Pal3 Senior High School

1. RELIGION AND
BELIEF
SYSTEMS
DANILO F. MARIBAO
PALIPARAN III SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
DASMARINAS CITY, CAVITE

2. RELIGION
–is defined as “people’s beliefs and opinions
concerning the existence, nature and worship of a
god or holy beings and divine involvement in the
universe and human life” .
–It denotes the belief in, or worship of, a god, gods
or the supernatural (means whatever transcends
the power of nature or human agency).
–The term religion is sometimes used
interchangeably with faith, creed, belief or
conviction.

3. RELIGION
– Is also viewed as “ organized collection of beliefs,
cultural systems, and worldviews that relate humanity
to an order of existence.
– Many religions possess holy scriptures, narratives or
sacred accounts that aim to explain the origin and
meaning of life and the universe.
– Many religions have clergy, rules on membership, holy
places, religious rites, visual symbols, creeds,
doctrines, mythology, philosophical system and
organized behaviors.
– Religious practices may involve worship services,

4. FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION
1. 1. Religion helps man to bear sufferings – religion
explains and justifies human sufferings and grief. It
teaches that everything happens according to the
will of God.
2. It boosts self-worth and dignity – explains that a
person, regardless of his social and economical
status, is important in the eyes of God.
3. It serves as a foundation of societal harmony – it is
a source of social unity and cohesion. By providing
socially accepted values and ethical norms, it
influences people to control their behavior.

5. FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION
–4. It helps create disciplined and beneficial
citizens – because it encourages its members to
live in line of teachings of religious traditions.
They provide models for ideal living.
–5. It promotes social welfare and development –
it also performs selfless services to humanity. It
promotes literacy, education, and research by
putting up academic institutions. Some religions
sponsor charitable institutions for the poor like
hospitals, homes for the orphans and elderly.

6. EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
–Some sociologists and anthropologists
proposed various theories on how religion
began and the stages of its development.
–One theory is that religion started with the
belief in spirit ( animism), then progressed into
the notion that there were numerous gods
(polytheism), and ultimately developed as the
ideal of a single god (monotheism)

7. ANIMISM
– Basically means the belief in spiritual beings.
– The term comes from the Latin word anima, which means “breath” or
“soul”.
– It is the belief that things in nature, example : trees, mountains and sky
have souls and consciousness and that people have spirits that do exist or
can exist separately from their bodies.
– It also involves the belief that beings have spiritual essence, that is souls
or spirits exist, not only in humans but also in animals, plants, inanimate
objects like rocks, geographical features such as mountains and rivers,
phenomena of the natural environment including wind, thunder, lightning
and even shadow.

8. ANIMISM
– The anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Taylor explained
the origin of primitive beliefs and religions in terms of
animism. He defined animism as the general belief in
spiritual beings and regarded it as “a minimum
definition of religion”.
– “all religions, from simple to complex, involve some
form of animism”.
– According to Taylor, primitive people believe that spirits
or souls are the cause of life in human beings; they
picture souls as phantoms, resembling vapors or
shadows which can transmigrate to person to person,
from the dead to the living, and from and into plants,

9. POLYTHEISM
– Refers to the worship of or belief in more than one god,
especially several gods usually assembled into a
pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own
religions and rituals.
– The belief in the existence of many gods or divine beings
has been prevalent in the past and present cultures and
has taken forms.
– Not all polytheists worship all gods equally.
– Some of the examples of polytheistic religions are
Hinduism (India), ancient Egyptian religion, Greek
mythology, Roman mythology and other forms of

10. MONOTHEISM
–Is the belief in single or one god.
–Oxford dictionary of the Christian church defines
it as the “belief in one personal and
transcendent God”.
–From the Greek word mono means single and
theos means god
–Examples are Christianity and Islam
–It is a well founded belief of Muslim and Jew

11. INSTITUTIONALIZED RELIGIONS
– Refer to organized system of beliefs and practices
relating to the divine.
– They are established, longstanding, and time-honored
faiths that have attained the status of being world
religions.
– This term is used as opposed to tribal, primitive, and
indigenous religions.
– In modern societies, an institutionalized religion,
though broadly influential, is treated as a separate
institution (from the state for example)

12. CHRISTIANITY
– Is the most widely distributed of the world religions,
having substantial representation in all the populated
continents
– In Christianity, Jesus Christ is the supreme preacher,
model of the moral life, and the revealer of human life
in its perfection.
– The Bible is the basis faith of Christianity.
– In theology, it is fundamentally monotheistic.
– It believes that God is omnipotent, just and beyond
time and space and change.
– The creation of human is expression of God’s love

13. ISLAM
–The term in the Arabic language means
“surrender” or “submission” to the will of God.
–A follower is called a Muslim which in Arabic
means “one who surrenders to God”
–The Arabic name for God is Allah
–Islam’s central teaching is that there is only one
all-powerful, all-knowing God, and this God
created the universe

14. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND
STATE
–Is the distance in the relationship between any
religion and the nation state
–Historically, in the Philippines, there was a very
close ties between the Spanish government and
the Catholic church during the colonial period
–The principle of separation of church and state
were introduced during the American occupation
and it has been preserved until today

15. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND
STATE
– The Phil. Constitution declares, in Article II Section 6 :
“The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable”
(unbreakable)
Article III Section 5
“No law shall be made respecting(in regards) an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious
profession and worship, without discrimination or
preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall
be required for the exercise of civil or political rights”