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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
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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