Religion and Sports

When asked to write about religion for this blog, I thought it would be somewhat easy considering all the different aspects of religion that we have covered in class. This task became a lot harder than I thought it would be as I considered different topics. Soon I found myself thinking about college basketball rather than the blog; this is when I realized how sports and religion are very similar and how religion plays a large role for many athletes and teams. Being a big sports fan I know how it can be following teams from season to season, watching almost all the games, checking updates and reading articles online, as well as debating over topics. This is behavior that somewhat mirrors what is done in religion, the total dedication and constantly being involved. It seems somewhat ironic that football games are on Sundays. Also, you always hear about sports teams being cursed and unable to win the World Series for whatever reason. This type of superstitious thinking reminds me of how people think about religion. Another comparison of how religion and sports are similar is the idea that if your parents are Catholic you’re going to be raised Catholic and share similar views. If your parents are die hard Yankees fans there is a good chance that you will be brought up to be a Yankee fan. Just like the feeling of being part of a sports team, being part of a religion group offers the same sense of belongingness. The idea of baseball players being extremely superstitious also reminds me of religion in the sense that one’s actions will have an effect on their future. In general I think it is surprising how many comparisons can be drawn between religion and sports.

College Basketball 2008

As a college basketball fan, I was wondering what team do you think will win the tournement this year?