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Atheistic Religions?
SS51000 (SS51@NEMOMUS.BITNET)
Thu, 9 Nov 1995 11:05:25 CST
Not to be a spoilsport, but it seems to me that one might well pause
before accepting the view, expressed by J. Kotliar and J. Strader, that
religion can take atheistic forms. There is a time-honored alternative
bequeathed to us by Edward B. Tylor himself: if a belief does not
involve spiritual beings (in the broad sense of that term), then perhaps
it ought to be defined as non-religious. Whatever is animistic is
religious; whatever is not animistic is not religious. I realize these
are some vague terms; but don't we want--and need--some way to demarcate
religious phenomena? We can neither describe nor explain reality
without dividing it up. So if atheism can be religious, are there any
kinds of ideas that cannot be religious? --Bob Graber
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