vior. Each can be approached separately and can be used to explain content and purpose of the behaviors that relate to them. These five "dimensions" of the religious phenomenon are the following.
1. The religious belief or the ideological dimension.
2. The religious Practice or the ritual dimension.
3. The dimension of religious experience.
Each of these dimensions, separately, fulfils a particular role, but each influences also all the others, due to the importance that is given to the particular role it plays within the global system. It is therefore necessary to study each dimension separately before analyzing their reciprocal influence.
The dimension of religious belief deals with the nearness or the distance of an individual to a certain religious doctrine. Studies show us that it does have relationships to social classes. When looked at superficially, one would think that people of the lower classes would have very little belief on supernatural aspects of religion. But studies prove this to be wrong. In fact the very opposite thing is found to be true. The uneducated people feel the need to know the distinction between two opposite things, between what is holy and what is profane. Religion for them defines whatever is unexplainable. The do not have the scientific knowledge, which explains almost everything in today's world, whatever does not belong to everyday life is supernatural to them. Glock and Stark conducted a test to prove this point. They gave out a questionnaire in church, which had the following on it:
o I know God really exists and I have no doubts about it.
o Jesus is the divine Son of God and I have no doubts about it.
o Jesus was born of a virgin. (Completely true.)
o Do you believe that Jesus will actually return to Earth someday? (Definitely.)
o Miracles actually happened just as the Bible says they did.
This and similar other tests showed that the people of the lower classes...