Group Faith

Abstract

As individuals settle in their commonsensical world, they experience dangers, face uncertainties, and wrestle with fears through everyday life. They perform meditation, in the hope of finding inner strength. They attempt transcendence, with the wish to gain outer protection. Beliefs develop, giving general interpretations as to what nature is, how the humans relate to nature , and whether there is any purpose for a secular life across the world of commonsense . Faiths spread, granting specific meanings as to what is holy, who is to be celebrated as the ultimate protector, and where commonsensical living is to aim at as the final destination out of the mundane reality. This chapter investigates human beliefs and practices in spirituality . On “territory,” for instance, it points out that a territory gives rise to a religion due to its physical characteristics while a religion defines a territory out of its spiritual pursuits. A religion maps its territory and territoriality on the basis of its influence over time whereas a territory describes its religion and religiosity by the distribution of its demographics in space. The duality of land and religion features sites of origination, ruins of witness, shrines of indoctrination, places of worship, grounds of ceremony, objects of divinity, phenomena of miracle, and destinations of pilgrimage.