Should the Raelians be accepted or rejected as a true religion - Essay Example

Should the Raelians be accepted or rejected as a true religion? There are a lot of religions existed in our society today. Religion is defined as any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics and a philosophy in life (www.religioustolerance.org, Religions of the world: Information about 40 organized religions and faith groups). Thus it is something that we all humans can be said to have in common. However, there is a great number of varying religions today.

Some religions believe in Jesus Christ, others believe in Allah, some believe in other gods and goddesses, and some believe in philosophy. As a social institution, religion is founded by a group of individuals who develop a set of common beliefs and morals as well as practices and reverence for the same things (Breaux, 2008). But what makes a religion a religion? Breaux (2008) identified five sociological characteristics of a religion. These characteristics are very important to the organization and prolongation of the religion.

The first characteristic of religion is that it is composed of group of people (Breaux, 2008). In order for a religion to develop and continue, it must be shared by a group of individual that shares common belief, norms, and must be identified as one. The second characteristic of a religion is that there must be certain beliefs that make up the structure of the religion and are accepted and embraced by each member of the group (Breaux, 2008). The practices of the group are very important and considered the third important characteristic of a religion (Breaux, 2008).

Every religion has patterns of practices that become norms and prescribed rites become rituals (Breaux, 2008). The members of the group are the ones who give meaning to these rituals and practices. The fourth characteristic is the unique set of morals established by the group that modify the behaviours of all the individuals in the group (Breaux, 2008). Lastly, the religion has the respect for or veneration of certain things and has their own set of things considered sacred (Breaux, 2008). Without these five important characteristics of religion, there can be no religion at all.

The Raelian Movement was founded in 1974 and has a very strong desire to promote and prioritize Science in this planet (Boisselier, n.d.). They do not believe in Christ or any Christian movement and their teachings counter almost every Christian concept. They can be considered atheists. Slick (n.d.) discussed in his article that Raelians radically reinterpret the Bible and other religious works and insert into them alien-centered interpretations. Considering the sociological characteristics, Raelism can be considered as a religion.

The Raelian movement has complied with the five integral parts to establish a religion. We cannot just reject them as a religion because they contradict our beliefs. But we must give them the benefit of creating their own group. Every person has a right to his or her own belief. If they believe that people came from UFOs, cloning or recreation of DNA, then we should let them. Because until now, nobody really knows the answers to these type of questions. Thus we have a lot of conflicting researches in Science and even conflicting beliefs in religion.

So since Raelians were able to form a group who share the same beliefs and embraced by the people, they have set of beliefs, practices, obligations and mystery associated with faith, they are considered to have formed a religion of their own. Sources: Boisselier, Brigitte. Rael Press, (n.d.). Web. 2 July 2011 Breaux, Jarred James. Five sociological characteristics of religion, (2008). Web. 2 July 2011 “Religions of the world: Information about 40 organized religions and faith groups.” www.

religioustolerance.org. N.d. Web. 2 July 2011 Slick, Matt. The Raelians: An introduction, (n.d.). Web. 2 July 2011