Please read before uttering the word "religion" again (rituals, tradition)

[Chevalier Violet]

A request for society at large:

Have you ever noticed how discussions about "religion" in our culture are at heart discussions about Christianity? Granted, Christianity is the biggest religious force in the Western world, an enormous historical force, and has made some big mistakes. But there's an old saying, call a spade a spade; if we're going to talk about Christianity, let's please call it Christianity.

When I point this out to people, they say, "well, in our discussion we've also said some things about Judaism too." A long time ago, I used to think everyone KNEW that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were, in many ways, the same thing. Which is why it's called "the Judeo-Christian tradition." Guess who's part of that tradition, Jews and Christians and Muslims! If you think your religious discussion is far-reaching just because one person makes a remark about Islam, that's like Catholics talking about Quakers.

I do feel frustrated by a lot of the religious discussions I hear. A discussion about the existence of God and the problems of witch-burnings, with one tentative comment about Buddhism or Taoism, that is not a discussion of "religion." As far as I'm concerned, that is discussion of Christianity with one or two side-comments. Even though there's some singing and organ during the seventh-inning stretch, it's still a baseball game.

Even when people aren't blatantly talking about Christianity masquerading as "religion" (as if there were no other religions out there!), I hear a lot of unconscious use of the word "religion" that is incredibly ethnocentric not to mention deo-centric. Not all religions are concerned with "is there a God."

The Native American conception of "religion", for instance, is so vastly different than the word that many so arrogantly throw around that it could take a lifetime to understand it satisfactorally.

Not that it's difficult to list "beliefs" of, say, the Inuit on a sheet of paper. The problem is that it's akin to saying "these guys actually BELIEVE that Santa Claus comes down a chimney and gives them presents. How do they not know that Santa Claus isn't real? And those fools, they think some force in the universe puts money under their pillow in exchange for a tooth? That's just stupid! Get this: they throw a bouquet at their weddings..." and so on. Of course we don't really believe these things. And yet we are so arrgoant that we believe that the Inuit completely buy into whatever their "beliefs" are.

No, the real challenge is actually understanding their underlying worldview, the true mechanics of their universe. I wouldn't be surprised if most of their rituals worked better than toothpaste (which does nothing but freshen breath, by the way). So long as people are faithfully applying Crest (which contains sugar) to their toothbrush every night, we have no right to call anybody superstitious. No right.

In any case, it takes a long time to understand a worldview so different from ours.

Even if, under a blue moon, a religious discussion did happen to bat the ball around rather evenly to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these are all "written" religions. The difference is like night and day between the religions of cultures with writing (India, China, Mesopotamia) and the religion of cultures without writing (such as African animists, native Americans, Malay). But we should note that all of the Big Five (Christianity through Taoism) come from writing cultures. In fact, I can tell you that I've never seen a discussion of "religion" that included any non-civilized religions. These tend to be discussed under the heading "superstitions." Superstition is by nature a condescending term, since it assumes that the practices it describes are based on a misunderstanding of the world (like toothpaste). Even though it's beside the point, I should mention that a good rule of thumb for distinguishing a religion with writing and a religion without writing is that the former talk about the "other world" while the the latter are more focused on this world - magic, spells, etc. This is why they are labelled superstitions - they aren't ascetic enough.

In any case, these religions without religious texts ARE religions. It's hard to have good press for that sort of thing when you're not in the publishing industry.

Even though I know a bit more about world religions than Joe Schmoe, I also freely admit that I know next to nothing about anything BUT the Big Five. I just try to keep my philosophical discussions open and welcoming to the immense variety that is out there. Religion is actually one of the hardest words to define properly, since the variety is that infinite.

If you want to say religion equals superstition, that's fine, that's your world, not mine. All I ask is that this board, this space, be a place where religion does not equal the Big Five. The most popular religions in the world are a very important topic, and I think people profit greatly from talking about them. All I'm saying is, if you're talking about the Big Five, SAY you're talking about the Big Five. "World's most popular religions" or "the Big Five" does NOT equal "religion." It doesn't.

I also find discussions about the Judeo-Christian tradition to be fascinating and very worthwhile. Again, SAY you're talking about the Judeo-Christian tradition. Judeo-Christian does NOT equal religion.

More importantly, let's avoid the following, most destructive error: religion does not equal Christianity. Therefore: religion does not equal worshipping one God (or necessarily any God at all!), does not mean people banding together and stamping out everybody else, religion does not mean doctrinaire, it does not mean organized religion, and it does not mean religious war. That is equating Christianity with religion, which is like equating one key with the piano, one sock for the drawer, one star for the entire night sky.

It sounds like an obvious error, but we all make this mistake. We're only human. But please, let's try to avoid it.

Best wishes to you all in your search for truth.

The Purple Knight

PS This is an old post, and an old, less humble style. Sorry about that. Also, a lot of people on here are pretty good about this. I'm impressed.