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- From: ABienek@acorn.co.uk (Alex Bienek)
- Newsgroups: alt.angst
- Subject: Re: a cure for angst?
- Message-ID: <20212@acorn.co.uk>
- Date: 18 Nov 92 10:34:05 GMT
- References: <1992Nov17.142509.2374@gacvx2.gac.edu>
- Sender: abienek@acorn.co.uk
- Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England
- Lines: 22
-
- In article <1992Nov17.142509.2374@gacvx2.gac.edu> emiddlec@mora.gac.edu (Eric Middlecamp) writes:
-
- >Actually, 1) everyone has a religion (M. Scott Peck, _The Road Less Travelled_)
- > 2) not all religions are "blind faith" or "certain."
- > ex: _your_ religion.
-
- No, no, no, I'm not going to accept that. How many times have I heard that old
- line 'Any belief system is a religion'. There are major differences between
- a group of 'truths' that someone chooses as a guide for their behaviour
- and a set of rules; obeyance of which is achieved through a mixture of
- coercion and fear.
-
- For the word 'religion' to have any useful purpose in the language we must
- restrict its use to the more conventional belief systems, for example
- those involving an omnipotent being or beings, and find another word for
- other belief systems.
-
- Otherwise people start calling science a religion and I just cannot accept
- that. Whether you believe in science or not it is fundamentally different
- from what we generally accept as a religion.
-
- Alex.
-