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What is a religion?

Sanmario

Active Member
For example, dear Spirit Warrior, your statement No. 3 is already questionable. This is your statement No. 3:

3. The only fair definition would be any kind of metaphysical belief.

I understand that you are an adherent of Hinduism, and I am an adherent of Christianism.

Yes, in both Hinduism and in Christianism there is a kind of metaphysical belief, wherefore they are religions, according to your No. 3 statement.

But what about feminism, that is certainly also any kind of metaphysical belief, is that according to your statement No. 3, therefore a religion?

I fear - please bear with me - you are not thinking critically, but loosely wherefore wrongly.

If you had tried to reduce your thoughts to 50 words or less, you would not have done loose thinking and thereby would not have lapsed into wrong thinking.

So, see if you can think over your post of concern and reduce them to 50 words or less, on your core concept of what is a religion.



Annex

From Susmario
“Religion is the belief in a superior being or beings resulting in affections and actions intended by the believer to influence the superior being or beings to help him the believer in everything in which he the believer is in need of help.”

From Spirit Warrior
1. This is too narrow a definition of religion.

2. A belief in superior beings or supernatural things is not necessarily the requirement for a religion, because this presupposes a certain metaphysics to be the default one and the true one(naturalism) Naturalism has no more right to claim to be the default or standard one, than any other does.

3. The only fair definition would be any kind of metaphysical belief.

4. However, belief by itself would not differentiate it from philosophy, it is only when one agrees to a way of practice, set of ethical norms and rituals etc does it become a religion.

5. In that sense the old Greek philosophical tradition Epicurianism becomes a religion, because it was not just a belief of beliefs but a set of beliefs accompanied by a lifestyle with a set of ethical norms and rituals.

6. In that sense Secular Humanism is a religion, because it is based on the metaphysics of naturalism and it has a clearly well defined charter of ethics and norms, and even has its own equivalent of Churches where secular Humanism is preached and missionaries that go around preaching and converting others.


[End of Annex]
 

Sanmario

Active Member
What we have today in web forums are posters who do not think at all, but regurgitate hand-me-down ideas, no matter that these ideas put in writing do not witness to any coherency and consistency in the minds of their talkers.

So, dear posters here, do some genuine insightful thinking, okay? that is indicative of coherency and consistency among your thoughts as you put them down in a written post in a web forum.
 
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