Blog 4

                One religion does not mean the same thing to every person that participates in the religion.  This is because people want different things out of a religion, they were all socialized into the religion in slightly different ways, and they had different values and beliefs coming into the religion.  These differing views among members of a religion lead the formation of official and popular practices of the religion.  The official version is created as a hierarchy is made to control the religion.  This hierarchy usually creates a formal set of views that the religion holds to be true.  These official rules and views are generally not followed exactly by any members, but those with more power in the religion usually follow the rules more closely, because they see themselves as a representation of the religion.  The official religion is those that follow the official rules very closely.  The official religion is usually a good representation of the views of most of the followers of a religion.  However, differences are present in the popular practices of a religion.

                The way religions are actually practiced varies from the official religion.  These variations are created, by the difference between the members of a religion.  Each member went through a different socialization, both in general and with the religion, which cause them to have different values and beliefs.  This causes the followers of a religion to interpret the religion differently.  These differences often spread and are common to a group of people.  The differing views of one generation get passed onto another.  The views also are shared within in one generation and blend together.  This allows for a group to share a differing view from a religion.  Sometimes this causes the group to split and create a new religion, but it is often still close enough to the official religion that the groups remains part of the existing religion.  These differing views are commonly known as popular practices.

                I was raised to be Roman Catholic.  I was baptized, and went through Confirmation.  The main way I learned of Catholicism was through a 2 hour class once a week for about 5 years and ended once I was confirmed.  I rarely attended church, because my parents didn’t want to go.  At first they made me and my brother attend, but soon they became too busy or too tired to go.   When I did go my parents allowed me to do my homework, because I was bored and they sympathized with me due to their own boredom.  In the class that I had to attend, I was taught about the morals and values associated with Catholicism.  The actual events in the bible and the history of the Catholic Church were rarely discussed.  About two years into the class, a half hour of prayer was added before each class.  My classmates and I did not like having to go for an extra half hour.  During the last year of this class they created a test to make sure that kids were learning what they wanted.  This consisted of trivia about the history of the church and the bible, which was not taught in class.  Also during the last year we prepared for our Confirmation.  The class treated confirmation in a similar way to a school project in elementary school.  We had to make some arts and crafts and write a short essay about why we choose our Confirmation name.  After being confirmed, my only interaction with the Catholic Church is a prayer my family says before dinner, which has become more of a formality. For a while I did not think of religion until the subject was brought up in some of my classes.  After some thought, I decided to become an atheist.  I had realized that I had never believed in god or what the Catholic Church preached.

                Using the tools that I have learned from sociology, I can see the Catholic Church’s influence on my current views and values.  I think that I am not religious because I was socialized into Catholicism through school.  There was no charismatic person that was a role model for me that expressed their commitment to the church.  Both of my parents usually complained about going to church and the class with me, and whenever I went to church I paid no attention to the priest.  These things also lead me to not be attracted to any religion either, because at my young age I saw Catholicism as the only religion, because it was the only one I knew of.  I was taught about Catholicism in ways that lead me to be an atheist.  I think because of the test of the history of religion, I came to view the history of any religion as trivial facts.  In the class I was taught about the values and morals of the Catholic Church, which are similar to my current values and morals.  Also the arts and crafts that I was required to do to become part of the church made me think of the church as childish.  Although I no longer believe in Catholicism, it still made me who I am today.