Nature of Religion and Beliefs

Studies of Religion begins with a working definition: religion is a worldview, a comprehensive way of understanding reality, that acknowledges a supernatural dimension. The supernatural dimension is the belief that reality includes more than what can be observed, measured or explained by the senses and by natural science. Adherents hold that there is a divine being, divine beings or sacred powers that are the ultimate source of meaning, purpose and value.

This dimension cannot be proven or disproven by experiment; it is accepted through faith, revelation, religious experience and the shared testimony of a community. For the believer it answers ultimate questions: where did the world come from, why are we here, how should we live and what happens after death?

The syllabus identifies two broad ways of understanding the supernatural. A transcendent worldview holds that the divine exists beyond the human and beyond the created world. God is 'wholly other': the creator who is separate from and greater than creation and who is known because God chooses to make himself known. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the clearest examples.

In these traditions people relate to God through revelation, scripture, prayer, worship and obedience to divine law, and they speak of God with titles such as Creator, Lord and Judge.

An immanent worldview holds that the divine dwells within the individual and within the natural world. The sacred is discovered by looking inward or by recognising sacred power present in the land, in living things and in the self. In Hinduism, the Upanishads as read by the Advaita Vedanta school teach that Atman, the self within each being, is ultimately one with Brahman.

Many Mahayana Buddhists speak of Buddha-nature, the potential for awakening present in every being, although Buddhism does not centre on a creator God. Aboriginal spiritualities understand ancestral beings as continuing to be present in the land.

The two categories are not watertight. Most traditions combine elements of both. Christians believe God is the transcendent creator, yet also teach that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers. Hindu thought describes Brahman as both beyond all forms and present in every form. Strong answers use the terms as lenses for analysis rather than as rigid boxes.