On Thursday 09 Jun 2005 15:48, Daniel Carrera wrote: > Tim Fairchild wrote: > > Christianity was once a very small minority. I'm sure it was seen as a > > cult by some (many?). > > Yes, absolutely.
But it is a religion? > > I don't see how numbers apply. > > They do. It's one of several properties that define a religion. Not in any definition I've seen so far. Official tax status may be another matter. > > How many jedi were there? How many scientlogists? > > One of the arguments that scientologists use to claim to be a religion > is numbers. And other people counter that those numbers can't be > accurate. And fact is, that for something to be considered a religion, > numbers do matter. > > But once again, numbers was never part of my reasons why I don't think > the force was a religion in the movies. > > Look, the word "religion" is not as flexible as you seem to think. I think it's as rigid or flexible as you choose to make it. A single person can have a religion all their own as far as I am concerned. It's their business. It can be based of whatever belief system they choose. They may not get 'official' status and tax breaks, but who cares. > Of course, numbers alone is not the whole story. Atheism has large > numbers, and is a belief system (the belief in the non-existance of > god). Confusionism is also a belief system. Humanism is a belief system. > But those aren't religions. Atheism is the lack of belief in the existance of a deity or deities, not the belief in the non-existance of a deity. Subtle difference :) A lack of any established belief system at all makes it hard to call it a religion by any of the definitions :) > In any event, it looks like we're falling on the definition of language. > And since the word religion does have some fuzzyness, I guess we're not > likely to get anywhere. That's as it's getting off topic. It was about the jedi, which I'll cover in the next post. tim -- --------------------------------------------------------- Tim & Therese Fairchild Atchafalaya Border Collies. Kuttabul, Queensland, Australia. --------------------------------------------------------- Email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage http://www.bcs4me.com Photos http://www.pbase.com/amosf ---------------------------------------------------------
