>Despite my disclaimer above I'm going to take another shot at defining the
>essential quality of a religion. A religion is a system of beliefs and
practices
>that gives (or intends to give) meaning to the lives of its followers. It is
>a system because the beliefs are interelated and mutually supportive, in other
>words a meme-complex. How's that?
Pretty good, but science can give meaning to the lives of its followers (and
I don't mean in the sense of "science can be a purposeful endeavor;" I mean
science can define the ultimate motivation for all volitional beings). I
prefer the following: A religion is a world view based on something other
than the scientific method. This definition includes all conventional
religions, astrology, belief in psychics, etc., but does not include
rational thought. Unfortunately, this definition also excludes Virus (as
far as I understand Virus).
Perhaps a more pertinent question is why should Virus be a religion at all
("religion" has such negative connotations, in my mind)?
>>On the other hand, I
>> feel your definition of "god" goes way too far. There is no reason to
>> ascribe characteristics such as omnipotence, omniscience, or perfect
>> mortality. You might as well throw in "and has a long, flowing, white
>> beard." Those characteristics are unnecessary in describing a concept, our
>
>The characteristics I included have well known philosophical meanings
>with reasonable concensus. I'm not sure what the beard is supposed to add.
>
>> only evidence for which is the existence of the universe. Perhaps you're
>> merely providing as rational as possible a description of what some other
>> religions (i.e., western monotheisms) refer to as "God."
Yes, I was pointing out that your definition of god seems to comprise "well
known philosophical meanings with reasonable concensus." This conventional
definition goes too far, just as adding "a long, flowing, white beard" goes
too far. There is no need for any of those characteristics, given that all
we know about god is the existence of the universe. This subject has now
been taken up by another thread (Future of Man).
======================================
Hollis H. Henry
ES&H Analyst
SCIENTECH, Inc., Hyperk Group TRAC Team
E-mail address: hhh@hyperk.com
Phone: (303) 258-0726