religious study

Amanda gets really annoyed when she reads someone speculating idly on matters of sociology which are in fact quite well studied, documented, theorized on, tested and concluded in the world of sociology. This happens a lot, as you’d imagine, as sociological topics are ones frequently raised in the blogosphere. You know, like you get a blog post that is like “I woooonder why it is that [something studied, documented and explained by the scientific community 50 years ago] – someone should look into that!”. Sociology (like nutrition, and to a lesser extent perhaps, economics) tends to be more prone to this, because it’s the ultimate armchair-theorization candidate. Because, why study something empirically or research it when you can just pull an opinion out of your ass? Admittedly, it’s more fun.

Anyways, where am I going with all this? I have a feeling that this post is probably exactly the equivalent to anyone that has studied religious history and comparative religion. I’m sure there are about 8,000 papers and books written on exactly this subject.

But hey, if I wasn’t willing to talk out my ass about something I’m clueless about, I wouldn’t have a blog, now would I?