What is the Relationship between Religion and Language?

A Philosophical Perspective:

Language is a unique gift given to man. Language is a kind of phenomenon that enables people to communicate with other people through words to express their feelings and thoughts. Well, do we know how the seven thousand (7000) languages ​​spoken in the world were born and where they originated? In fact, scientists and philosophers do not have much strong information to hold on these issues, but this ignorance only serves to spur them on.

Today, many classifications are made for language. Among these classifications, the most consistent and realistic one, in my opinion, is the view that argues that language imitates nature and its sounds and evolves. For example, if a branch of a tree is broken and this sound is transformed into the verb to crack over time, I think it would be a good example to use this sound in a sentence. Of course, this applies not only to language, but also to thinking.

To give an example, people make airplane technology by imitating the wing and structure of a flying bird in nature. From this point of view, we can say that thought imitates the events in the universe. Then, I personally think of asking a question; Does this process of events that take place in a universe independent of human beings always give rise to the same things when reflected in human thoughts? I'm trying to give an answer from my own mind. According to many thinkers, every person can interpret everything that is going on in the universe differently and have different thoughts.

Our Individual Differences:

Many factors can cause this different interpretation; It can be a person's mentality, background, social life, religion he believes in, and the most important factor language... In other words, does language change a person's mentality and religious interpretation? This question has been asked by many people throughout history, and each given different answer has influenced society, religion, and culture. First of all, let's start with our most basic question and continue our article by giving importance to the explanation of this question. Does language have any effect on people's thinking?

Look, while I was searching for an answer to this question, I got the following information from the sources I will mention at the end of the article. Now I would like to share it with you; The answer given by the linguistics research group at Stanford University, which recently asked and researched this question, is unsurprisingly; "People who speak different languages ​​really think differently, and even random differences in grammar deeply affect how we perceive the world, religions," they said. Let us give an example of the differences in grammar.

Examples from English and Turkish Languages:

Let's take English, which is accepted as a universal language in the world, and the Turkish language spoken in Turkey. The most basic difference between English and Turkish: The more sentences in Turkish are formed by combining them, the better the sentence will be. Conversely, in English, the more you separate the sentences, the more effective the sentence. To give a more concrete example, "When I was a little kid, my family took me from my school because I was constantly fighting with my friends at school and enrolled me in another school, which is farther from our neighbourhood," a Turkish-speaking person utters this sentence, but an English-speaking person breaks this sentence into pieces. . He says as follows; ‘‘I was a small child. I used to fight with my friends at school all the time. Because of my fights, my family sent me to another school, which is further away from our neighborhood.”

As we have seen here, we cannot say that the thinking system of a person who always uses a language that separates events by forming simple sentences is the same as a person who combines sentences and connects events. This is my conclusion from what I read and understood. The example we gave was the difference in thought system caused by the differences in grammar.

The Effect of Grammar Structure on Thinking:

Now let's talk about how people who think according to the grammatical structure of their language express their ideas. Let's give a concrete example of this. Let's go to the 'Aboriginal' tribe in the westernmost part of Cape York in northern Australia. Words that indicate direction and place, which are commonly used in Turkey and in the world, are used as "right, left, front, back", while the words direction and place are used as "north, south, east, west, northeast" in this tribe. In other words, in the World it means "Put the glass on the right of the table", while in Aboriginal language it means "Put the glass on the east of the table". If you are constantly unaware of the directions, you answer "Where are you going?" with "Up" and you don't know if it's north or south, but because Aborigines answer "north or south", "hello" to them. You can't even go further because you don't understand what they're talking about.

As a result, this tribe, which expresses the concept of direction as north and south, is more successful in finding their way than other people in the world. For example, 

When we put this tribe and Turkish-speaking people in an unfamiliar area, tribal people can find their way using the concept of direction, while Turkish-speaking people who use the concept of right and left have even more difficulty in finding their way.

As we have seen in this second example, we tried to explain how language affects our thoughts and how language is affected by our thoughts, as much as we can and as long as our pen writes.

The Effect of Language on Religious Beliefs:

So far, I have tried to explain the place of language in thought and how it affects human life in its use. Secondly, what is important to mention is what effect does language have on people's interpretation of religion and religious beliefs? But before we come to that question, we need to explain what religion is and look at what interactions there are between language and religion. Here, I would like to point out that what I will write from now on only connects me and is related to my philosophical thought.

Language plays an important role in the theoretical, practical, sociological and even psychological dimensions of religion. It is obvious that there is a reciprocal relationship between language and religion. Language, which is the most important stone of understanding religion, is shaped by people and combined with religious expression. In this unification, language enriches, shapes and combines the culture it was born in, both with the principles of belief, worship and religion, and with the lifestyle that emerges depending on these principles.

Worships are accompanied by some common linguistic practices, and religious interaction is valid with language in groups of people who share the same belief. These common religious practices are used to move people who think differently about religion into a common thinking mechanism with language. In other words, as we mentioned above, we can say that the unifying power of religion, which is not fully defined, but has a sacred definition for every human being, has increased thanks to the common rituals performed with language.

Mass Worship:

For example, collective worship. But I still say let's open a little more about the unifying role between language and religion. Religion and language play the role of social bonds of unity and solidarity in some countries, and they trigger separatist and separatist movements in some countries! In some countries where people living religion and using language are diverse, different laws are enacted and implemented for people of different religions in order to prevent conflicts arising from prejudice and differences of opinion. One of the best examples to be given to this subject would be India.

India Example:

In India, where 80% of the population is Hindu, 14% is Muslim and 3% is Christian, it is seen that different laws, customs and traditions are applied according to people in some matters in order to avoid conflicts between people living these religions. It is known that there are more than 200 languages ​​spoken in the local regions, while there are only English and Hindi as the official languages ​​in the country with such a great diversity of people and religions. However, it is an undeniable fact that besides the influence of history and geography, language also has an impact on the existence of such a wide variety of spoken languages ​​and so many religions. However, it does not change the fact that language, which appears to play a divisive role on the one hand, and on the other hand, brings people together and unites them in a common area, by influencing the culture in which they were born and the point of view of people, thanks to customs and rules. In other words, we have seen that even though people's geographies and many opinions are different, they bring together the understanding of cultures, traditions and religions, which are influenced by languages, on a common denominator, thanks to language. In the case of India, I wanted to explain how language affects our understanding of religion, our culture, customs and traditions rather than the discriminating role of language on religion, and that this influence is a unifying force rather than a separation.

Conclusion;

When I decided to write this article, I examined the source publications and tried to scribble something with my own interpretation, only in the light of the information I have gained so far. I witnessed once again what a rich grammar the Turkish language has while explaining an expression and facts. I would like to repeat a word I always say, "The Turkish language is the living legend of the Turk." We can write, read and talk to him.

In this article, we tried to explain to the best of our minds how language creates differences in people's thoughts, and how it creates differences depending on the way we use language in thoughts, but since religion cannot be fully defined by people on religion, language here uses many factors to explain that it has both a descriptive and a unifying role. we tried.

Let's finish our article by saying in our last words: "Man thinks with language, lives with religion. The development of language makes thinking, and the straight life of religion makes life good and beautiful. The development of thought depends on language. Acting according to the rules of religion. 

It also makes good morals beautify.

I say stay with respect and love.

References

Daniel, Cacasanto. “How deep are effect of language on thought?”. Proceeding of the 26th Annuel Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, (2004), 575-80

Boroditsky, Lera. “How does our language shape the way we think?”. Edge Journal, (2009). S 32-44

Yolcu, Mehmet: “Language: A Conceptual Analysis in the Context of Its Function, Types and Fields”, Religious Sciences Academic Research Journal II. 4, 2002. pp. 67-96.

Mengüşoğlu, T: “The importance of language for human beings”, Course Document No. 1, April 1998,

Aliy, Mustafa, “Religious Language and Religious Faith in Wittgenstein Philosophy [A Reconstruction Essay], Çukurova University Journal of Theology Faculty, cv, issue 1, Adana 2008

Kanter, O. (2019). Hasan Hanafi. Man and History in Islamic Culture. Istanbul: Moonlight Books Publications, 2000. Tasavvur / Tekirdağ Theology Journal, 5 (1), 515-526