Og

religion is from latin

re: pointing back (as in reply, review, renew)
ligio: linking together (as in ligament or ligand)

Religion links you to the past. It gives you a framework. Nothing more. The hindu pantheon expresses elements of the human psyche in terms of symbols (chakras or gods or whatever) in the same way that maxwell's equations express the electromagnetic forces as fields.

Greek ideas of promethius spoke to an attitude in the populus of rebellion against gods and strength as an individual and the ptolemaic views on the crystal spheres of the planets fit with OBSERVATION!

A chariot pulling the sun across the sky fit with what they knew about how things moved (chariots) and what they saw moving (the sun). These theories fit the observations (even though they were wrong) in the same way the bohr atom fit with what we knew about the universe (i.e. planets moving around a nucleus or sun) even though it was wrong (and was replaced by quantum mechanics)....

Don't discard the idea of religion because some thick skulled idiots have been making symbols into idols over the past 1500 years (in the western world). You chuck the baby out with the bathwater.

There's no reason that skepticism can't be considered a religion. Science CERTAINLY is a re-ligio... So much of today's work is based on the observations and understandings from the past. So, quite certainly, unless you want everyone to reinvent the wheel from birth to death and not have access to scientific text books or communications with others, then science/skepticism IS a religion.

The religious texts are peer review journals. The cathedral is nature or the lab or a telescope or the female body. Man has taken the same attitude as we had back in the time of the greeks. We were not created by the gods, we are part of the same world they are (gods being the equations of physics).

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are

Og

Today's pantheon is

maxwell's equations
laws of thermodynamics
Newtonian Gravitation
Quantum Mechanical Wave Functions

We just have a different expression of gods. They're not so anthropomorphized as you'll find in other religions. It just indicates a broader world view.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are

niranjan

Yeah, deism too promotes science and reason as the ways to find God.

Og

I'm not talking about "finding God" I'm talking about exactly what the "gods" of science as a religion are.

Deism is just an approach to christianity.. it is not science/skepticism.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are

lauraclay

I think you're just playing semantics here Og. But I think science can be treated like a religion. People pay homage to the Gods, follow their teachings, believe what it says above all else, live according to its principles, raise families thanks to it.

__________________

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish,
and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.

The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits.
When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.

The purpose of words is to convey ideas.
When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words?
He is the one I would like to talk to.

jaej

I read the einstein article in this week's time, and it talked about how einstein's 'religion' was how he was in such awe about the way the universe was connected, the 'unseen force' connecting everything. But he was a determinist-he didn't believe in a personal god.

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lauraclay

However, he did believe in a God. He felt an underlying force behind science: God.

__________________

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish,
and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.

The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits.
When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.

The purpose of words is to convey ideas.
When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words?
He is the one I would like to talk to.

niranjan

God doesn't necessarily be some guy up there. It can also be interpreted as existence or the whole universe.

And science and reason are the ways to learn his laws , or the laws of existence.

lauraclay

Yes, religion isn't the belief in god. That is theism. Religion is almost a way of living, of thinking.

__________________

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish,
and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.

The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits.
When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.

The purpose of words is to convey ideas.
When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words?
He is the one I would like to talk to.

Og

Exactly Laura

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are