At the same time, the comparative enterprise has been used for many different purposes. Thus, while cross-cultural perspective has been considered one of the great achievements of religious studies, it has also come under criticism as a source of distortion and cultural bias. Indeed, a whole range of religious and scientific motivations have driven comparative religion, and that has made it an area of controversy. For example, it has been used to demonstrate the superiority of one's own religion; to show that all religions are "the same"; to demonstrate that one can understand each religion from its own point of view; or to simply map a variegated landscape of different traditions. Likewise, it has been used to demonstrate any number of competing theories about the origin and nature of religion. Insofar as it has taken an even-handed approach to all religions, religious conservatives have perceived it as a relativizing of belief, and hence a threat to religious convictions.
While travelers and theologians have always formed views about other peoples' religions, the notion of an academic field of comparative religion emerged in the late nineteenth century in European and American universities, reflecting scholarly goals.
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