Defining Religion Re: [FoRK] More faith-driven insanity: kill the teacher!

[Jeff Bone]

On Nov 30, 2007, at 1:14 PM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote:

> Hi Jeff,
>
> On Nov 30, 2007, at 10:56 AM, Jeff Bone wrote:
>>> Violent religion is the symptom, not the cause.
>>
>> I disagree.  In fact, that's a ridiculous assertion on the face of  
>> it.
>
> I wonder if we're confusing several different definitions of  
> religion.  Do you mean:
>
> a) a coherent system of shared beliefs maintained by group
>
> 	OR
>
> b) belief in the supernatural

Yes.  ;-)

More precisely, I'm assuming a and assuming that a --> b.  a without  
b isn't religion in any meaningful sense and I'm not really concerned  
with it in general;  b without a is still problematic but still not  
exactly what I'm talking about.

> Conversely, if your claim is that  "groups whose belief system is   
> based on the supernatural" are far more violent than "groups which  
> ignore or deny the supernatural", then I think the mass slaughters  
> of the 20th century provide a strong counter-argument.

Yeah, yeah, the Christians' secular daemons:  Hitler (who was  
religious in a very extreme sense, zzzzt, thanks for playing) and the  
Soviets.

Boring, and pales in comparison to the history of slaughter in the  
name of "god."


jb