In Peter Berger’s book, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, religion is viewed as something that is more of a social development rather than spiritual. Human beings have very little control over their environment, the world around them. They create patterns of doing things, which they make to be the right way of handling situations. Humans create meaning to their life, why things need to be done in a certain way. They also explain the existence of phenomena using the order they have created for themselves. The society creates stability to enable them to predict the environment and reactions of fellow humans. He states
“This world is closed in terms of its possibilities, programmed, as it were, by the animal's own constitution. Consequently, each animal lives in an environment that is specific to its particular species” (Berger 5).
Humans create the society but the society also acts as a producer. Human beings live in a society where they have to be uniform with the patterns (Berger 5). They have to live the way they have found the people before them living. The society dictates the certain way they are supposed to behave. According to him religion is a “dialect Phenomena” brought about by humans wanting to create order and meaning in the world. The society is made in three processes; externalization, objectivities, and internalization.
Humans base little of their stimuli based on their instincts. When compared to other creatures the gestation period is a short period. The instincts that are developed during the short time are very minimal. Thus, they depend on the pattern of reactions to help them cope. There are many options available to choose from on how to respond. Externalizing means choosing how to relate and control the world, in other words, the environment. He states
“He ‘unfinished’ character of the human organism at birth is closely related to the relatively unspecialized character of its instinctual structure. The non-human animal enters the world with highly specialized and firmly directed drives. As a result, it lives in a world that is more or less completely determined by its instinctual structure (Berger 5).
The choices that one makes lead to change with the environment, and the change that resulted from the actions means that more choices have to be made. The choices keep on growing by the day. Humans want to be in control of what is happening around them. Thus, they create objectivity. It is where some actions, which are choices are the ones believed to be correct.
People are forced to act in a certain way. It creates a situation where the choices are already made. For example, in some societies, women are forced to wear clothes that cover their whole body. The females in those regions do not have the opportunity to choose what to wear. Going against this is not only considered wrong, but sinful. It is an order created to deal with situations. In this case, it may be to protect the weak male species, from falling into sexual temptation.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was not only a political leader, but a respected scholar. He was a vice president who rose to become the 2nd president of India. He was a philosopher, who brought out ideologies in a way that others did not in his time. In his book the “The Hindu Way of Life”, he tries defend Hinduism from uninformed criticism. He explains the root of Hinduism. The meanings of various practices and symbols in the religion.
“The Hind attitude to religion is interesting. While fixed intellectual beliefs mark off one religion from another, Hinduism sets itself no such limits. Intellect is subordinated to intuition, dogma to experience, outer expression to inward realization” (Radhakrishnan 15).
He explains that Hindu was formed out of a geographical place where they existed people having different practices (Radhakrishnan 42). The people practiced different forms of worship. Hinduism grows to deal with the problems that the people faced. It brought unity amongst the people. Religious conflict is a problem faced in many places in the world and involves people having different gods, spiritual rites, and religious systems.
Radhakrishnan believes that religion is as a result of people trying to deal with the problems of the world. He explained that people came up with certain ways of life of which are believed to be true. People are made to believe that there is only a certain way of doing things and all the others regarded as sinful. People came up with religion to create an environment that they could control. Radhakrishnan further explains that the different roles in the society such as being a parent are set out. The society wants people to believe that there is only one way of playing the roles. The people have to learn how they are expected to learn. The process of learning is called socialization. Socialization mainly depends on observation. Learning from the people around, who in most cases are older. The elder have had more time to internalize the patterns of stimuli. The religion is characterized by many goddesses who represent different aspects of lives, and they all need to be worshipped differently. He believes that the religion is guided by strong beliefs that have been guiding the people from one generation to another. Hinduism also believes in one Supreme Being, who is the maker of all.
“The Hindu never doubted the reality of the one supreme universal spirit, however much the descriptions of it may fall short of its nature” (Radhakrishnan 25).
Radhakrishnan’s ideology does not agree with Berger’s idea that people are forced to accept the partners the society builds. He believes that the religion should be set side by side by scientifically evidence for it to be accepted. People should test the false and truthful beliefs of religion through spiritual experiences.
Works Cited
Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York:
Open Road Integrated Media, 1967. Internet resource.
Radhakrishnan. The Hindu View of Life. London: Unwin, 1960. Print.
