Film Test Nine

Week 9 Question 1

Perform a transcendental sociological analysis on a religion of your choice, utilizing the terms authenticity and legitimacy in your analysis.



Ken Wilbur’s model of Religion generally divided thinking into stages. The first is archaic or euraboric typhonic-the way you think from ages 1-2, when your mental neural net hasn’t built up many ideas or concepts yet. Then you move on to magical, the way you think as a child, believing objects to being the thing the y represent, this is illustrated in the example of teacher pointing to the moon, but having his students only looking at his finger. This is also shown the way children giggle and scream you claim you’ve “got their nose.” The third mental state is Mythical, when you act out of a need to belong, and your actions are driven by this desire. Finally you reach the rational state where you think logically based on what you see or know. There are many states beyond the rational sate, with first being Psyche, where you reach a higher network with info beyond yourself, and the second being Subtle where you access other states of consciousness. There are a few more mental states after these two.

Religions are also ranked on their authenticity and legitimacy, with authenticity being its level of mental thought based on the above, and legitimacy being how well it organizes, unifies, and is believed by its followers, as well as how well the followers represent the level of authenticity within the religion.

A religion, just as a person, can occupy varying states of mentality. For example a perfectly rational person may turn a bit irrational when they sense their significant other is cheating on them, perhaps choosing to believe that they are not, simply because it would be more comfortable to believe their spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend, loved them and would never betray them I this way.

Put under analysis, Christianity, one of the largest and broadest religions worldwide, it has an above average Authenticity; however it is still not very high. That is it unifies its people under the Bible and the belief in Christ. However it is not too high in Authenticity, because the religion has split off into many denominations with various interpretations of the text. Finally, the people within the Christian follow often take away from the Authenticity of it. There has before been the saying towards Christianity or a belief in Christ, “Love the guy, not too fond of the fan base.” This often refers to how many Christians tend to act aggressively regarding their beliefs. A joke before showed many who do and act in the name of Christianity to be far from its original values and beliefs. This joke goes that an older man, who wasn’t too well groomed, and a bit dirty and raggedy tried to enter a church on a Sunday morning, and the ushers told him he could not enter, as he might distract others from the service. Not wanting to cause a scene, he left. As he sat outside, he met Christ and told him about his troubles, Christ replied, ‘That’s ok, I have been trying to get into this Church for years, they won’t let me in either.’” Although Christianity has a greater authenticity than many religions, it is still greatly lacking, and there are many religions that go above Christianity in terms of their legitimacy.

In terms of Legitimacy, it is a mix of mental states. Many aspects of it seem rational, respect your parents, don’t lie, don’t steal, do not commit murder, and forgive (rational because it benefits you to forgive more than it hurts them for you to not forgive). Yet the very definition of religion is to be irrational-that is either above rationality or below rationality. Many people might consider certain aspects of Christianity to be Mystical. That is you must believe to be a Christian, yet Christianity is open to people who have questions on their faith. Although some Christians often get defensive of those who question their belief systems, those strong in their faith would instead allow questions to be answered, and be open to questions, as it allows a greater understanding of their faith. Christians who follow their belief systems are also taught to love and accept all people, regardless of their belief, level of faith, or history, the idea “hate the sin, love the sinner” means that the faith is open to all peoples, and is in fact made for people who are considered to be lacking, or to be sinners, not those who are sparkling examples of exemplar citizens or masters of faith. That means than, that it accepts and is open to all people, and although Christians believe that belief with bring salvation, acceptance and belonging to the group only requires interest and willingness to be a part of it for the person in question. This means that Christianity is rather rational in that sense. Christianity also extends beyond rationality that is because of the Christian values of giving to others being centered on love for others, prayer, and patience. These values require you to put the wellbeing of others above yourself, which might not be particularly rational in a biological sense, since our own survival and that of our young are supposed to be of our utmost importance. Yet Christians stress to love others above themselves, and to act according to that love. This might be considered non-rational, and above rational in that it requires people to grow above themselves and beyond their own rational capability for the benefit of others. Finally, the idea of prayer is one that is irrational, not in a negative way, but in that it seems to be of the Subtle mental state. Prayer seems irrational first because you are speaking to no other person, yet often times in its very dedicated states can lead to different ways of thinking that impact your current reality, much like meditation, which is also something encourage in relation to scripture within Christianity. This allows us to leave our virtual simulator mindset, and think of things beyond our selves, which may lead to an altered mindset.

So although Christianity as a religion is lacking in Authenticity because of disagreement in interpretation and action with its follows, it is fairly high in Legitimacy because of its values to think and act beyond our biologically logical selves for the good of the general public and others.

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Test 8 ( Week 9)
I am most familiar with Roman Catholicism so I'll attempt to preform a transcendental sociological analysis on the Catholic church. The Video and article explain legitimacy as having a strong structure which more people follow and have a strong close knot following and powerful integration. The other term we are given is authenticity, which is based off of the structures ideology and determined by the sensical nature of it, relying less on "magical" practices. The example is given of the bread and wine in a catholic church, one that I have witnessed, where the priest changes bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. It is a practice in which Catholics truly believe that the bread and wine truly are the body and blood changed only by a priest, this practice is one that holds legitimacy not authenticity. The film uses the example of Buddhism as an authentic example because the practices are that of accessing higher forms of consciousness. Obtaining higher consciousness is not magical and can be practiced without Buddhism which makes it more authentic in practice. I would definitely agree with the films transcendental sociological analysis because it is taught in catholicism that there are miracles in which followers should believe rather than questioning the logic. Many Christians believe fully that every story in the bible is fact and are taught to believe rather than question. Not all are taught not to question however with questioning their is encouragement in belief. The bible is followed in many other Christian followings and has been calculated the earth to be about 6,000 years old and over 2 billion people follow Christianity. Scientists have calculated the earth to be over 4.5 billion years old yet Christianity proves to have high legitimacy because of the vast following.

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