Deck 1: About Religion

Question 1

What does the term religare, to which some scholars trace the root of the word "religion," mean?

A) "To unify"
B) "The sacred"
C) "To love"
D) "To eat"
E) "To bind"

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is a functional definition of religion?

A) Religion is a way of creating community.
B) Religion develops from fear of natural phenomena.
C) Most of the world's people are religious.
D) Religion revolves around sacred texts.
E) Religion is concerned with the divine.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

On what terms does Karl Marx define religion?

A) Psychological
B) Historical
C) Anthropological
D) Biological
E) Economic

Answer 3

E

Question 4

On what terms does Sigmund Freud define religion?

A) Historical
B) Theological
C) Psychological
D) Economic
E) Cultural

Question 5

What two areas in religious studies has Jonathan Z. Smith profoundly impacted?

A) Theology and Philosophy
B) History and Linguistics
C) Biblical Criticism and the Historical Jesus
D) Gender and Sexuality
E) Myth and Ritual

Question 6

What is the first and most obvious reason to study religion?

A) It exists
B) It is useful
C) It makes us better people
D) It promises salvation
E) It needs to be debunked

Question 7

What is the central issue of the "insider-outsider" problem in the study of religion?

A) The secret texts known only to the highest authorities in their respective religions
B) Different points of view from within a religious tradition and outside of it
C) The lack of dialogue between different religious traditions
D) Understanding the divide between the sacred and the profane
E) The ways in which religions mark physical boundaries

Question 8

Who famously wrote, "Normally persons talk about other people's religions as they are, and about their own as it ought to be."

A) Wilfred Cantwell Smith
B) Jonathan Z. Smith
C) Karl Marx
D) Sigmund Freud
E) Russell T. McCutcheon

Question 9

One of the advantages of this book is which of the following?

A) It rejects the perspective of insiders as too prejudicial
B) It only listens to insider perspectives because outsiders do not personally understand
C) It argues for a theologically inclusive approach
D) It argues for a relativistic approach
E) It helps us appreciate our own traditions from both the insider and outsider points of view

Question 10

What approach assumes that people from different religious traditions can effectively communicate important parts of their faith experience to others through mutual sharing?

A) Theological
B) Psychological
C) Empirical
D) Rational
E) Interfaith

Question 11

Russell T. McCutcheon asserts that the academic study of religion is fundamentally what?

A) Theological
B) Sociological
C) Historical
D) Anthropological
E) Psychological

Question 12

What levels have humans around the world historically imagined the world to consist of?

A) Forest, desert, and water
B) Earth, water, and underworld
C) Sky, earth, and water
D) Sun, moon, and stars
E) Sky, earth, and underworld

Question 13

What does the term "sacred" mean?

A) Religious
B) Spiritual
C) Bind Together
D) Set Apart
E) Uncommon Devotion

Question 14

In the Middle East, worship was frequently done at ritual centers known as what?

A) Synagogues
B) Temples
C) Churches
D) High Places
E) Profane Places

Question 15

In Japan, features of the natural landscape were believed to be which of the following?

A) Completely inert
B) Kami
C) God-made
D) Earth-mother given
E) Created by volcanoes

Question 16

According to your textbook, in ancient times, the living were willing to sacrifice which of the following to help the dead?

A) humans
B) nothing
C) important resources
D) themselves
E) everything

Question 17

Which of the following traditions does NOT reflect the belief that deceased ancestors can help to guide living descendants?

A) All Saints Day
B) Obon
C) Hallowe'en
D) Day of the Dead
E) Bar Mitzvah

Question 18

Because of religion, what is another name for humans, according to some scholars?

A) Homo sapiens
B) Homo erectus
C) Homo religiosus
D) Homo iousian
E) Homo habilis

Question 19

Which term refers to a person who acts as an intermediary between humans and the spirit world?

A) Imam
B) Harbinger
C) Shaman
D) Guru
E) Minister

Question 20

Into what does the shaman enter in order to communicate with the spirit world?

A) A trance
B) A dance
C) A tent
D) A body of water
E) An animal skin

Question 21

The term "ecstatic" - which is one way the shaman makes contact with the spirit world - means what?

A) To stand near
B) To stand beneath
C) To fly outside
D) To be happy
E) To stand outside

Question 22

For what reason, traditionally, have rituals concerning animals been performed in many societies?

A) To appease their spirits
B) To have more animals created
C) To make animal meat edible
D) To kill dangerous animals
E) To transform people into animals

Question 23

What do various ancient hunting rituals show about the beliefs of people in those societies?

A) They believe that the spirit of the killed animal or person seeks revenge.
B) They believe that the spirit of the killed animal or person remains trapped in the body.
C) They believe that the spirit of the killed animal or person brings disease.
D) They believe that the spirit of the killed animal or person survives death.
E) They believe that the spirit of the killed animal or person brings compassion.

Question 24

What did many ancient cultures believed about uninhabited areas?

A) They were beloved by the local gods.
B) They were guarded by resident spirits.
C) They should be used for worship.
D) They were wastelands.
E) They were doorways to other worlds.

Question 25

What was traditionally one way to deal with unfriendly spirits, according to many ancient cultures?

A) Stop believing in them
B) Make noise
C) Take flight
D) Ignore them
E) Frighten them

Question 26

People in the Neolithic era went to extraordinary lengths to do what?

A) Practise hunting magic
B) Create sacred areas
C) Paint on cave walls
D) Destroy each other
E) Employ "royal" shamans

Question 27

What was one very important function of Neolithic-era priests?

A) Baptize
B) Marry couples
C) Track the seasons
D) Interpret scripture
E) Forgive sins

Question 28

What is an axis mundi?

A) The highest level of heaven
B) A head priest or shaman
C) A divination tool
D) The deepest level of hell
E) A symbolic link between earth and sky

Question 29

The Hindu goddess Durga is often depicted riding which of the following?

A) A dragon
B) An elephant
C) A lion or a tiger
D) A wolf or bear
E) A makara or a peacock

Question 30

What animal has frequently been associated with the most powerful male deities in religious traditions?

A) The lion
B) The bull
C) The snake
D) The monkey
E) The whale

Question 31

Ancient Indo-European culture included a social system that divided people in which way?

A) Hunters, soldiers, and farmers
B) Philosophers, rulers, and workers
C) Aristocracy, middle-class, and working-class
D) Priests, warriors, middle-class commoners, and servants
E) Slaves and slave-owners

Question 32

What does the word "prophet" mean?

A) An animal spirit guide
B) An incarnation of God
C) One who communicates with animal spirits
D) A person thought to be a god-king
E) A person who speaks on behalf of a deity and/or foresees the future

Question 33

At which famous site did virgin priestesses deliver prophetic messages from the god Apollo?

A) Chichen Itza
B) Angkor Wat
C) The temple of Delphi
D) The temple of Solomon
E) The cathedral of Lourdes

Question 34

Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) wrote a collection of poems to the wise lord known by what name?

A) Yahweh
B) Great Spirit
C) Apollo
D) Ahura Mazda
E) Zeus Pater

Question 35

Which religion played an important part in the early development of monotheism?

A) Christianity
B) Hinduism
C) Druidism
D) Zoroastrianism
E) Shinto

Question 36

What idea of the divine developed in contrast to a personal, interactive, human-like God emerged around 2,500 years ago?

A) The Elephant God
B) The Water God
C) Atheism
D) The Energy God
E) The Nature God

Question 37

What does the term "mystery religion" refer to?

A) Philosophical societies in which great questions are ritually pondered
B) A type of Greek and Roman tradition in which the core teachings and rituals were revealed only to those who were prepared to undergo initiation
C) Religions that have died off without any historical trace
D) New religious movements that are practised in secret
E) Ancient worship of the great god of Myster

Question 38

Which of the following may be the oldest of the mystery religions?

A) Neoplatonism
B) Brahminism
C) Eleusinian
D) Aristotelianism
E) Zoroastrianism

Question 39

What is an avatar?

A) The "coming down" of a god to earth as a human
B) A tribal soldier
C) A tool used in earth rituals
D) A statue thought to have magical powers
E) The high priest in a society

Question 40

Which gods walk on the ground, sweat, get hungry, sleep, and are hungry in every way?

A) Angels
B) Demons
C) Spirits
D) Shamans
E) Avatars

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT a typical characteristic of an avatar?

A) He/she has a special, non-sexual conception.
B) He/she is a saviour figure.
C) His/her death represents a triumph over evil.
D) He/she takes a fully earthly form (human or animal).
E) He/she maintains his or her divine status on earth.

Question 42

Around 2,000 years ago where did the avatar concept first take root?

A) Africa
B) Western and Eastern Europe
C) Korea and Japan
D) Asian and the Middle East
E) Egypt

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT an example of an avatar?

A) Jesus
B) Muhammad
C) Amitabha
D) Amida
E) Krishna

Question 44

What religion started with the monotheism of Moses and incorporated the avatar pattern?

A) Islam
B) Mormonism
C) Zoroastrianism
D) Christianity
E) Shamanism

Question 45

Scripturalism manifested itself in rabbinic Judaism after which of the following events?

A) The Israelites led out of bondage in Egypt by Moses
B) The destruction of the first Jerusalem temple (587 BCE)
C) The destruction of the second Jerusalem temple (70 CE)
D) The Hellenization under Alexander the Great (4^th century BCE)
E) The fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE)

Question 46

Scripturalism first manifested itself in which tradition?

A) Rabbinic Judaism
B) Roman Catholicism
C) Islam
D) Protestant Christianity
E) Zionist Judaism

Question 47

In which religions did scripture come to play a central role as the word of God?

A) Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Hinduism
B) Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism
C) Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
D) Judaism, Christianity, and Sikhism
E) Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism

Question 48

The medieval book of Jewish mysticism is known as which of the following?

A) Upanishads
B) Zohar
C) Vedas
D) Mishnah

Question 49

Which term refers to those who place total authority in their scripture and read it as literal truth?

A) Humanists
B) Ministers
C) Reformists
D) Rationalists
E) Fundamentalists

Question 50

What site do some Christians associate with the site of the final battle at the end of time?

A) Har (Mount) Megiddo, Israel
B) Mount Sinai, Egypt
C) The Mount of Olives, Israel
D) The pyramids of Egypt
E) Stonehenge, England

Question 51

Scholars trace the Latin derivation of the word "religion" to mean "faith" or "belief."

Question 52

The Latin words religare and relegere are both possible roots of the English word "religion."

Question 53

Karl Marx defined religion primarily in psychological terms.

Question 54

Religions, unlike cults, do not evolve and change.

Question 55

The ancient Greek term theos means "deity" or "god."

Question 56

Historically, humans from all over the world have imagined the world to consist of these two eternal levels, heaven and hell.

Question 57

In India, serpent spirits are called nagas.

Question 58

Stonehedge was a structure erected for ceremonial and burial purposes in Egypt.

Question 59

In Japan, traditionally, the natural landscape was believed to be animated by its own spirit.

Question 60

In ancient times, most communities neglected taking care of the dead.

Question 61

The Japanese Obon is a children's blessing

Question 62

Hallowe'en reflects the belief that souls of the dead return to earth once a year to share a ritual meal with the living.

Question 63

Another term for shaman is "soul doctor."

Question 64

On way that a shaman enters a state of a trance is through using hallucinogenic drugs .

Question 65

Farming was an important part of Indo-European culture.

Question 66

We do not know when the first Jewish temple was built.

Question 67

The ancient Jewish priesthood was hereditary.

Question 68

The "wise lord" of Zoroastrianism is called Ahura Mazda.

Question 69

Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) is one of the most influential ancient teachers of polytheism.

Question 70

Judaism is an example of a tradition that developed around the idea of the Energy God.

Question 71

Ancient Greek philosophers sought to understand the first principle.

Question 72

Mystery religions have their origins in the Greek and Roman traditions.

Question 73

The cult of Dionysus is an example of a mystery religion.

Question 74

Most scholars recognize that Christianity was uninfluenced by the mystery religions.

Question 75

Jesus Christ is an example of an avatar.

Question 76

Muhammad is the final avatar who came after Jesus Christ.

Question 77

Religions have been primarily based on scripture for over 3,000 years.

Question 78

The Gospels were written within one generation following the death of Jesus Christ.

Question 79

The Qur'an is considered the original word of God only when it is written in Arabic.

Question 80

The idea of fundamentalism originated with a conservative sect in Islam.