On Fri, 15 Sep 2000 15:44:54 -0400, Brad Cooley
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>All cultures have a "religion", or set of beliefs, that is a product of the
>culture.  In turn the culture is shaped, in part, by the geography, food
>sources, methods of acquiring food, population density, etc.  Egalitarian
>societies (hunter-gatherers) believe in spirits, or many "gods", that are
>all equal in power just as all individuals within the society are basically
>equal.  In many agricultural societies with complex economies, monotheism
>is prevalent.  Pastoral societies generally have religions based on a
>hierarchy of gods.

I've studied religion and philosophy for 25 years and I've never come
across a
religion based on a hierarchy of gods.   Can you specify one?

>The religion reflects the culture.

Only in terms that people express everything in terms of their
culture.  For
example, in cultures that has beds, people usually have sex in beds.
In
cultures that don't have beds, people don't have sex in beds.
However, this
does not mean that sex is determined by beds.  For example, people who
have king
size beds don't have sex with three or four people, as opposed to
people who
have double beds having sex with just one other person, and people
with single
beds only having sex with themselves. :-)

People who don't understand religion are continually coming up with
theories to
explain it (cf Karl Marx).

"Religion is a set of beliefs" is one of the major myths of our era,
along with
"Fat makes you fat" and a few others that I won't mention because one
controversy per thread is enough ! :-)


--
Cheers,

Ken
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