Emile Durkheim, a founding father of sociology, argues that what ‘creates’ religion is the distinction between the “sacred” and the “profane.” The characteristic of “sacred” or “holy” in religious beliefs is very salient, so Durkheim’s argument is a very powerful argument. Asking, What makes divine “divine?” would seem to bring us back to that same issue. By rephrasing that question slightly by highlighting “transcendence,” we can ask exactly what it is that the “divine” transcends.
What Makes the Divine, “Divine"? - Spiritual Transcendence and Sharedness
I would briefly mention, in passing, that death, of course necessarily by its very nature could be said to go beyond the world and life. In many languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, proto-Indo-European, French, and English) the word for “spirit” has roots in the word for “breathing, or “to breathe.” Several social scientists have argued that early humans on noting the difference between a living human being and a dead human being is that after a person dies, that person stops breathing, thus connected that mystical and intangible part of life and living with “breathing” and named this mystical essence “spirit.” As early as 100,000 years ago, humans placed grave goods in burials, apparently to mark the significance of life – and death.
In most all religions spirit could be said to transcend the world, frequently taking the form of ‘spirit-Beings’ such as in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. Edward Tylor defined religion in terms of belief(s) in “Spirit Beings.” God, Allah, Brahma and Brahman, and Yahweh are all transcendental Spirits – all of which include the idea of a Creator and Creation, as well. Even Buddhism has the concept of Buddha-Nature which would seem, on the face of it, to incorporate a certain ‘spiritual transcendence.’ Nirvana and Buddha nature might be described as transcendent consciousness of one form or another as well.
The concept of Holy Spirit has parallels in Judaism and Islamic beliefs. in Judaism, the Ruach Hakodesh is generally understood as the “divine inspiration” through which individuals perceive insights and truth. In the old Testament there are four references to “Ruach Hakodesh,” or Holy Spirit, as well as many other references to spirit as well. Most Jewish scholars attribute prophecy to the works of Ruach Hakodesh. In Islam, Ruh al-Qudus is used by Muslims to express the Holy Spirit.
In all of the ‘primitive’ or ‘traditional” religions, to my knowledge, all the primitive peoples believed in ‘spirit’ or ‘spirits.’ For instance, the Australian Aborigines for instance believed that ancestral spirit beings, who according to Aborigine tradition were half plant-half human or half animal-half human spiritual beings, who in their sacred wanderings created the mountains, rivers, and lakes that now exist as a part of the Australian geography, during the ‘timeless’ time that they called the Dreamtime. Pervasive throughout primitive religions and cultures was the idea that human beings had a spirit or soul.
Another aspect of most major religions would seem to be a ‘transcendental authority.’ In Christianity, for instance, God could be said to be the final authority. Freud argued that the only possible truly scientific approach to religions, religious beliefs, and spirituality would be an analysis of their function(s). That being said that, to me, it would seem somewhat self-evident that a function of religions is to form “groups-societies” (structures) since, in the end, religions are groups and these groups are defined by their religious beliefs.
In Judaism, for instance, the Torah, which is their Bible is called the “Teaching” or the “Law.” The Torah is a story of the origin of Jewish peoples, the creation of “man” and the peoples’ call into being by God, as well as the story of the continuing trials and tribulations of the Jews, and their covenant with their God. The “covenant” requires Jews to follow a way of life embodied in a set of moral and religious obligations and civil laws (halakha). It would seem rather evident that, the Teaching and the Law is what defines not only the religion of Judaism, but Jewish society as well. And, what is salient to this essay is that the Torah was handed down to the Jewish people from God (the transcendental authority) through the prophets. Here we can see that ‘divine” includes a ‘sacred’ way of life.
Emile Durkheim had a brilliant insight when he stated, “it makes no sense that systems of ideas like religion, which have held such a major place in history and from which people have always draw the energy needed to live, are merely tissues of illusion. Today we understand that law, morality, and scientific thought itself are born from religion, have long been confused with it, and remain imbued with its spirit.” (p62 el) Especially in Judaism, it is easy to see that the laws were generated through religious institutions. In Emile Durkheim's observation there is an implicit argument that a function of the groups would necessarily be the generation of groups, their structures, as well as their laws and their organization.
Being a bit cynical I would comment that the invention of “transcendental authority” in that the transcendental characteristic prevented the ordinary individual from disputing or debating the “authority” may have been an evolutionary milestone in that it may not only have led to the formation of groups and societies to begin with but kept those groups and societies from self-destructing due to the incessant fighting and quibbling of people over some of the stupidest things. From a psychological “functional” approach, while some psychologists and neuroscientists argue that a function of rituals in religions is for religious peoples to show subservience to God, I would argue that from a purely “psychological’ approach what is happening is that members of the group are deferring to and submitting to the groups and that, again the “primary psychological-social function of religions is to create and maintain structures (ideologies, rituals, and so forth) that organize and channel human efforts and energies.
Lastly, I would like to bring us back to the “way of life and way of looking at the All.” The Torah, which is a “Teaching” and the “Law” would both explicitly and implicitly define relationships between people. Roy Baumeister, a prominent and notable social psychologist talks about the necessity of an underlying psychological principle of “sharedness” for culture and society to function in any acceptable fashion. In Christianity, the religious concepts of Holy Spirit and the “Body of Christ” convey a sense of “sharedness.” And in every major religion the concept of “compassion” is very salient and somewhat dominating. So, it could be said that “sharedness” – the relationships, for instance defined by the transcendental authority of the “divine” Torah are part and parcel of the “divine.”
Emile Durkheim argued that it was the “emotional effervescence” of rituals, specifically referring to the Australian Aborigine ritual gatherings that were called corroborees, that generated and created religious beliefs. That effect, is not only exhibited by “primitive” tribes and cultures. At just about any rock concert these days, “emotional effervescence” can be observed. I would argue that a better term for this behavior would be to label it as an expression of collective consciousness. Carl Jung wrote about the archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. New research by what might be called the “nonconscious” school of thought in psychology argues that unconscious-nonconscious perceptions, communications, motivations, not to mention passions and desires are the primary drivers of human behavior. Since the emotional expressions of crowds are largely not cognitive, the term “expressions of collective unconscious” would seem more accurate and reflect better the underlying principle of “sharedness.” That would seem especially true as regarding religious beliefs and spirituality.
I should note that E. O Wilson, the famous biologist and founding father of sociobiology, argues that religious beliefs would give early human groups an advantage in that the beliefs would no doubt convey a social solidarity and social cohesion. I am just taking this one step further and arguing that religious beliefs, even with early shamans, who mitigated traumatic life events such as birth, death, as well as rites of passage from adolescence to adult, and arguing that religions were the primary driver in the formation of societies, and that in early human tribes, without religions there would be no societies. It is really just a slight shift in emphasis in that I am arguing that the religious ideologies were THE vehicle by which societies were formed, established and maintained. That theme is there in what I have read in anthropology, I just haven’t seen it explained quite explicitly before. That is, without spiritual and religious beliefs, we wouldn’t be here!
So, it would seem that religion can be defined as a way of life (implicitly inclusive of “sharedness”) and a way of looking at things and a worldview, as well as a spiritual transcendence and a transcendental authority shape and form these forces.
Here is a link to my Home Page where I explain a detailed notarized precognitive spiritual experience of mine as well as a brief summary of "Where Spirituality Meets Psychology!": https://www.facebook.com/spiritualityforyou/
Content Copyrighted Charles E Peck Jr. Copyright ©