I would have to disagree with your simple, closed definition of religion.
The definition I use:
1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers
regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
2. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such
belief and worship.
Spiritualism can include definition 1 above, but it encompasses more
for me. Belief in magic, speaking with the dead, sprites and fairies,
bad luck, mojo, etc.
I was raised Methodist, but attended literally dozens of different
churches over my formative years (wherever we were stationed by the
Navy, and whatever church was closest.) I also read and studied the
bible as a child both alone and with my mother.
All of that was "religious". All of that was religion. And all of that
was even organized religion. All of that was organized Christian
religion. It just wasn't Evangelical.
But no where in all those years did anyone tell me that religion and
science conflict. As a matter of fact, in my Sunday School classes in
5th grade, we went over how similar Genesis was to the current
understanding (1975) of evolution.
You are defining religion as some of the stricter sects (evangelicals,
catholics) want it defined, but not as I or "my people" practice.
On 12/27/05, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> There's a few problems here:
>
> Firstly, you're not talking about religion, you're talking about
> spiritualism.
>
> Religion defines things: Adam and Eve, the great flood, Heaven and Hell and
> so forth. For many people these are not stories, not metaphor: they are
> cold, hard fact. It's exactly these people, biblical literalists, that seem
> to be the source of most of the outcry we here today.
>
> Spiritualism is looser, less defined. You can believe in "something
> greater" without needing a conceptual (religious) framework forced upon you.
> You can say "God put evolution in motion" or "God set off the big bang" and
> feel good about it. You can call God "she" with no problem.
>
> In other words spiritualism allows you to define your own personal
> compromise.
>
> Most "religious" people tend to fall between the two extremes: believing in
> God but not wholly in biblical truth. For example I know people who believe
> in both the facts of biological evolution and the facts of demonic
> possession but consider the great flood a metaphor.
>
> Many organized churches also make such compromises so perhaps my definition
> is a bit simplistic but the fact remains that the "religion" that's the
> major source of all the brouhaha lately is not compatible with the
> perspective you set forth.
>
> Secondly, the assumption that a higher power is required for the design we
> see is a fundamental issue. I'm pleased for you that you can look at the
> structure of the genome and see the hand of God... personally I don't.
>
> I see order. I see elegance. I see beauty enough to make a grown man cry
> but I don't see a God or indeed any need of one. I also see mistakes,
> ugliness, compromise and failure. I don't see a "design".
>
> A designer isn't required from what I've seen, only a situation.
>
> To the spiritually minded you can always find a place to compromise - a
> place for God to hide if you will. It's usually, I find, at the fringes of
> science. For example take the question "What caused the big bang?"
>
> Spiritualism is calmly assured of the answer: someplace, somewhere God is
> out there and he did it. Religion isn't interested in the question: they
> have a different question and the answer is inviolate. Science is fervently
> interested in both the question and the answer but demands that they be
> framed in a way incompatible with the other two.
>
> And that's the root of the problem it seems. To the atheist God is
> unnecessary; to the spiritualist God is infinite but indefinable and to the
> religious God is incontrovertible.
>
> Jim Davis
>
>
>
>
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