Tahuti
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Well, that would be a good start, if it doesn't answer the question outright.
What is a pseudoreligion?
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Well, that would be a good start, if it doesn't answer the question outright.
Hygro
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What's the purpose of the distinction to begin with?
The same as having a 'real' (in this context, anyway) communist, and then one posing as a communist without actually caring abour communism.
Hygro
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Hm, but that's on another layer, i.e. we are aren't talking about religious vs. pseudo-religious people, but religions vs pseudo-religions, so I don't feel any closer to understanding.
timtofly
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Most people do not make it past their own views of the religion they identify with. Sometimes to the extent that they do not even know their own religion.
At what level of observation are we talking about? What authority do we go by to state what is or what is not a religion. For all we know pseudo could just mean foreign, that which is beyond my comfort zone, or something that is wrong, because it does not make sense to me.
Hygro
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Aye, that's similar to what I was thinking. It may be outside the scope of the thread but I'd be a lot more amenable to exploring what a pseudo-religion is if I could understand the point of the distinction.
From my view the distinction is clear. Its the distinction between something which works and something which doesnt, between potent and destructive, between something pogressive and something bounding, between road to truth and mud of falsehood.
If the religion in its core is about God, Love, Peace, something pointing beyond our limits, progressive, transcending, enlarging it is in my view true religion. That doesnt mean that its ideological part cant be missused by some scoundrels.
Hygro
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So for you, your subjective requirements are the defining character that objectively divides a religion from a pseudo-religion.
On one side sure. Its you and the way you interact with the world, your particular needs and inclinations which defines what you are subjectively after, what gives you satisfaction or sense of moving forward. On the other hand if you study a little the subject of religion and spirituality you can easily identify some common and objective points which if broken down reveal the need for elementar honesty, humility, aspiration for perfection and greater harmony and so on.
timtofly
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It would seem to me that the term religion itself was a term given by an outsider to a group of people that may have been out of derision, or an identifying term.
I don't think that in and of itself it is that determining. There are a handful of major religions, but one cannot deny that when it comes to education and the fact that we have to have clear cut nomenclature to identify certain things, we get to the point that if the description does not completely fit the subject, then it is relegated to something else. Thus we arrive at pseudo.
If you do have groups that break off with different teachings, you get everything from dissenters, protestors, sects, heretics, cults, etc. It would seem to me that it is academia that uses the term pseudo for other topics including religion.
I don't think that in and of itself it is that determining. There are a handful of major religions, but one cannot deny that when it comes to education and the fact that we have to have clear cut nomenclature to identify certain things, we get to the point that if the description does not completely fit the subject, then it is relegated to something else. Thus we arrive at pseudo.
If you do have groups that break off with different teachings, you get everything from dissenters, protestors, sects, heretics, cults, etc. It would seem to me that it is academia that uses the term pseudo for other topics including religion.
Harv
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If I understand you correctly, you use the term "faith" instead of "religion." You might use the term, "relationship."
timtofly
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What I refer to as religion is religion, and I would never change the term that is already in use. I do have a belief system, for lack of a better term. Most here would call my relationship a religion, but what I hold is IMO not a stereotypical religion.
What you quoted was based on how the term was first used. I try to avoid the word "faith", because my definition is different than the accepted one, and I don't think the current usage is correct.
What you quoted was based on how the term was first used. I try to avoid the word "faith", because my definition is different than the accepted one, and I don't think the current usage is correct.
cramstpuee757
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Well, as the name suggests, pseudoreligion is NOT a GENUINE religion. And by the definition, I've read it at Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, there is the ABC of religion. Assurance(of salvation), believe, and convert. If one those three is not a characteristic of the "religion" you're interested in, then it's probably a pseudoreligion.
Hygro
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What about belief in the supernatural?
Tahuti
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That would be problematic for any religion that isn't Christianity an Islam, since such often lack A and C.
timtofly
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Not necessarily. If one agrees to the teachings of a religion, one is subconsciously doing so because it does bring assurance, and they have changed their state of mind as to accepting the source of that assurance (conversion). Salvation may have certain restrictive usages. Trying to define religion may be tricky especially if a human correlates the unknown as being supernatural. That is why atheist can replace supernatural with unknown. They do not have to specify what that unknown is.
