More on Religion

I think it would be great for our next discussion to revolve around the idea of a non-theistic basis for morality. Let's do it!

I do have a few other remarks tied to our previous discussion as well as some preliminary comments for our new, so here goes.

You said, "Creationism is religious in that it is dependent upon religion for its existence." I don't think that it is at all necessarily dependent upon religion. Creationism is simply a model of origins, just like evolution. In fact I like to call evolution "Naturalism's creation story". So creationism is not dependent on a "system of belief that has a form of worship as integral to it". It does appeal to the super-natural for the origin of the natural, but this does not seem to be religious in the sense that I have heard you use the term. Evolution is also an attribute of many religions, so would we then say that evolution is religious? The same is true, of course, of a Christian worldview. Though a super-natural God is integral to its belief it in no way demands a form of worship, though I would agree that the adherents of such a worldview will almost always become religious and worship God as an extension of it. But I again think we could say the same thing about every other worldview, including naturalism.

You also said, “Think of it like this. A worldview is a systematic set of beliefs. Religion is a specific type of acting out of those beliefs. It is one possible way of putting a worldview into practice.” I agree with this statement almost completely. Though you and I might differ a little in "the specific type of acting out" I do believe it is a way of "putting a worlrdview into practice".

You said, "I have a strong preference of using this as an educational opportunity for both of us rather than a debate or a fight, so to speak, and it has worked as that most excellently so far, in my opinion. We have no requirement to come to agreement. It is fine, at least in my opinon, for us both to use this as an opportunity to educate the other and help them come to a greater understanding."
Amen to that (can I say Amen?). I agree. I have much enjoyed this so far and look forward to our continuing discussions.

To keep this post from getting too long I will end this one now and write another post for my preliminary comments on our new topic of "non-theistic morality".