Religion does not shape common behaviors, Culture does

Many people see religion and culture as having similar positions if it comes to influencing our behaviors. But I suppose they disregard what culture really does, at least in the way as I see culture.

There are many other definitions but I am among the ones who find those less helpful.

In my view culture contains three core elements. The first element has the commonalities in thinking, feeling and acting that we learn in a society or community, to start with childhood. The second element has the unconscious brain of the members that learn, store and contribute to commonalities in thinking, feeling and acting. The third core element is the continuation over long periods of time and is difficult to deliberately modify because of the unconscious is hard to reach.

These three elements together constitute the dynamic of culture.

The usual caveat is to keep in mind that commonalities do not exclude at all individual variations in how members think, feel and act.

A second caveat is not to see societies or communities as entirely closed off entities: they’re not billiard balls. They have overlaps and interactions with neighboring societies or communities.

Yet another usual caveat is to avoid concluding that all behavioral commonalities come from culture. Forces such as the genetic makeup and the physical environment are also active.

Finally, do not forget complexity. Have an open eye for things such as causal loops and minor or major changes at work.

Yet, the three core elements of the cultural dynamic go on shaping our behaviors as well. They influence our behaviors in each part of society: economics, family life, traditional religion, new spirituality, politics, the judiciary, school education, healthcare, sports, arts, engineering, architecture, sciences and any other field.

Now, some say, but religions have specific rules or moral codes and the organizational apparatus to enforce those rules or codes. Well, that also goes for politics, healthcare or sports, to name some other fields in society. Also here - just as in religion – the commonalities in our learning, unconscious storing and expressing it in visible behaviors operate as the core elements of the culture dynamic.

Others claim that culture and religion influence one another. First, if that were true it would also happens in economics, politics, sports and all the other fields. But to represent social dynamics in this way ignores what the cultural dynamic really is: our commonalities in learning, storing and expressing. Or course, in the field of religion some of those commonalities can change, as they change in other.

But to allocate equal positions to culture and religion, culture and economics or culture and healthcare, is to equalize apples and oranges or, if you want, car and petrol. The car does not make petrol run. Petrol makes the car run.