with one's own "inner dimension". Etymology[edit] The term spirit means "animating or vital principle in man and animals". The term "spiritual", matters "concerning the spirit", is derived from Old French spirituel (12c.), which is derived from Latin spiritualis, which comes from spiritus or "spirit". Definition[edit] Development of the meaning of spirituality[edit] Neo-Vedanta[edit]
Buddhism Indian religion or philosophy based on the Buddha's teachings Buddhism ( BUU-dih-zəm, BOOD-), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (transl. "doctrines and disciplines"), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha.[3] It originated in present-day North India as a śramaṇa–movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia via the Silk Road. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravāda (lit. Etymology Buddhism is an Indian religion[22] or philosophy. Followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Sakyan-s or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India.[25][26] Buddhist scholar Donald S. The Buddha Ancient kingdoms and cities of India during the time of the Buddha (circa 500 BCE) – modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan Enlightenment of Buddha, Kushan dynasty, late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, Gandhara Worldview The cycle of rebirth Saṃsāra
Panpsychism View that mind is a fundamental feature of reality Illustration of the Neoplatonic concept of the anima mundi emanating from The Absolute, in some ways a precursor to modern panpsychism. In the philosophy of mind, panpsychism () is the view that the mind or a mindlike aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality.[1] It is also described as a theory that "the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throughout the universe Overview[edit] Etymology[edit] The term panpsychism comes from the Greek pan (πᾶν: "all, everything, whole") and psyche (ψυχή: "soul, mind").[7]: 1 "Psyche" comes from the Greek word ψύχω (psukhō, "I blow") and may mean life, soul, mind, spirit, heart, or "life-breath". Concept[edit] Terminology[edit] Originally, the term panexperientialism had a narrower meaning, having been coined by David Ray Griffin to refer specifically to the form of panpsychism used in process philosophy (see below).[8] History[edit] Antiquity[edit] Renaissance[edit] Concepts
Nondualism Nondualism, also called non-duality, "points to the idea that the universe and all its multiplicity are ultimately expressions or appearances of one essential reality." It is a term and concept used to define various strands of religious and spiritual thought. Its origins are situated within the Buddhist tradition with its teaching of the two truths doctrine, the nonduality of the absolute and the relative, and the Yogacara notion of "pure consciousness" or "representation-only" (vijñapti-mātra). The term has more commonly become associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Adi Shankara, which took over the Buddhis notion of pure consciousness and provided an orthodox hermeneutical basis for heterodox Buddhist phenomology. Advaita Vedanta states that there is no difference between Brahman and Ātman, a stance which is also reflected in other Indian traditions, such as Shiva Advaita and Kashmir Shaivism. Definitions[edit] Dictionary definitions of "nondualism" are scarce. Tantra[edit] 1.