Chidester’s definition of religion
There is no single definition of religion. According to the author, religion is a generic term for “ways of being a human person in a human place”. (Chidester, vii). Religion can be seen as disclosures and practices that change over what it is to be a human being both in connection to the superhuman and in connection to whatever may be dealt with as subhuman. Additionally, he stated that religion is the action of being human in connection to superhuman transcendence and sacred inclusion. He argues that religion does more harm than good because dehumanization and exclusion are involved. He utilizes the term religion to bring attention to the readers into the purpose, power and values at work underway and utilization of "authentic fakes" in American popular culture. How “fakes” do “religious work” …show more content…
“Authentic fakes” adopt religious resources to form and expand their community. They also use traces of the past or sacred to declare uniformity to have more control of their community. Religion in popular culture involves work and play so “fakes” would use religious techniques and creative activity to create sacred time and space to give followers a sense of human identity and a place where they can live in harmony, joy and pleasure.
Human desire is an important component of religious work in popular culture. For example, society has been conditioned by corporate companies to desire inanimate objects like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s cheeseburgers to receive fulfillment and joy. These products have eventually become modern fetishes. They somehow have global, political and spiritual significance and are worshipped like