Religious Knowledge Systems

Religion is simple. People share beliefs about the nature of the world and human existence. That's it, except it isn't. Religion is actually really complex; people create, gather, and share ideas that purport truth about the existence of everything in the universe, and there are literally thousands of different variations of these systems. Some are contradictory, some are compatible, some are controversial. For the purposes of studying religion in TOK, it's important to remember that the truth of religious claims is not necessarily the point. We are just trying to understand why and how people developed metaphysical beliefs and explore the implications of those beliefs on individuals and societies. No doubt faith is an important Way of Knowing in this particular area, but we must not ignore the role of others such as sense perception, by which people gather information about their surroundings and then need a way to process that information. Language and emotion also play significant roles because religious texts are extremely important methods of collecting and sharing beliefs, which cannot be easily separated from the intense feelings of pride and loyalty many people have for their sacred books. Even reason, contradictory as it may seem to some, may help provide evidence to support the apparently unbelievable propositions held dear by billions of faithful people. Investigating religious knowledge in this way should be about understanding the perspectives of the believers, not searching to verify or falsify any particular beliefs. 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do we decide between the competing claims of different religious knowledge systems? 

• Can there ever be a basis for religious knowledge that is independent of the culture that produces it? 

• Is atheism as much a matter of faith as religious belief?

DOCUMENTS

• Religious Features Activity

LINKS

• "I Asked Atheists How They Find Meaning in a Purposeless Universe" (article)

• Story of Mathematics (article)

• The Role of Chinese Religion in Environmental Protection (article)

• Religion in Math Curriculum

• Honor Killings are a Global Problem

• The Puckle Gun