Religion as a Universal Aspect of Culture

Religion as a universal aspect of culture fascinates me, partially because religion is such a vital part of my own life but also because it is so ubiquitous. Throughout every age and every country, for as far back as history is recorded, religion has had some part in the life of every people group. The religions themselves have differed, but religion in the cosmic sense is always there. I wondered why. I wanted to know what is so compelling about religion that people everywhere seem to need it, pursue it, and give themselves over to it. I have heard it said that ôInside every man is a God-shaped void,ö and the universality of religion seems to confirm that. A God-shaped void is one that only God can fill, just as only one piece in a puzzle can go in a particular place in the puzzle. The implication is that unless man allows God inside him, he will always have that empty place, because nothing else can fill it.

In my own life, I have gone from being disinterested in God, to believing that the whole issue of God was a scam, to finally developing a relationship with Him that has transformed my life. My own experience with God has been so remarkable that I have a hunger to know more about God and about other peopleÆs quest for Him. My quest in researching and contemplating this topic was to find out whether the God-shaped void is the reason for the universality of religion in culture, and if not, what that reason mig

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easure, and their time for its sake. Religion is not just a weekly social gathering at a church devoid of further meaningùalthough there are people who view it so. For those who have embraced religion fully, it is their raison dÆOtre, the focus of their lives, and the inspiration for their actions. They trust in it, rely on it, and have confidence in their religious beliefs. It frames their world. Religion gives their lives meaning and purpose in a world that would otherwise be without either. With such a demonstrated need for and focus on religion, it is somewhat paradoxical that its origins are so hard to define. ôEvolutionary approaches can, rightly, be discarded as simplistic, reductionist, and in instances, racist. A posited sequence whereby a series of religious 'stages' is passed through is largely untenableö (Insoll, 45). There is very likely a fundamental connection between the universality of religion and the difficulty in ascribing definitive origins to it; the origin of religion may simply be within man himself. An inherent needùa God-shaped voidùwithin the human psyche for religion could explain its universality. If this is the case, then religion arises wherever man is. Since people are inherently different
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)