Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism

The ethical religions of the East encompass Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. These religions have no gods. Rather, they emphasize ethical ideals that relate the believer to the natural cohesion and unity of the universe.

Buddhism derives from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (enlightened one), who was a Hindu prince in a small kingdom in south Nepal in the sixth century BCE. According to the Buddha, human beings can escape the reincarnation cycle by the renunciation of desire. The path of salvation lies in a life of self-discipline and meditation, separated from the tasks of mundane world. The overall objective of Buddhism is the attainment of Nirvana, complete spiritual fulfillment. The Buddha rejected Hindu ritual and the authority of the castes. Like Hinduism, Buddhism tolerates many local variations, including belief in local deities, not insisting on a single view. Buddhism today is a major influence in several states in the Far East, including Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, China, Japan and Korea. Confucianism was the basis of the culture of the ruling groups in traditional China. ‘Confucius’ (the Latinized form of the name K’ung Fu-tzu), lived in the sixth century BCE, the same period as Buddha. Like Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, Confucius was a teacher, not a religious prophet in the manner of the Middle Eastern religious leaders. Confucius is not seen by his followers as a god, but as ‘the wisest of wise men’. Confucianism seeks to adjust human life to the inner harmony of nature, emphasizing the veneration of ancestors. Taoism shares similar principles, stressing meditation non-violence as means to the higher life. Although some elements survive in the beliefs and practices of many Chinese, Confucianism and Taoism have lost much of their influence in China as a result of determined opposition from the government.

Theories of Religion

Sociologists’ approaches to religion are strongly influenced by the ideas of the three ‘classical’ sociologists’ theorists: Marx, Durkheim and Weber. None of three was himself religious, and all thought that the significance of religion would decrease in modern times. Each believed that religion is in a fundamental sense an illusion. The advocates of different faiths may be wholly persuaded of the validity of the beliefs they hold and the rituals in which they participate, yet the very diversity of religions and their obvious connection to different types of society, the three thinkers held, make these claims inherently implausible.

Marx and Religion

In spite of his influence on the subject, Karl Marx never studied religion in any detail. His ideas mostly derived from the writings of several early nineteenth-centuries theological and philosophical authors. One of these was Ludwig Feuerbach who wrote a famous work called The Essence of Christianity (1957; originally published 1841). According to Feuerbach, religion consists of ideas and values produced by human beings in the course of their cultural development, but mistakenly projected on to divine forces or gods. Thus the story of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God is a mythical version of the origin of the moral percepts which govern the lives of Jewish and Christian believers. So long as we do not understand the nature of religious symbols we ourselves have created. Feuerbach argues, we are condemned to be prisoners of history we cannot control. Feuerbach uses the term alienation to refer to the establishing of gods or divine forces distinct from human beings. Humanly created values and ideas come to be seen as the product of alien or separate beings – religious forces and gods. While the effect of alienation have in the past been negative, the understanding of religion as alienation, according to Feuerbach, promises great hope for the future.