Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 8/7/84; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!wallace From: wallace@ucbvax.ARPA (David E. Wallace) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Different sets of assumptions - response to Laura Message-ID: <5227@ucbvax.ARPA> Date: Mon, 4-Mar-85 19:30:35 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.5227 Posted: Mon Mar 4 19:30:35 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Mar-85 03:32:00 EST References: <589@pyuxd.UUCP> <5135@utzoo.UUCP> <617@pyuxd.UUCP> Reply-To: wallace@ucbvax.UUCP (David E. wallace) Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 34 Summary: In article <617@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes: >> (LAURA) ... >> Okay Rich, this article got here. Here goes. I have tried to tell you >> in the past that a religion does not imply a belief in God. I am going >> to try again, but again I think that you are barking up the wrong tree >> with respect to every mystical tradition I know of. But here goes anyway.... > >And I've repeatedly stated that the understood definition of the word religion >implies (as all the definitions in my dictionary do) a "belief in and reverence >for a superhuman power recognized as the creator ... of the universe". Other >life-philosophies and/or belief systems (like Ubizmatism) get *labelled* as >religions, but they are not. (Just as certain disciplines get called sciences >when they hardly qualify for the term.) We've been through this before. From the Pocket Edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: religion (n) 1: the service and worship of God or the supernatural, 2: devotion to a religious faith, 3: an organized system of faith and worship; also: a personal set of religious beliefs and practices, 4: a cause, principle, or belief held to with faith and ardor. religious (adj) 1: relating or devoted to the divine or that which is held to be of ultimate importance, 2: of or relating to religious beliefs or observances, 3: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful, 4: FERVENT, ZEALOUS. Sorry, Rich. Maybe all the definitions of religion in your dictionary imply a "belief in and reverence for a superhuman power recognized as the creator ... of the universe," but not all the definitions in my dictionary (above) seem to. Include, yes, but imply, no. I'd say Laura wins this round. Dave Wallace (...!ucbvax!wallace wallace@Berkeley)