The Meanings of Religions to People
- A Comparative Study with Survey
Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
International Program, 15th Wave
Seongheon Yoon
Table of Contents
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
Introduction
Christianity
Hinduism
Buddhism
Confucianism
Islam
General People (Survey)
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
I.
Introduction
What is religion? It seems insufficient to answer this question with dictionary
definition like “the belief in a god or gods and the activities that are connected with this
belief.”(1) Certainly, religions have something more deeply rooted in people’s lives and
thoughts. Then, what is it? This paper aims to examine what meanings do religions have
in people’s lives. First, it will compare how various religions are perceived by their
believers. Then, it will examine the general perception of people about religion through
survey.
II.
Christianity
Christians, religion is definitely the sole means of salvation. They believe that Jesus
Christ is the Messiah promised in the Old Testaments who can atone for them and
recover their connections with Jehovah. Not only individual salvation, they seek for
change of the world as a whole. The words of Jesus such as “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature.”(2) show the burden that Christians shoulder to
change the entire world with gospel. Thus, to Christians, religion means a sort of
‘relationship’ with God and spiritual recovery of individuals and the entire world as well.
III.
Hinduism
When people think of Hindus, the first image that comes into their mind is probably a
extremely thin monk doing yoga, which seems quite painful. Although it is not
everything bout Hinduism, yoga is certainly a vital part in Hindu beliefs. Through
various types of yogi, Hindus seek for gradual progression toward perfection. To them,
their life is just a part of a long, almost eternal, path toward spiritual perfection. Hindus
try to reach the point of perfection slowly and steadily. Thus, to Hindus, religion is
considered as a guideline for them to carry out their own karma, or their path toward
perfection.
IV.
Buddhism
Sharing its Indian origin with Hinduism, Buddhism shows similarity with Hinduism
in some of its ideas such as reincarnation. However, it is different that Buddhism doesn’t
suggest a specific ceremony or doctrine to reach the point of perfection, or nirvana.
Rather, Buddhists try to reach nirvana by contemplation and meditation. Although there’s
difference among the branches, Buddhism, especially Mahayana, also tries to lead the
entire humanity toward the state of perfection. For example, Bodhisattvas are those who
are believed to have reached the point of nirvana but stays in the mundane world to lead
the entire humanity.
V.
Confucianism
Actually, Confucianism is more in the realm of ethics rather than that of religion.
Although it involves spiritual conviction in dead ancestors and philosophers, it is
insufficient to say that Confucianism involves any sort of ‘belief in a god or gods.’ Rather,
Confucianism is considered as a type of ethics and political ideology. Also, as Korea is a
country with long tradition of Confucianism, Koreans seem to think of Confucianism not
essentially a spiritual belief but just a part of tradition that they have to cherish. Thus, it
seems appropriate to say that people generally consider Confucianism as in the spectrum
of ethics and tradition.
VI.
Islam
Sharing the so-called Abrahamic origin, Islam shows quite many similarities with
Christianity in its basic ideas. However, regarding Islam doctrines and institutes, we discover
that Islam is more fundamentalistic and reaches deeper in people’s daily lives. For instance,
think of Sharia, the Islam law code. Dealing with various topics encompassing crime, politics,
economy, prayer, fast, and even personal hygiene, Sharia sets up the duties that Muslims have
to perform. Thus, to Muslims, their religion means ‘duty’ which they have to perform in order
to reach the point of perfection, salvation.
VII.
General People (Survey)
Then, how do people generally consider religion regardless of whether they have one or
what religion they have? To solve this question, I conducted a survey on twenty KMLA
students with a questionnaire as follows.
1) Do you have a religion? If so, what is the religious conviction you hold?
For those who answered “yes”, please answer question 2&3, for those who didn’t, please go
to question 4~6
2) What do you think is the goal of religion?
a. for getting into a better afterlife (heaven, reincarnation, etc)
b. to solve and get consolation about the hardships that you face in reality
c. to improve your personality
d. etc.
3) Which, from 0 to 10, is the ideal proportion of life being engaged in religion?
(0 : being never engaged in religious affairs/ 10 : dedicating your entire life into religion,
like monks in monasteries)
4) What do you think of the existence of god?
a. God never exists and is merely an imagination of people.
b. God exists, but not in the way that people believe. (We can never know who god is)
c. God may exist in the way that a certain religion believes, but I’m not sure which is the
religion.
d. I have no idea.
5) Why do you think people have religions?
a. for getting into a better afterlife (heaven, reincarnation, etc)
b. to solve and get consolation about the hardships that they face in reality
c. to improve their personalities
d. etc.
6) What is the reason that you don’t have religion?
a. because all religions are meaningless : they are mere imaginations.
b. because most religious institutions are corrupted.
c. I want to have a religion, but I can’t because of the circumstances.
d. etc
And the result was as follows:
1.
Yes
Protestant
5
Catholic
2
2.
A
3
No
11
Buddhism
2
Total
20
B
4
C
2
D
0
Total
9
4.
A
4
B
4
C
2
D
1
Total
11
5.
A
1
B
7
C
2
D
1
Total
11
6.
A
6
B
3
C
1
D
1
Total
11
3.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Total
average
0
2
0
0
1
2
2
1
0
1
0
9
4.99
Analyzing the result of the survey, we can reach the conclusion that people generally
consider religion is a sort of ‘optional ’ part of human life. Although almost half of the
surveyed had religions, their answers showed that they didn’t really consider religions
essential in their lives. Also, those who answered that they did not have religions showed
their doubt on the integrity of religion itself : they thought that religion is merely an
imagination that people had created in order to get consolation about their daily lives.
VIII.
Conclusion
The conclusion established through examining the doctrines and institutes of various
religions and the general opinion about religion of modern-day people was that although
many religions require ‘commitment’ of people on their path toward ‘perfection’, people
usually don’t perceive religion so. Many people think religion is just a means of getting
consolation. They don’t believe that religion can actually lead people into spiritual perfection.
Perhaps this may be the reason why the number of people who actually have a religion is
diminishing day by day. Thus, in order to recover the religion’s power in leading the world in
a better way, recovering the truth of people on religion’s integrity and power is the first task.
IX.
Notes
(1) Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 6th Edition. Harper Collins
Publishers, 2009
(2) Mark, 16:15. KJV
X.
Bibliography
 Smith, Huston, Richard Marranca, and Huston Smith. The World's Religions. New York: HarperOne,
2009. Print.
 Survey : People’s Perception on Religion, conducted by Yoon, Seongheon. 20 KMLA
juniors as sample. From December 14 to 16, 2011.