Should religions adapt to cultures?

[BCRanger10]

Should religions adapt or conform to cultures? Should they take on the aesthetics, beliefs, practices, and values of a given culture or should they not? Why or why not?

Updates

+1 y

"Conform" would have been the better word.

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe truly religious people are cooperative with healthy moral principles and belief systems in different cultures. It’s the corrupt people that hate cooperative people that persecute people, like I got banned from all the popular therapy groups at the place I visit because I was so good at calming and soothing troubled people that the group leader thought I made her sound uneducated and unqualified for her job since I was better at counselling then she was even though she had a degree in it, then she made nasty lies about my intelligence and personality to justify kicking me out.

[Guy13]

There is nothing new under the sun. Solomon in Ecclesiastes.
People of religions do that all the way back to Jews selection of King Saul. Until then YHWH was King. Golden calf’s, temples and holy places, hoes abounding, divorce for any reason, temples and holy places made into banks and animal commodities exchanging facilities were etc
Feminism back as far as book of Esther and Eve for that matter
The same precept or axiom still is Obey and be blessed; Disobey and be cursed. Babylonians and Media Persia exile, Egypt all from the same sins that we have today in churches such as lgbt etc
The war of 1967 is the last time YHWHs hand, in protection, was evident in the Jewish state.

[ChefPapiChulo]

what

[Cubus]

In some way - yes.

Religious traditional family life where a man only does work and a woman only takes care of the house and children worked until 70-80 years ago, when the vast majority of jobs were physical jobs that men are better at. Now, when most jobs are intellectual jobs (where there's no significant difference between men and women) women can work and it's understandable.

In many other ways - no. Religious values of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religious are universal and that's why they survived so long.

[Agape93]

Sure within reason. Like my religion supports sacrifice if that's what we do to worship the divine. At worst that means an animal dies. But say for catholics if someone admits to rape in confession, they should be made to tell authorities instead of keeping it secret. Or in some old form kali worship, might not be beneficial to murder travelers.

[worldscolide]

I not only think it should adapt, there is a staggering amount of data that suggests it has adapted.

The Christianity of today is absolutely nothing like the Christianity of say 500 years ago, and that is a very good thing. If it was, you'd have Christians killing non Christians for the crime of not being christian.

[BCRanger10]

I'm more talking about embracing sexual morals of the day and things of that nature.

[worldscolide]

Ah i understand

[OddBeMe]

Yes of course they should. But they don’t because they have so much power. I mean can any other organization in the world abuse that many children, cover it up, get caught and survive?

Islam’s problem in the Middle East is modernity. Most other religions have had a renaissance, where they modernized and sort of tossed out stupid ideas like killing your neighbor for planting different crops side by side. The mid east hasn’t done that.

[SaoirseS]

Yes, they should, or they risk losing membership and becoming irrelevant, if not extinct.

[BCRanger10]

What is that based on?

[SaoirseS]

The steady decline in numbers for one.

[BCRanger10]

How do you know that that isn't in fact a cause of or other contributing factor to the decline?

[SaoirseS]

That question is confusing.

[BCRanger10]

Sorry.

So the question is if religion is in decline, what makes you certain that at least part of the reason why is because they have conformed to the culture rather than being distinct from it?

Or in other words, someone gets the same message sitting at home watching TV on Sunday as they would at church.

[SaoirseS]

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Sure, someone could be watching Joel Osteen or other religious programs on TV in lieu of church attendance, but church/synagogue/temple/mosque attendance really isn't the essence of religion, though it seems to be one measure of it. More churches are closing than there are new ones opening. The inescapable truth is religion in the US has been declining for the past 30 years, and will undoubtedly continue to decline.

More to your question, though, religion is a static force in evolving and dynamic free societies. That doesn't mean religion has to conform totally to the free society in which it exists, but it does have to adapt or risk losing relevance and ultimately perishing. Most times tolerance and respecting others' choices is enough, but outright condemning those who don't sign up to the same religious beliefs is what has been pushing people away from organized religion. If church leaders focused on being pastors rather than rule enforcers that would help their cause.

We've all seen the outcome of forcing cultures to adapt to religion. I don't know of anyone living in modern times who would want that.

[BCRanger10]

Okay. So what would adapting look like in that case?

[SaoirseS]

A theocracy, much like Islamic republics in the Middle East. We're seeing some movement in that direction, with Christian conservatives trying to influence law using religious values. Just take a look across the river.

[BCRanger10]

Sorry, now I'm confused. Are you saying that theocracy is how religion stops from becoming irrelevant in society?

[SaoirseS]

No. Your question (at least as I understood it) was what it would look like if cultures were forced to adapt to religion. The end result would be a theocracy. The only way to accomplish that would be through the blunt force of law, which some Conservative Christians are trying to do and in my opinion, they're shooting themselves in the foot by doing so. I know of no one who wants to live in a society under religious law.

[BCRanger10]

No, the question was what would a religion adapting to a society look like? It basically comes back to the question details. Another way of putting it would be should a religion adapt its theology, its philosophy, and its teachings and morals to the culture.

[SaoirseS]

It comes around to my original response, it doesn't HAVE to do so, but it has to adapt its attitude or risk becoming irrelevant (even unwanted) in free societies. Tolerance, even acceptance doesn't equate to endorsement. People are free to believe and live as they choose.

[exitseven]

Yes, but it should be given a lot of thought. The Old Testament had some things in it that reflected the culture at the time it was written.

[doctorwhofan23]

What God says doesn't change because society thinks a certain thing.

[doctorwhofan23]

I don't think my answer changes with regards to the update. It is not about conforming to society's will but Gods.

[ChefPapiChulo]

so much for republicans being for the constitution lol. freedom of religion is right there if you would only take a glance at it.

[legalboxers]

depends which religion and depends which culture

[Fuentes]

If it's sjw, no