1. CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA Pomona, California Gender, Ethnicity and Religion EWS 431 Team Round Table Lance Brooks Paloma Calvet Carlos Cardenas Jena Curry Jonathon Knoblach Jeffrey Vachirajongkol Patricia Lin, Ph.D. Professor, EWS/GEMS September 29, 2009

2. Religion and Pluralism

3. What is religion? Carlos Cardenas Jena Curry Religion: “communities of people who share practice and beliefs…and who gather in special buildings for worship or meditation and who live in special ways in the world.” John Bowker LATIN Religion: something done with over- anxious or scrupulous attention to detail. Religare: to bind things closely together.

4. What are the purposes of religion? Provide people with the reasons by which lives may acquire meaning and purpose. Allow people to explore the different worlds by providing intellectual frameworks that give some answer about the meaning of life and life and death. Give meaning to what could be an unpredictable frightening existence. Used as a way to regulate human behavior. Protect communities from turmoil. Give a sense of order and meaning. Enable and regulate communities of people. Jena Curry

5. Religion as Social Construction Jonathan Knoblach JeffreyVachirajongkol A social construction (or social construct) is any phenomenon ‘invented’ or ‘constructed’ by participants in a particular culture or society, existing because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventional rules. Education, cultural origin and religion can be considered the key values and norms which influence human socialization. Socialization is the action by which a person becomes the member of a society, through a mechanism of interaction. Allows members a place to meet such as churches, sects, cults and denominations. Holidays, such as Christmas (Christians), Diwali (Hindus, Jains, Sikhs) and Hanukah (Jews) to name a few, allow members to socialize and develop with each other.

6. Religion as Social Construction Examples of how religion shapes the follower’s perceptions and how it affects their lifestyle. Family Food Dress code Social construction (or social construct): any phenomenon ‘invented’ or ‘constructed’ by participants in a particular culture or society, existing because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventional rules. JeffreyVachirajongkol Jonathon Knoblach

7. Pluralism Lance Brooks Paloma Calvet Cultural pluralism A condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences. Religious pluralism Can be defined as a term for the condition of harmonious co-existence between adherents of different religions or religious denominations. …the promotion of some level of unity, co-operation, and improved understanding between different religions or different denominations within a single religion.(ecumenism)

8. On Pluralism Pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with diversity. Pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of commitments. Pluralism is based on dialogue. Lance Brooks

9. What are the ways in which we may think of pluralism? DIVERSIT Y TOLERANCE RELATIVISM Lance Brooks Paloma Calvet Pluralism is the energetic engagement with diversity. Pluralism is the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Pluralism is the encounter of commitments.

10. How is pluralism different from relativism? “…the encounter of a pluralist society is the encounter of real commitments and real differences” (pluralism.org. Columbia University Press.2006.September27/2009. http://pluralism.org/pluralism/essays/from_diversity_to_pluralism.php)http://pluralism.org/pluralism/essays/from_diversity_to_pluralism.php Relativism: That all points of view are equally valid. The view that truth is relative and not absolute. Truth varies from people to people, time to time and there are no absolutes. Pluralism requires dialogue, invites people to engage in vigorous yet peaceful discussions. Lance Brooks Paloma Calvet

11. How is pluralism different from monism? monistic theism http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/dws/images/dws-R4-new.jpg Monism—the view that in any given area there can be no more than one correct opinion. RELIGION There is one God, with many manifestations in different religions. Lance Brooks Paloma Calvet Pluralism is based on the common ground rules of the First Amendment to the Constitution: “no establishment” of religion and the “free exercise” of religion.

12. No religion is better than another religion. In a religiously constructed world, countries, and communities are a better place to live because every religion teaches it’s follower to be better people and live fuller lives.