On Fri, 2 Aug 2002 20:26:39 -0600, Katrina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>By your definition, the entire universe is "religion".
>
>Reality is.  Human guesses about what we should eat based upon logical
>thought is a religion.  You're not basing it on reality, you're basing it
>on something that makes sense to you in your mind.  Unless you have
>complete objective data, you are taking a leap of faith, which means it's a
>belief, which means it's a religion.

The flaw of this line of argument is that there is no such thing as "objective
data".  There is no such thing as a "reality" beyond your own mind.

Human beings ONLY have their own subjective impressions.

If most human beings have the same impression, it is called a "consensus".
Living in a human society means following that consensus while in contact with
other human beings.

There is a common ( but not consensus :-)  ) misunderstanding that the word
"religion" means a belief.    All that does is destroy the word (since the word
"belief" works just fine to say "belief".   The word "religion" means:

religion

religion (ri-lij??n) noun
Abbr. rel., relig.

1.      a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded
as creator and governor of the universe. b. A personal or institutionalized
system grounded in such belief and worship.

Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version
licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and
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States. All rights reserved.