Fair enough, Noone. That is your opinion. By your definition, I am only superstitious, not religious - I don’t think that is the case.
Religion implies a structured belief in a supernatural force. Superstition implies things like walking under a ladder is bad luck. There is a world of difference between the two, and it is insulting to some people (myself included) to have my belief structure boiled down to luck. There is more to it than that.
And while I certainly agree that corruption is rampant in organized religion, I do not t hink it is fair to condemn all of it. After all, there are far more honest priests who dedicate their lives to studying religion and bettering their communities than there are corrupt Vatican officials and the like. I spend a lot of time visiting random churches of all faiths and chatting with the clergy there, and most of them are really decent people trying to do some good. Blaming them for the ills of their bosses is not fair. That would be akin to hating the American soldiers coming home from war, just because you disagree with why the war was being fought.
I think it would be more fair to state that the larger the organization, the more corrupt it usually becomes, and religion is no exception there. But localized, there is far less corruption, much as, say, a small, one-person business is compared to a multinational corporation.
OK, I admit I was being somewhat overly flippant in my previous posts - sorry if you were offended.
I agree completely. I probably should have said explicitly that when I said that I have no problem with religious people, I meant that to cover both simple believers and low- and middle-tier clergy.
What I hate about organized religion most is the way it often tries, sometimes in invidious ways, to force it’s ways upon my lifestlye (there is no real separation of Synagogue and State in Israel), and to brainwash my children.
It all boils down to live and let live. Live your life as you see best, but keep your paws out of mine. Something most individuals - you, personally, I’m quite sure included - realize and accept, but the religious leadership hardly ever seems to.
A religion is a philosophical system revolving around a belief in one or more deities (without belief in a deity, it would simply be a philosophy, not a religion). As such, all religions contain a certain amount of irrationality, in that a totally rational philosophy wouldn’t include gods, devils, angels, miracles, etc. A superstition, on the other hand is also irrational, but is merely an isolated belief, not an entire belief system.
But what the two have in common is a rejection of the laws of identity and causality; i.e. the belief that one occurrence can result in a second occurrence, without any logical causality. For example, a superstitious person doesn’t ask **how **walking under a ladder causes bad luck or **how **certain numbers are luckier than others. And a religious person doesn’t need to know **how ** can miracles happen, or **how **can uttering a prayer have any effect on reality.
Of course, people who consistently ignore the laws of identity and causality are called schizophrenic.
A few other rather obvious differences:
-A religion usually includes a social, community aspect (ie, going to church every Sunday)
-Religions typically include advice on how to live one’s life, morals, ethics, etc.
I’m an agnostic/atheist with a bit of a chip on my shoulder about Organized Religion, and even I find it irritating and insulting when someone refers to a community’s religious beliefs as “superstitions”. Sure, some Christians (to simplify) believe that eating crackers every Sunday will bring them an afterlife of eternal bliss. Yup, I think that particular detail is pretty silly. And if there was a single guy, cracker-eatin’-Joe, who ate crackers every Sunday and claimed that this was going to let him live forever in paradise, I’d laugh at his superstitions. But Christianity also, for instances, teaches that one should love one’s neighbor, clothe the poor, feed the hungry, etc. And there are plenty of Christians who actually do these things. Not all Christians are Jim and Tammy Faye.