Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!laura From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Response to Laura - what is a religion? (off the topic) Message-ID: <5199@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 12:34:52 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.5199 Posted: Sun Mar 10 12:34:52 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 12:34:52 EST References: <589@pyuxd.UUCP> <5135@utzoo.UUCP>, <617@pyuxd.UUCP> <5176@utzoo.UUCP>, <641@pyuxd.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 32 Rich, there isn't a university in the world that I know of which will give you a degree in comparative religions which will let you ignore Buddhism, Hinduism and various shamanistic religions simply because they do not believe in the sort of God that is believed in by Jews, Moslems and Christians. Ask around -- do people consider Hinduism a religion? Do people consider Buddhism a religion? What about Taoism? There is one school of thought that says that physics, biology and chemistry (with astronomy) are the only scientists, and ``computer scientists'' aren't. Yet I know a lot of computer professionals who really think that they are doing science. Is the opinion of the ``physics, biology and chemistry only'' crowd to be taken over the word of the computer scientists? I suspect not. What we need is a definiton of science and then we can figure out if computer scientists are doing it. It is wise to notice that if our definition of science ends up concluding that biologists are not scientists, then, no matter how initially appealing that defintion is, it is not useful as a definition of science. Okay. You have proposed a definition of religion. We must dispose of it now. Too many of the world's great religions do not fit. It may be that most North Americans that you have come across would accept your defintion, (though I actually doubt this -- I think that they would accept that Hinduism is a religion as is Buddhism) but a simple plebiscite is not enough -- or astrology is a science, again. You must deal with the experts in the field - and I don't think that you will find any religion student or professor who will be happy with your definition. Laura Creighton utzoo!laura