My lecture today is on functions of religion. You know, this course for me it's the topic is very exciting.

The whole idea of souls and, and afterlife of the souls and beliefs about them is a, it's, it's novel topic. I think it's a really important topic. I don't think there is a course like this anywhere else in the world. So that's exciting but it's also difficult,. it, it represents a, a challenge because there's unlike most of your other courses, there's no textbook to go to. There's no okay today we were reading chapter two, I'm going to talk about chapter two. There's nothing like that. So, in, in some respects, we, we are making it up. The, the, the reasons there's a challenge is it opens so many doors. So what door do we select? Me and professor Hamilton, we are bringing in people who, who have their own doors that they open up, because it represents their specialties. But none of this course represents our specialties, what we've been trained to do. I think both of us think this course is so important, the topic is, the topic is so important, and so, so deeply profound that it's, it's, it's worth a go at it. So, functions of religion. Here's the big one. The word religion is derived from the Latin word religure. I doubt that I pronounced that correctly. But it means to bind. Religion is derived from the word to bind, bind together. To me that was a, a, a big surprise. When I ran into it and it's a, it's, it's a meaningful surprise. Now remember what we've done here in the past. I did a little dance up here which was really pathetic and, and I'd like to work on it and do it for you again but not today. There's dancing with early tribes. It's not one of these things that you go out for a couple hours. They did it, you know, hour after hour after

hour, maybe with little breaks over, over several days. And the participants would, would, would be so exhausted and so exhilarated at the same time, they would frequently fall into trances. And in these trances they, they, they had a sense they were communicating with the local spirits. the, the local guiding agents. So everybody could do that and as they did that, they bound together. They were willing to, to, to die for their tribes. It was a really, really important in those days because other tribes were, were vying for their territories. So there's this need for group cohesion, for territorial defense and also to handle people who were free riders or freeloaders. You know, if you're not, if you're not involved with this group, then go away. And going away frequently, I suspect in those days, meant death. Because you needed to, to be involved with the tribe for protection. There we go. Need to be a member of a tribe. Well, need to be a member of a tribe for your physical survival, right? Because if you weren't a member of a tribe you, you got, you know, out in the wilderness, you could either be attacked by an animal, killed and eaten, or you could be attacked by another tribe. But we're talking physical survival. As evolution evolved, it secured a new level of social cohesion, that was further strengthened by what we talked about last time, the monotheistic perspective. That there is one god and that god cares for you, looking after you, but is capable of getting quite angry with you if you don't obey his commands or his commands as delivered to you and your group by a prophet. And fear of divine punishment in this life and its afterlife is enhanced by intertribal ties. And, and I, I think it's some great value for group cohesion for people to believe pretty much in the same thing.

that, that there, there, there is a god, these, these are the rituals that are required to appease him, to bring our tribe's attention to him, and for us all believers to survive this life and go into an afterlife. So how do we learn how to become or be a member of a tribe? Think of your own experiences. To be a member of your tribe. And I'm thinking more restrictively of or member of your family and maybe, your extended family and in larger ways a member of your, your subculture. First of all there's a lot imitation. Did you see imitate? What's going on around you? The, the, the behavior of the people. And as you imitate what other people were doing, you're taking it in, and you're, you're absorbing more than just what they're doing. You're absorbing their values, their, their points of view, their worldviews. We talk a lot, maybe not today, about worldviews. Worldviews are what get us through the day. Worldviews is, is, is what, what makes you decide what, who to vote for. The tendency to, to vote for somebody who represents as compatible with your worldviews and with your values. But it's not only imitation. We are given instructions. Lots of instructions in the home, lots of corrections of young kids. kids, kids, when they're born aren't necessarily programmed to behave in a particular way. They're malleable. And, and parents want to, to shape them so that they're proper members of the family. Want to shape them so, so that they, they think about things the way the family does. They have goals, they have ambitions that are coincident with, with, with the family. And there's also something very important, in terms of becoming a member and maintaining your membership in a social group, and that's initiation.

Initiation is, is pretty interesting. I read in the paper yesterday I believe, that there are some students brought up on charges. I think it's in Binghamton College. And they, they were charged with brutality in initiation of, for, for new members. I think it was probably a fraternity and guys would come home with all these scrapes and bruises and cuts and wounds that would not heal. And finally, parents think, what's going on. Well, it all had to do with initiation, initiation. And there's, each year there's a report of a death at this university or that place or that, that club or that organization. All based on initiation. Years gone by, or back in the day, as I said initiations were not necessarily all that severe. I mean, it was, you know, swallow a couple minnows, you know, live minnows. And that was that was a pretty big deal. But even my father when, when he was in college and being initiated into, I don't know, some fraternity the, Stag Club or something he talked about with great pride all the welts that he had on his rear end. He even had to paddle, it was a huge paddle, I mean it wasn't really huge but it was heavy duty. I used to show it to me and it had holes in it. so, so, that, that I guess the holes meant it couldn't kill you or, or maybe you could get a, a, a good hard whack. But those whacks led, led to welts and that was as I said, for him it was was prideful. Anybody here that wants to join a street gang say the, the Crips. Say you go to New York and say, I'd like to be a member of your group please. And you're, it's not likely anybody's going to say oh, welcome aboard. You're going to have to go vary, through various trials. You're going to have to do, well one thing you might have to do, I hope there's no Crip here because I, you know, I'm just choosing you as an example. One of the things for some of these gangs

that you'll have to, to undergo is, is to stand there and have a couple guys just beat the crap out of you. Boom, boom, boom! And then after that maybe go out and commit a crime. Perhaps go out and, and rape somebody with evidence that you did that. Now why, why these sort of mild initiations to very severe and, and, and scary initiations has to do with something that's frequently called cognitive dissonance. Alright, you, you, you probably, even though you, many of you have not taken a college course in, in psychology. Maybe you've taking a course in, psychology in high school. This is a, should be a very familiar course if you've been exposed, I mean, topic if you've been exposed to psychology. What is cognitive dissonance? We want, you want to operate with a kind of cognitive balance. You don't want to be set into a stage of cognitive imbalance. And if you want to join an organization and that organization requires you to go through various kinds of, in some respects, painful events, or maybe it's as simple as, as memorizing several lines or memorizing a, a poem. That's work. And when you have to go through that kind of initiation and you get into the group, you, you're likely to feel as though this group is pretty dog gone good. This is a good group. This is worthwhile. I'm glad I went through that because these people are wonderful. Well, you're forcing yourself to do that because to, to go through initiation and finally get into this group that you've admired from a distance and then some, somewhat up close, you, you don't want to say oh this group sucks. That's wasn't worth it. You're not going to do that, particularly if you have welts on your rear, rear end or, or, or, or, or, or your fist is bleeding, your arms are bleeding. You, you're going to say well yes it was worth it.

So if you have to work to get in, into a group, then you want to balance that out by saying well this, this was really worth it, it was really worthwhile doing, doing this. So, that's true with religions too, isn't it? I mean, if, if your religion requires you to fast for several days, in part I suspect that enhances your commitment to the religion. To tithe, tithe, some, some religions require you to tithe 10% of, of, of your income. Well, the, the, the, if you tithe and you say, well this is probably really important, and in the end, I'm glad I tithe because I like to be bound with this group. I like to be part of this group. There's lots of other examples. Of, of of, of time. If you're involved in a religious group or any, any group it may require some of your time. And time is money. time, time spent on, on something it, it better turn out to be of value to you. Be, be, be and if as an expression of that value is you like the people who are around you. You are like that people around you who are operating with similar commitments. So advantages of being a member of a tribe, any tribe, particularly a religious tribe, include you're protected. Protection. Include sense of identity. Includes lots of other things, including feeling secure. Having a social structure there that supports you. That supports the, the, the meaning you make in your life, because these other people have common meanings. It makes you, it makes you feel good even though it's work, it's nice to be surrounded by people who have common world views and common goals. You agree with me. I mean does this, is this making any sense to you? I hope what you're doing is, is, is

you're thinking about the groups you belong to, and how you recognize that that person wearing the scarf for example is part of your group. if, if, if you. Okay. Let's say your home town, I'm sure this is probably not true of any of you. Its kind of true of me but not, not exact. Your home town is Akron, Ohio. Right, and, and it's not really terribly meaningful for you. You don't go around preaching to people oh by the way I'm from Akron, Ohio. Nobody gives a crap first of all, usually. but, but you here at, at, at you're at an event or people are introducing themselves and somebody says oh, I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. And you go, yes. [LAUGH] You got a connection there, Akron! Even if you hated Akron, you, you, you got a connection there. Or, you, you, you hear somebody just inadvertently they are interdying it saying I was yeah I was born on May 23rd. May 23rd? May 23rd. That's your birthday. You feel a sense of connection with that person. It's like almost a, a divine, wonderful thing. You, you, your insides settle down. Even if that person turns out to be the most wicked person in the world, initially you're attracted to that person. Because why? Same birthday. You're in Canada. You just take a road trip to Canada. And you're, you're at a a restaurant. And you're, you're getting your coffee and, and you're going to the bathroom and you come out and there is a car in the parking lot from New Jersey. Sense of affinity, there's somebody here I can get along with. New Jersey, because they have the same license state that you did. Sense of identity. We're going to talk a fair amount about a sense of identity this afternoon. When you ask the question who am I. And, and I'm sure you ask yourself that

question. One of my children when they were in grammar school was asked the question, who are you? And they were expecting her to say a name of a religion. They wanted to know. Who are you? She came up, they asked me who I am. I said, who's asking that? Well, it's friends. And what, what they're asking her, because it was important to them at that time was, what's your religion? You, most of them were Catholic, and she hadn't, you know, taken a stand on anything, and, and if she'd said, oh, I'm Catholic. Then the conversation would go well, well what church do you go to? They were searching for a connection with her. Well, how, how do I deal with you? How can I handle you? What, what can we talk about? What do we have in common? The arrival of Protestantism and the weakening of ties that bind. It's going to be a major topic of today's class. The arrival of Protestantism and the weakening of the ties that bind. And we turn directly to Emile Durkheim. Emile Durkheim was really a, the founder one of maybe some, some people say well maybe he's the co-founder of a whole discipline called sociology. How'd you like to be a founder of, of, of, a, a whole discipline? that's, that's, that's that's pretty incredible to be able to do that. He was a French sociologist in the late 19th century. I believe he was the, the the son of a rabbi. And he, obviously, he went off in, in a different direction. What he found and one thing that was that he's famous for is that there are more suicides in Europe in Protestant communities than in Catholic and Judai, Jewish communities. More suicides. Now, for a somebody who generated a field of sociology, you can get a sense of how he went about doing this. He, he, he had to get the data. He had to get census figures. He had to get information about how many

people in this or that community committed suicide. And, and he recognized that there was a pattern there. That, that Protestants that lived in, in the various communities around Europe, were much more likely to commit suicide. I mean, yeah, not, you know, like in mass, but, but a much higher percentage of people than who lived in the Jewish communities or the Christian, mostly Catholic communities. Now, why would that be? He came up with a concept of anomie. Notice that that's in red. What does anomie mean? Anomie can be translated into language that I think you and I will understand. It's a sense of being alienated. Alienated, not connected, on your own, reliant on your own resources, lonely, lonely, alienated. Think of a time when you've felt lonely. Think of a time when you've felt alienated and you had a sense that nobody was there for you. Alright. We, we've all, we've all had that.