On 27 Jun 2005, at 5:49 am, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
This seems overcomplicated. I think a simpler explanation of
religion is twofold:
1. People who have had some experience of something beyond normal
experience: The numinous, the unexpected, the apparently divine or
miraculous, because it doesn't fit into normal experience; and
2. A cadre of individuals who feel the experience they had in (1)
was similar enough that they're of the same stripe.
As I partly wrote in another post this attempted definition of
religion falls short because
a) It includes things that clearly aren't religions like the UFO
abductee community
and other breeds of tinfoil hat wearer (black helicopters...)
b) it excludes things that clearly are religions such as
Confucianism, Scientology and others that are not based on revelation
or prophecy. Possibly Jainism and others too.
So it's not really a definition of religion at all. Something else
maybe. Some quasi-religious cults?
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
If you listen to a UNIX shell, can you hear the C?
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
