Assuming that "religion" here has the same meaning as one of the definitions referred to in O U Block 4 Unit 14 (and in particular is an activity caught by Ninian Smart's The Nature of Religion, A5 Resource Book 3) we still need to know what is meant by "religious people" before we can properly answer the question posed for this essay. By "religious people", presumably the question is not referring to theologians but ordinary people who follow a particular religion. If that is the case then it is felt that the study of religion should be left to religious people. However, this is not without its problems.

One of the problems in leaving the study of religion to religious people is in determining whether they will be objective. Will a Christian when studying, say, Islamic Fundamentalism, be prejudiced in favour of his own faith or will he treat the Islamic religion impartially? Until the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, Christians referred to, for instance, Judaism as being "false or devilish". It was only after the Enlightenment that Europeans gave names to religions other than tho

Most religious people are devout, serious, honest and trustworthy. If they carry these attributes into their study of religion then surely their work on religion will be all the more worthwhile and respected. With faith in their own religion in particular, and understanding of religious concepts in general, not only can they better study and appreciate their own religion but will bring to the study of other religions an insight and perception that might not be the case with a non religious person studying religion.

se found on the continent and although these were European inventions they were not always right. For example, according to Bill Heilbronn (an authority on Hinduism) , Hinduism was wrongly named and should have correctly been referred to as the Vedic religion.

religion is "still a crucial factor for many nations and communities, as well as for individuals searching for meaning, or confronting fundamental issues of war and peace, freedom and bondage, good and evil." With so much at stake, can the study of religion safely be left to anybody but a religious person? Can such study be left to a person (i.e. a non religious person) who has no faith in anybody or anything but himself? I think not. This line of thought is following the argument that because religion can be said to be a "totally distinct and unique category of human experience" it is "beyond the comprehension of those who have not felt this experience directly". This is put most succinctly by Otto when he says:-

Will non religious people have a "feel"

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Approximate Word count = 1051
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)