Why is every one born a race and not a religion?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$6 Answers
http://www.answers.com/topic/race-1
Religion is " a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny" wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
One cannot change the race. You inherit the features of your race from your parents. It is in your DNA.
Religion is the belief system, you can change your own. Usually, parents and other relatives will give one enough proof to be in the religion they belong to. But according to your experiences, education and thoughts, you can change your belief in the God and the rituals. But the race will stay with you as your physical features and DNA.
You can belong to Asian race or black race or white race etc. You can be of mixed race.You can't change it.
While, your religion can be Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. You can change from being a Christian to being a Buddhist, or a Bahai. You change your way of prayers, name of the God and the rituals.
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENCA262&defl=en&q...
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Religion, on the other hand, is considered a function of society. It is a construct of beliefs. A child transplanted in space will remain the same race he was born, no matter how he is raised. But a child transplanted may become any religion.
It is possible to argue that we are born into 'one true' religion, and that we may follow another simply because we don't know better, and it speaks to a universal need for a higher meaning to life. But that's a speculative argument at best, and not relevant for current purposes.
One other term that IS relevant is 'ethnicity.' It is often incorrectly used interchangeably with 'race.' But under proper usage, 'ethnicity' is much more similar to religion, in that it it is self-classifying and dependent on social, not physical, definitions. An ethnic group shares a heritage, which may or may not include religion, but does include things like language, culture, and history.
Of course all these terms are becoming important and controversial as humans become less and less bound by geography. What ought to be descriptive and informative becomes reason for persecution and prejudice.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Religion, on the other hand, isn't physical, it's mental (in the literal sense, I'm not being insulting). People who believe any religion aren't born that way. Either they're taught it as children or they make their own mind up at some point in their life.
I'm completely non-religious - even if I had been born into a religious family, that wouldn't make me religious unless I chose to be so. However, we can't choose our race.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that you are not religious and your parents are not religious? Almost everyone always claims that they decided on their religion (or lack of it) by themselves based on logic and/or inspiration. But on closer observation it turns out that almost always the parents had the same belief system. I'm very suspicious of coincidences, especially when they occur in huge numbers.
I don't think it's a coincidence at all - I find any form of religion repulsive, literally. I always have.
My mother has always strongly believed in some sort of "higher power" and she believes there is an afterlife. The thing is she never said "this is what I think because it's true", she just told me that was her idea of how things might be.
I think it's nice for her to believe something like that, but I don't believe it. I was brought up in a Christian family - the reason I said they're not religious is because they're not practising (practicing?) Christians in the sense that they don't go to church.
I have indeed made my own mind up about what I will and won't believe, it's nothing to do with coincidence.
But religion is a belief system. Many families try to pass down a faith from generation to generation, but you can not (or should not) program someone to believe what the parents believe. Beliefs must come from rational decisions, judgment, feelings, and choices.
I love my grandmother, but it makes no sense for us to believe the same spiritual principles. And we don't. I may have her skin tone and hair type, but she and I will never agree on whether Jesus was man or son of god.
We could no more be born of a certain religion, then we could be born to like Cheerios or mystery novels. It just doesn't work that way.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Hinduism is a singular example because you can NOT chose to become it. You can follow the religion, and there are sects outside of India, but it is so deeply a social structure that yes, you absolutely must be born into it in order to be Hindu, as it is originally stands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu
Changing religions isn't as rare as it's made out to be. Rates are much higher in western countries, and in countries historically less based on religion. Problematically, there are a number of variables that influence this, which come down mainly to societal pressures, and personal freedoms. Even so, studies have indicated that there are statistically significant numbers of people in most religions that consider themselves secular. That is, the person themselves distinguishes between the religion and the culture.
I am not the religion I was raised. I am also from the US, where religious freedom is assumed. In the context of the world, I am fortunate to be in a minority position, but that does not make me an anomaly. This is not a case where 'the exception proves the rule.' Rather it is a case where minority trends point to larger trends buried in overassumptions of what terminology refers to.
I would also point out that it's not simply a matter of what religion you are. Different religions are just different systems of practice. They are interpretations and rules built around the notion that there is a higher power. Which system fits you best is a matter of choice, as well as a preference influenced by exposure to outside thoughts and ideas. Whether or not you believe in a 'governing force' in the universe might, in fact, be something you are born with.
In this case, one could postulate that we ARE born into a level of spiritual belief.
Congratulations on a fine and independent choice! Some of my favorite holidays are Pagan. But, as I am sure you know, it's a tiny minority who change religion, and even tinier who pick that one.
@albanian. I find it very difficult to take anything you say seriously, as none of it can be verified as anything other than your opinion, even if you state it as fact. I said you can join a Hindu 'religion' and follow it. But Hindu also refers to a caste system which you have to be born into. If not, you are perpetually an 'other,' even if you physically choose to live there.
Some people don't care to change the religion. They just don't practice the rituals, because they don't believe in rituals. So religion is still a choice.
But it probably never even occurred to you to become, for instance, a Hindu. You were raised Christian and stuck with it, only varying on some details of doctrine. If you did change religion (and a few people do) you are one of a very small minority.
Yeah, I was going to say @albanian, yes I was born and raised a Christian. When I aged enough to realize I didn't share in that faith and agree in its principles, I did go "faith shopping". Hinduism, Buddhism, and pretty much every major religion/spirituality got reviewed.
And then I landed on Paganism. To this day I am a practicing witch, and have been for over 9 years now.
So yeah, maybe I am in the minority.
That is flat out wrong, @sniksnak. You can become Hindu just as you can become Jewish. Converts are rare, and confuse the issue of this question; but, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Your right... my answer was far to hasty and vague....
Lets just ignore this answer and save me the embarrassment
Information can be passed through DNA, that is what instinct is about, and it is pretty common in many animals. There is no theoretical reason for a belief system not to be inherited, if it actually were a selective advantage for enough generations. That's all hypothetical of course, mental flexibility is much more advantageous in fact.
Race is really a subjective term rather than a scientific one. But such as it is, it is determined by genes (DNA) which are contributed equally by the two parents. So race is pretty much always something determined by birth.
Religion is determined by belief, a mental process. Our minds are very flexible and any human can adopt any belief system. However, one learns one's religion at an early age, generally from one's parents and relatives. So in effect people are born into a religion because it is passed to them as small children by their parents.
In some cases, your statement is even less true. Some religions, the Jewish religion being the best example, are widely considered to be both race and religious belief. A Jew who tries to convert to another religion is almost always considered still a Jew, whether that is right or not. In conservative Islamic regions someone born a Muslim is not allowed to convert to another religion, and an attempt to convert is punishable by death. Thus they are Muslims by birth not choice.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It's actually perfectly felicitous: every single person is born into a race, because it's genetically based. Sure, there's subjectivity, but the fact is that all science has components of 'best guess.' This is why we are always refining assumptions. Newton was immutable until quantum theory came along. And even if 'most people' are born into their religion, some are not. Ipso facto, there's a distinction.
Insofar as someone is born 'into a religion' they are born into a ethnicity. Religion is an important part of ethnicity, which I stated. And this is mutable. If the child is raised in that culture, with reinforcement of that religion, yes, they will most likely follow that religion, believe it, and self-define themselves as such. Which is EXACTLY what ethnicity is: what you self-define as.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism
A highly interesting statistic: "In Israel, some 20% of Israelis who were born ethnically Jewish consider themselves "secular" or hilonim, but many of them still maintain their religious practice for family or national reasons."
This disparity points directly to the distinction between Judaism as a religion and an ethnicity.
Unless someone can find studies that show that a child born into a certain religion will grow up to follow that religion even if removed from that environment from birth, you might as well argue that we are born into a language. Which is untrue, proven time and again. Every infant is born with the capacity for any language, and it is only through early exposure that the capacity is limited to a language, or languages depending on the environment.
The argument that the political structure you are born into can force you to maintain a 'religion' doesn't hold either. Even calling yourself Muslim doesn't mean that's what you believe. It's simply a label.
I disagree entirely @sniksnak, but it's mainly a matter of what we mean by "born into". It's not some scientific term but ordinary English. You are born into something if that something is caused by how, where, and who you were born to. There is no reason to say only genetics counts. I know religion is not genetic but people are born into their religion nevertheless.
Also note that race can be less permanent than you suggest, it is quite possible for many people of mixed race to choose which race they will identify with. Here in New Orleans it has long been common for light people of mixed race to decide to "cross over" and become white, while more frequently people of the same mix become black. We don't even have a mixed category here, which some countries do, showing how subjective race is.
Another point, the folks in conservative Islamic countries don't have the option of secretly believing some other religion. The press is controlled, the other media too. You can't just change countries, legal immigration is rare and illegal immigration difficult and dangerous. But they don't even have the opportunity to think of changing religion - everything they have ever read has been censored to block any criticism of Islam and everything they have ever read about other religions is that those are evil lies. So how or why would or could they change? Unless they emigrate for economic reasons to a country with a free press, it's not even a possibility. But even if they do so emigrate, only a small minority will choose to change from the religion that they were born into.
You are correct @albanian.
I have friends who are Jewish and Muslim and would introduce themselves as such before stating where they are physically from.
But if they want to the people of the muslim counties can immigrate to a free country and change their religion. There is a choice, if they really want to.
I voted you not helpful because you offered several unjustified assertions, which seem to be based entirely on opinion and local experience. There are no references, the examples do not hold generally, and half the logical deductions are fallacious. I have no problem with the take, only the methodology. Especially as incendiary language only serves to polarize discussion into a rousing war of opinion, rather than truly serving to illuminate the issue.
I'm sorry if you think the word 'ethnicity' is confusing. I was merely trying to get at the heart of the question, which itself seems to stem from confusion around the term 'religion'.
It's probable I misused 'not helpful.' I'm still new to the site. I debated internally, and went with my gut instinct that a masquerade of academic precision is the most dangerous of contributions.
Whereas voting me down because of why you presume I did so, seems to be even worse than me, as it's merely petty. ?
