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Name: ________________________ Grade/Strand/Section: _____________ Date: __ / __ /__

Teacher: Ms. Justine Maye M. Escamillas Class Session/Hours: ____ / _____ to _____

Subject: Introduction to World Religions and Belief System

Topic: Philosophy of Religion, Spirituality and Theology
References: Curriculum Guide and Module
Type of Activity: Concept Notes and Exercises
Activity No: 1
Objective:
1. Differentiate the concept, elements and characteristics of belief system, world view, religion and
spirituality.

CONCEPT NOTES
Introduction

Definition of Terms:
 Belief System or Worldview: Some Examples
- Refers to a particular way of ordering the realities of one’s world. It is often interchangeable with
the term ‘worldview’.
 Belief System and Worldview Defined
- Refers to an ideology or set of principles that assists us in interpreting our everyday reality.
- Belief systems are further reinforced by culture, religion or theology, experience and training as to
how the world works, traditional and modern values, stereotypes, political viewpoints and others.
- Belief systems are structures of norms that are interrelated, or we think to be interconnected.
- These are like ‘stories’ we tell ourselves to outline our personal sense of reality.
- Belief systems are often deemed as convictions, often in the form of supernatural or religious
beliefs, though they may also take the form of scientific views, or any philosophical belief relating
to the sphere of daily life.
 Worldview
- May be defined as how you see life and the world at large. Metaphorically, it can be compared to
eye glasses.
- Worldview derived from the Greek term ‘weltanschauung’ refers to the cluster of belief an
individual holds about the most significant concepts of life such as God, the cosmos (universe)
and humanity.
- Worldview affects our decisions and actions in everyday life. It is even more than culture as it
extends to perceptions of time and space, of happiness and of well-being. It also serves as life’s
road map.

Twelve Ultimate Concern identified as “the big questions of life”

 Ultimate reality (What kind of God, if any, actually exists?)
 External reality (Is there anything beyond the cosmos?)
 Knowledge (What can be known, and how can anyone know it?)
 Origin (Where did I come from?)
 Identity (Who am I?)
 Location (Where am I?)
 Morals (How should I live?)
 Values (What should I consider of great worth?)
 Predicament (What is humanity’s fundamental problem?)
 Resolution (How can humanity’s problem be solved?)
 Past/Present (What is the meaning and direction of history?)
 Destiny (Will I survive the death of my body and, if so, in what state?)

 Theism as Belief System

o Theism
 - Can be deemed as an umbrella worldview among the world religions, for generally, all
religions are theistic.
- Theism or theistic worldview holds that the deity or deities exist/s.
- Man is distinct from the animal world and unique in his nature and being.
- It submits that man’s purpose and supposed destiny is defined by God, his Creator.
- Theists believe that unlike opposing ethical theories, theistic moral system (which was also
called as moral supernaturalism) can satisfactorily explain the existence of objective
ethical values and moral laws.

Four Reasons According to Filipino Philosophy Professor Jensen DG Manebog:

 There are moral absolutes, like the statement, “Helping the victims of calamities is good” and “killing
babies for fun is immoral.”
 If everything is relative, then there is no good reason why we ought to abstain from doing anything
we wish to do, including rape, murder and unreasonable maltreatment.
 Only in theism are all persons held morally accountable for their actions in the real sense.
 Only the ethics rooted in a Moral Law – Giver can be truly prescriptive in any objective sense of the
word.

Atheism, Naturalism and Materialism as Opposing Worldviews

 Atheism – refers to the disbelief, denial or lack of belief in the existence of God and Gods.
 Naturalism – is a belief system that rejects all spiritual and supernatural explanations of the world
and affirms nature as the totality of reality.
 Materialism - is the philosophical doctrine that physical matter is the only ultimate reality.

Religion vs. Spirituality, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

 Religion
- Refers to the pursuit of transformation guided by a sacred belief system.
- It is defined as people’s beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a
deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life.
- It is also viewed as an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems and worldviews that relate
humanity to an order of existence.
- Religion is a compound of the Latin ‘re’ and ‘ligare’ meaning ‘to bind back’
- This bond involves the feeling of being morally obligated to live up to some moral laws that press
down on everyone which express God’s will and nature.
 Religion vs. Spirituality
Spirituality
- is one integrative view of life.
- Refers to a religious process of reformation which aims to recover the original shape of man,
oriented at the image of God exemplified by the Torah, Christ, Buddha, Muhammad and other.
- Developed within early Christianity as referring to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit.
- The term Spirit comes from the Latin word ‘spiritus’ which means soul, courage, vigor or breath.
Difference between Religion and Spirituality:
 Religion may focus on doctrines and rules to be followed by its adherents whereas
spirituality focuses on the soul that dwells within a person.
 Religion may focus more on the outside expressions of faith; spirituality focuses on the
within.
 Religions are institutions and may work on institutionalizing some of its sectors, whereas
spirituality does not necessarily involve the idea of institutionalization.
 To some outsiders, religion may appear all about rituals, while spirituality may seem
avoiding anything that can become ‘meaningless’ through repetition.
 Religion vs. Theology
- Theology is the study of God. It comes from the word ‘theos’ which is Greek word for ‘God’ and
‘logos’ meaning ‘word’ or ‘study’. Literally then, the term theology means ‘the study of God’.
- Webster’s dictionary defines theology as “the science of God or of religion; the science which
treats the existence, character and attributes of God, his laws and government, the doctrines we
are to believe, and the duties we are to practice… the science of Christian faith and life.”
Difference between Religion and Theology
 Theology works on religion; religion and its principles, doctrines, beliefs and thoughts
should have been established in the first place for the subject of theology to develop.
 Rational evaluation of its faith is not the main concern of religions whereas, theology, as
essentially an academic discipline, fundamentally deals with the rational analysis of
religious faiths.
  Unlike theology, religion also deals with the customs and manners observed by a certain
community or society when it comes to practicing any specific belief or faith.
 The religious leaders establish religious truths whereas theological leaders establish
analytical truths.
 Finally, we can say that religion is human’s way to God whereas theology is a study of
God’s way to humans.
 Religion vs. Philosophy of Religion
- Philosophy of religion refers to the philosophical study of the main themes and concepts involved
in religions.
- Philosophers dealing with philosophy of religion examine the nature of religion and religious
beliefs, the ideas related to the existence and nature of the deity, the arguments or proofs for the
existence of god, and clarifications of apparent inconsistencies in the description of the nature of
God.
- The word ‘philosophy’ came from the Hreek word ‘philo’ means love and ‘sophia; means wisdom
and thus literally defined as “the love of wisdom”
Difference between Religion and Philosophy of Religion:
 Religion is human’s way to God, whereas philosophy of religion is a reflection of humans’
lived experience of God.
 Religion is about profession and practice of one’s held faith, whereas philosophy of
religion, as a branch of philosophy, is about examination of the principles and
presuppositions of religion.
 Philosophy of religion essentially involves other main areas of philosophy such as
metaphysics, epistemology, logic and philosophy of language. Religion may also deal with
these philosophical disciplines but only accidentally and not as its main concerns.
 Religion normally affirms the existence of a deity, whereas philosophy of religion
rationally inspects religious issues and concerns without a presumption of the existence of
a God or reliance on acts of faith.
 Religion is about faith in a supreme power and worship of Him as the Creator and
Controller of the universe without necessarily involving reasoning whereas philosophy
pursuit of wisdom by intellectual search necessarily involving logical reasoning.
 Religion is also about practices, customs, and the performance of rituals, whereas
philosophy is about metaphysics and does not emphasize the actual practice of rituals.

Some Inferences on Belief System, Religion and Spirituality

 A belief system or worldview is a particular way of ordering the realities of one’s world.
 Religion is the pursuit of transformation guide by a sacred belief system.
 Spirituality is one’s integrative view of life. It involves a quest for the meaning and ultimate value of
life as opposed to an instrumentalist or materialistic attitude of life.

Elements of Religion
 It reflects an effort to evaluate man’s whole self to a higher dimension of existence.
 It is a framework of transcendence belief.
 Texts or scriptures
 Rituals
 Sacred spaces

Some Theological Worldviews

 All is One (Monistic)
- Monism is a philosophical, cosmological and metaphysical stand which proposes an ultimate
unity of all things, and that all seeming differences, distinctions, divisions and separations are
ultimately only apparent or partial aspects of an ultimate whole.
 Many Gods (Polytheistic)
- Polytheism refers to the worship of or belief in more than one deity especially several deities
usually assembled into a pantheon of god and goddesses, along with their own religions and
rituals.
 One God (Monotheistic)
- Monotheism is the belief in single God: the belief that there is only one God.
 No God (Atheistic)
- Atheism stands for the disbelief, denial of, or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. The
term comes from the Greek prefix ‘a-‘meaning without and ‘theos’ which means ‘god’.
Elements of Spirituality
 Holistic (fully integrated view to life)
 Quest for Meaning (including the purpose of life)
 Quest for the Sacred (beliefs about God)
 Suggests a Self-reflectiveness Existence

A Spiritual Man vs. Religious Man

- Being religious encompasses being spiritual and vice versa.
A Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR) Man
- Is an individual associates faith with private realm of personal experience rather than with the
public realm, religious institutions, creeds and rituals.
A Religious But Not Spiritual (RBNS) Man
- The ones who positively claim that there are indeed religious but not spiritual people are those
who profess that they are spiritual but not religious.
ACTIVITY
Direction: Find the difference and similarities of the following using the Venn diagram.

EXERCISE A:
Religion vs. Spirituality

Similarities
Differences Differences

EXERCISE B:
Religion vs. Theology

Similarities
Differences Differences

EXERCISE C:
Religion vs. Philosophy of Religion

Similarities
Differences Differences