Response to my blog, “Can we REALLY say that sports are religious?”

                 Reading both Josh and Kathleen’s responses to my assertions, I definitely agree with their counterarguments. I will begin with Josh’s arguments against my suppositions. I definitely believe you are right in your example of Buddhism not possessing a “Higher Being” and thus not everything needs a God, including sports. Sports to me are a material thing, matter, physical event which are partaken by athletes. Religions on the other hand are immaterial, something abstract, beyond this world and beyond humanity. Although you provide an interesting example of Buddhism, Buddhism is a belief system, a religion which is beyond this material world, although not possessing a “Higher Being,” a valid religious experience, something quite different than experiencing sport.

                In my opinion, it is important to note the fact that by utilizing the term “religious,” one directly finds parallels to religion; this term is most often coined through the experience of religion. Obviously, the term “religious” comes from the term “religion” and therefore, one cannot separate actual, institutionalized religion from the use of the term religious.

                An important counterargument that I found intriguing was your statement that sport does incorporate and reflect morals and values such as the rewards for hard work and the need to sacrifice in order to achieve greatness. To me, these values could not exist if religion had not influenced the importance of them and reveal how to perform these acts. As you have stated, values can very much be instilled in sports, but it could not only be present in sports but can be on television, literature, music and most definitely in religion. The sole purpose of sport is to entertain whereas religion is to purposely influence this moral behaviour.

                Moreover, in response to Kathleen’s post, I feel that you are definitely right in presenting the importance of personal experience in respect to the discussion of sports and religion. Your personal experience is awful and depressing, but it provides a valid example of the importance of personal experience and sports. You have helped me find it incredibly important to highlight personal experience when discussing such a topic. Everyone’s experience of religion is different and everyone’s experience of sport is different as well. Being completely consumed in a particular sport or various sports can certainly make one’s life as a reflection of the sport, however, in my personal experience of sports, I cannot relate to that relationship. Mind you, I have not had such a powerful relationship with sport as you claim to have, but I did have a relatively strong one. I danced, played soccer, basketball, volleyball, badminton, lacrosse, all recreationally and the majority of them in teams. They were a personal form of exercise, venting, and they created my own personal identity as being athletic. It is interesting to see how many experience different forms of sport uniquely, but I see your experience as a truth to your statement of sport being religious.

                To conclude, without any understanding or presence of religion, one can clearly not relate sports, television shows, music, literature, etc., as religious. One is simply applying the concept of religion and religious experience to sport and other activities, and it is important to note this. It is very intriguing to compare different types of religious experience, whether it is through an actual religion or through other activities.