abgrady@dciem.UUCP (Brian Grady) (07/17/84)
There is a question which has long puzzled me. It's one of those simple questions that I'm sure could be cleared up in, oh, five minutes or so (irony:-) What do we mean when we use the word 'religion'? From what I've been reading of late, people seem to have different ideas as to what they mean by the word, and they often get into horrendous fights about it. Some sub-questions: 1) Does a religion have to have a concept of deity? 2) When does a 'religion' become a 'cult', and vice versa? 3) When can a philosophy be called a religion? 4) Does a religion have to involve the supernatural, as many do? There are others, but they tend to become a little redundant. I had a religions course a while back in which the prof gave us a dandy definition. A religion has these things: belief system, ethical system, social structure, ritual, and a couple lesser items which escape me. I asked the prof if Marxism didn't fit that definition. He grinned, and told me that he teaches a COURSE on that very topic! So what's the difference, anyway? Lets see how many definitions we can come up with, and see where the commonalities are. I'll try to collect replies and summarize as best I can. Brian Grady @ DCIEM, Toronto, Ont.