It looks odd to talk about sociology when talking about the religious beliefs of a particular group apart from specific norms that are advocated by particular traditions. It is what this paper seeks to address. The paper seeks to look at the way in which the models are connected with the religious beliefs and how they relate to the social norms.
Before going further, it should be understood that not all religious beliefs entrench themselves in a supreme being. Not all the religious beliefs include worship, and not all of them have an ethical code of conduct. Not all the religions teach that there is existence of life after the death of an individual. The misunderstandings mentioned however are common among the Muslims, Christians, and Jewish people. There are some religions apart from these that do not believe in them however. Even if they believe in existence f life after death, they believe that life exist in a different form. They believe that the people will be other forms and not a real form that they are today. Some believe that people change to be even fish in the next life (Giddens, Mitchell & Richard, 8).
It is however believed that there are very major variations in religion to the extent that it becomes very hard to look for similar terms or similar elements in them. Despite the changes in religions, all of them however believe on the existence of a divine being and the being in most cases is viewed as being unconditional and non-dependent. It also accepted that all depends on the divine. The essential core of religion is that all depends on the divine being who is ‘just there' yet all depends on that being. Therefore, all the secondary teachings of the religion, therefore, revolve around that divine being. The human beings, therefore, relate to the divine in relation to the secondary teaching.
This definition given somehow applies to almost every religion. This definition also explicitly states why the there is no religion that has a clear teaching concerning existence of life after the death of an infidel. Furthermore, it also shows the reason the belief that people have always failed to show them how to stand in proper relation to the divine being and also be religious. It is because they sometimes to seem to be independent. This misunderstanding however that always exists has advantages. The advantage is that it helps to comfort with all the known varieties. It all also contends with the consequences. It is because of this that beliefs about religion appear to be the right ones provided the misunderstandings go uncorrected. The beliefs always entail that the belief in anything as non-dependent is perceived as being a religious belief. It does not depend on the way in which the belief is conceived (Salbu, 12).
Therefore, it is not just the belief in God, Tao or even Abraham that is considered to being religious. There are also some other means through which people believes in physical particles and the laws of the land. For example, Plato believed in the existence of Form while Aristotle also believed in form or matter. Pythagoras, on the other hand, believed in Numbers. These people's beliefs are also considered as being religious. It is because these people are also accorded just the same status that the divine beings in religions like Judaism, Buddhism or even Christianity are given.
These metaphysical beliefs differ from the traditional religions simply because they lack the teachings on how to stand in relation to the divine being. Another difference seen in them is the fact that they occur in philosophical or scientific theories instead of being embedded in the traditions that are always examining how one should stand in relation to the divine being. Even as this is said, it should be remembered that the issues of divinity were at one point imported into science and philosophy just from the religions (Popovski, Gregory & Nicholas, 12).
When tackling the issue of religion, one would ask whether there are also social norms. People tend to ask whether there are real social norms that guide the life of the living. When I mention the word norm, I tend to think whether there are social rules or behaviours that help to reflect the orderliness that is appropriate to a particular aspect of the human life. Even though these norms are sometimes referred to as laws, they do not regulate the life of a human being the way the laws of mathematics or physics do. The laws for mathematics or simply the laws of science cannot be broken. The norms for human life however allow for disobedience (Salbu, 16)
Norms however differ from the laws in that are somehow exception less within the parameter that they operate. The norms however can be violated while they are in operation. Norms also promote certain aspects of life like health, sanity and even the logical consistency in the society. Therefore, for a society to develop as required, the members have certain activities that they are supposed to do while there are some that they shouldn't do.
Work Cited
"Religious Norms in the Public Sphere (RPS) | Center on Institutions and Governance." Center on Institutions and Governance | University of California, Berkeley. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
Giddens, Anthony, Mitchell Duneier, and Richard P. Appelbaum. Introduction to sociology. WW Norton, 1996.
Popovski, Vesselin, Gregory M. Reichberg, and Nicholas Turner, eds. World religions and norms of war. United Nations University Press, 2009.
Salbu, Steven R. "Law and Conformity, Ethics and Conflict: The Trouble with Law-Based Conceptions of Ethics." Ind. LJ 68 (1992): 101.
