6-8 Pages. 12 point font. MLA How is sport like religion? What are the key differences and similarities? Please use references using the attached articles with citations.

9/27/13 What is religion?, part 2: why football doesn't measure up | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/why-football-doesnt-measure-up/print 1/4 'For a lot of people the fate of their football team does affect them the way that God's good opinion is supposed to do.' Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Im ages A perfectly reasonable question to ask of people like m e, w ho define "religion" in a w ay Sign into the Guardian using your Facebook account W h a t is r e lig io n ? , p a r t 2 : w h y f o o t b a ll d o e s n 't m e a s u r e u p T h e m o s t b lin d in g a n d o b v io u s d e fic ie n c y o f fo o tb a ll a s a re lig io n is th a t it la c ks a n y kin d o f th e o lo g y – a n d e xc lu d e s m a n y w o m e n Andrew Brown theguardian.com , M onday 2 Septem ber 2013 04.02 EDT 9/27/13 What is religion?, part 2: why football doesn't measure up | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/why-football-doesnt-measure-up/print 2/4 that plays dow n theology, is w hy som ething like football should not be a religion. A fter all, it involves collective em otion, quasi-m ystical experiences of loss of selfhood in a higher purpose, even if that is only to crush those bastards from the visiting team . If N ick H ornby's Fever Pitch is to be believed, it is also a w ay of com ing to term s w ith the disappointm ents and tragedies of life. G oing to a m atch w ith your estranged father has som ething of the effect that taking com m union together is m eant to have for Christians. If you do a G oogle new s search, in the m onths of an English w inter, for term s like "m iracle", or "m essiah" m any results w ill turn out to be about football m atches. For a lot of people the fate of their football team does affect them the w ay that G od's good opinion is supposed to do. A ll kinds of m ental illness and unhappiness dim inish w hen their team does w ell, and increase w hen it does badly. A nd then there is the Bill Shankly quote, that football isn't a m atter of life or death, it's m uch m ore im portant than that: this, in itself, is a w onderful definition of the am bitions of religious truth – that it should be m ore im portant than life or death. A nd yet football very clearly isn't a proper religion. A nd the reasons w hy cast som e light on w hat religions are, or m ust be. I should perhaps add here that I am com pletely unsym pathetic to the gam e. I have only been to one serious football m atch (a north London derby) in m y life, w hen I w as accom panying a police patrol. W e sat on the touchline, and cam e aw ay w ith our shoulders coated w ith spittle because the people behind us w ere how ling out their feelings w ithout any inhibitions. I w ill w atch football som etim es on screens because the m ovem ent is so com pletely m eaningless. I suppose this is a vague equivalent to the hom oerotic pleasures of liturgical traditionalists. But I absolutely lack som ething w hich is obviously a deep part of the engagem ent of real football fans – the ability to suspend disbelief so that I feel I am in som e w ay present on the pitch m yself. T he sale of replica shirts that is such an im portant part of the econom ics of m odern football clearly depends on the idea that you take on som e of the virtue of the player w hose num ber you w ear. T hat's clearly one of the m echanism s that m akes up religions. But it's not enough on its ow n. A nd this is im portant. R eligions aren't m ade from specially "religious" behaviour or thoughts, but from ordinary patterns of thought and behaviour w hich are assem bled in particular w ays. T he m ost blinding and obvious deficiency of football as a religion is that it lacks any kind of theology. T here is in fact an absurd public rhetoric em braced by Fifa about 9/27/13 What is religion?, part 2: why football doesn't measure up | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/why-football-doesnt-measure-up/print 3/4 W hat's this? M o re fro m th e G u a rd ia n Ted Cruz: the GOP's self-m ade m onster 26 Sep 2013 Film today: Daniel Radcliffe denies M ercury rum ours 25 Sep 2013 Som e sentences have no earthly place in a story about football 26 Sep 2013 Revealed: Qatar's W orld Cup 'slaves' 25 Sep 2013 There is no population explosion on this planet 22 Sep 2013 W hat's this? M o re fro m a ro u n d th e w eb Five High-Paying, Low-Stress Jobs (M onster) 8 Com m on Gram m ar M istakes You Should Never M ake Again (OPEN Forum ) 22 Things You Should Never Do Again After 50 (AARP) You Can M ove to Am erica's 5 M ost Saintly Cities (M ainstreet) Top 10 Fittest Fem ales on HBO (Shape) brotherhood but no one takes it seriously. A lthough theology is the least im portant part of any religious system , and the one w hich alters m ost in response to changes either in public ritual or in private em otion, it is needed as a w ay to m ake sense – to the participants – of w hat is going on. I'm inclined to think that it is a further disadvantage that football m atches have results. It really doesn't m atter w hat football m anagers say in public com pared to w hat their players do. Com pare this to A m erican civil religion, w hich could be identified, and analysed by R obert Bellah because he had texts to w ork w ith. H e w as able to point out, and to analyse, the im plicit theologies of A m erican public rhetoric, and the kinds of things that presidents said w hen they w anted to unite their country around a com m on purpose. If you w ere to do that to the speeches m ade by football m anagers, the results w ould be less rew arding. T he G ettysburg A ddress w as rather m ore than a half-tim e pep talk in the A m erican civil w ar. But all this is really rather theoretical. T he real reason w hy football could never function as a religion is blindingly obvious – w hich is w hy w e are blind to it. M any w om en find it boring and incom prehensible. For the m ost part "serious" m en's football is an escape from all the problem s entailed by the existence of another sex. T his has its charm s, but it w on't do at all for a religion, w hich has to offer sense and m eaning and hope to the w hole of life. If religions w ere only expressions of w illed stupidity, w illed escapism , and orgies of com m unal feeling, then, yes, football m ight be a religion. But since it isn't, there m ust be m ore to religions than that. 9/27/13 What is religion?, part 2: why football doesn't measure up | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/why-football-doesnt-measure-up/print 4/4 ; © 2013 Guardian News and Media Lim ited or its affiliated com panies. All rights reserved.