Church and Sky

When I went looking for pictures on flickr.com I shuffled through a lot of pictures that had images of crosses and Jesus, which were good but too obvious a connection could be made for me to find them that interesting. This photo of a church with a bright sky above caught my attention because of the artistry of the photo, and how the photographer caught the light of the sky, which in a way inspired me. For this reason, I saw the photo itself, and not only the contents, as a symbol.

The church, the sky and the photo itself act to create religious "moods and motivations" in the viewer through the representation of the heavens and the presence of a church. One of the parts of Geertz's definition of religion stated that symbols that exist in a religion create a feeling of undeniable truth. I think that this idea is present in this photo because of the specific reference to the christian church and to the heavens, as though the church is the only way of getting to heaven. Although each aspect of the photo holds its own importance, the true significance, I think, is the association of the two as I mentioned earlier. 

Something I'd like to add to he point above and how Geertz mentions "a system of symbols," is that religion cannot be A symbol, but many. I think that the many symbols in religions support each other and help to complete the "general order of existence" so as to make them seem, or actually, be representing reality. 

Rural Religion