Community- Being part of a team includes a person into the larger, broader community of rowing. I found it comparable to individual teams being churches, and christianity as being comparable rowing as a sport. Different styles of rowing were the different sects aka sweep vs sculling, and Catholic vs Lutheran, and different sports being different religions aka swimming vs rowing and Christianity vs Islam. The structures of communities and the interactions between the different parts of the hierarchy do resemble that of religion. Different while disagreeing on the best way to row, still agree that rowing is best, and conflict between sports or religions is common.
Ritual- Religion is often filled with rituals. Be it attending sunday mass, taking communion, meditating, praying, or something else more complex. Sports are filled with just as many rituals. The regular schedules of practice could be viewed as attending service. Stretching before exercising as meditating or praying before a service. Granted there are many superficial differences, but the idea behind regular and meaningful ritual is the same in both the world of sports and the world of religion.
Sense of fulfillment- I feel that a person is only truly participating in a religion if they receive some sort of emotional fulfillment from it. If attending does not make you happy, give you a sense of pride, or satisfy an emotional need, then they are not experiencing the whole thing. The same is true of sports. Anyone can participate in a sport, but if there is no emotional connection then they are not experiencing everything that sport has to offer. Team sports can provide a social bond that is extraordinarily strong. Very few types of groups can build community as quickly and as strongly as team sports. Individual sports still offer emotional fulfillment. I find very few things in life more enjoyable and satisfying than going for a swim and putting in a few thousand yards.
Overall, I find that sports share many of the same core components of religion. Sports may consist of very different belief systems, and don't have much to say about the afterlife or creation, but is that a really a defining factor of religion? I have always found creation and afterlife beliefs as a way for a church to convince peoples its beliefs are better, and to try to explain the world so that religion fits within it. I don't find that to be a nessecary part. I am more than content to go for a row or a swim and feel better for it.
Some other peoples ideas about sports as religion.
"Today I asked a teammate what his religious beliefs consisted of. He replied, "Rowing." "
ReplyDeleteWas it Nicholas? :P
Interesting idea, but couldn't you also extend that argument to other aspects of life that are even more mundane? Where do you draw the line at what to call religion and what not?