Okay so i was trying to come up with something to talk about for this blog post and everything i seemed to think of felt like a repetition of what i've posted already. BUT something i've always been fascinated with popped into my head so here it goes and hope this gives some people light to something they've maybe not thought about too much on there own...
I've always been really curious and fascinated with the theory and concepts behind transgender individuals. Not because i have a weird fascination with how pop-culture portrays these people but the psychology behind having a conflict of two parts of nature that we are designed to only understand or experience one of those (gender or your "sex" - not sure what the correct term is for this but your biological make up and emotions that go on with that make up). So an individual is faced with being born a certain biological make-up but emotionally feels they should have been born (or in other words, who they really are) the other. What are their reasons for believing they should have been the other gender? Sometimes, but very rarely, its actually because something biological happened and they were born with more hormones for one gender versus the one they physically are so that creates the struggle. But a lot of times (again from what i have observed or learned from others) these feelings about your identity are shaped by the social make-up around you. Its crazy to think though (in a exciting brain-stretching kind of way) that something so decided by nature actually is trying to be altered by how individuals are influenced socially.
Okay so this relates to religion because some main reasons religions are formed is to forma common identity with communities of people together with similar values. So religion is an identity. Identity is both environment and social constructions we create or have been created for us. How much of religion though is created because we have a biological element which makes us believe in world or live beyond the present, and how much of it is an influence by our social environments? Religion i feel leans towards a social influence so therefore identity is socially influenced. But then that means identity is mostly social constructions we've created ourselves so how can religion be anything but a search for a common identity between people?
...wow i hope that all made some sense.... :P
I'm with you. I think that religion is a social construct. Perhaps the biological part of humans that makes us prove to religion is our need to explain and understand. We innately try to interpret the world around us and when we encounter something we can't interpret we turn to religion to explain it in ways that we ourselves cannot see. I also agree that religion creates a common identity among people but I think on could argue against one religion for everyone because the environmental pressures will change for people of different regions and the religion will have to mold to fit accordingly. I think we may have talked about this in class but one sort of example I suppose is Christianity in Africa, to us their version would be strange and different but for it to last it has to be what suits them.
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