Religion [was Re: Everything is an object in python - object class and type class]

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tuesday 02 June 2015 15:01, Rustom Mody wrote:

> eg Would it make sense to you if you were told that there are widespread
> religions like Buddhism that are agnostic or Jainism that are strictly
> atheistic?

No of course it wouldn't make sense. But nothing to do with religion, 
spirituality and superstition makes sense, the whole point of them is that 
they speak to the emotions, not logic. (You note that I am carefully not 
commenting on whether this is a good thing or not.)

Draw up two sets of overlapping axes, and label the vertical axes 
"Agnosticism / Gnosticism" and the horizontal axes "Supernatural / Natural". 
Belief systems can be found in all four quadrants. Agnostic religions are 
easy, they're just in the Supernatural+Agnostic quadrant. If you define 
religion to be merely any belief system, then even an atheist religion is 
understandable: it could be anything on the Natural half of the graph.

Personally, I consider that redefining religion to refer to belief systems 
which do not include supernatural divine gods is an abuse of language 
(except informally, as in "football is my religion" or "the religious war 
between Vi and Emacs users"). it's like the food processor that is 
advertised as being a "three speed food-processor" because there are three 
settings on the control: High, Low and OFF.


-- 
Steve