tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post7301647739191458595..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: No such thingLarry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-51082214841369516832008-05-29T05:59:00.000-06:002008-05-29T05:59:00.000-06:00You might want to read my follow-up essay, Some su...You might want to read my follow-up essay, <A HREF="http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2007/05/some-such-thing.html" REL="nofollow">Some such thing</A>.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-7113033740184037492008-05-29T02:05:00.000-06:002008-05-29T02:05:00.000-06:00I think I don't quite understand what you mean. S...I think I don't quite understand what you mean. Surely culture, religion and ethical philosophy can all exist at the same time? Isn't their intersection what we mean by the religion as a whole? C.S. Lewis for example advanced Christianity as an ethical philosophy, but he didn't edit the Bible. His ideas influenced a lot of people's ethical practice, and the way they think of God, and also provided some "required reading" for a certain segment of intellectual Christianity. I don't really understand the distinctions you're drawing there.<BR/><BR/>Also, these things <I>do</I> have objective definitions. The fundamental religious difference between Judaism and Christianity is the belief in the divinity of Jesus. There's no culture there (although there certainly were some cultural factors when the definition was being created). It's also not a philosophical difference - Judaism does admit that a messiah will exist, he just hasn't arrived yet.<BR/><BR/>Your bottom line seems to be "If it makes sense when you take God out of it, it's culture or possibly ethical philosophy, and if it doesn't, it's religion. A lot of the time that works - there's no notion of the divine in Zen Buddhism, which makes it an ethical philosophy. But with most religions, there's a religious component <I>and</I> a cultural component. If you take the notion of God out of Christianity, it may make sense to some people, but it lacks something. If you take cathedrals and going to confession and rosary beads and so forth out of Catholicism, it may make intellectual sense, but it likewise lacks something. So doesn't that suggest that what we mean by "religion" isn't purely supernatural?<BR/><BR/>Have I missed your point somehow?Jesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03978278630669766092noreply@blogger.com