Go to Religion in the Modern World
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jackie_o - I checked out the site you left a link for
Do you realize from this exercise a significant point. I mean this as food for thought and not to be a smart ass but it seems that scholars cannot even agree on what the word religion means. Ironic ain't it? But that's not the point. The struggle to find a conclusive originative meaning for a single word we use every day should illustrate the difficulty and hence the margin of error involved in translating ancient scriptures.
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 9:10 PM
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jackie_o -- that is what I meant
I vaguely remember how to conjegate Latin words, they are like fading memory chips now but I came up with relegate.
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 8:48 PM
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pappy - I will conceed that no one has come up with a better system
but by the same token the old system has been responsible for this to a great extent. For example, North America had it's own great prophet in one Handsome Lake. You have probably never heard of him as most people have not. He lived in upstate New York at the beginning of the 18th century. Too bad he was a Native American or his teachings which can only be described as profound and extremely insightful would be common religious fare today. Now, his censure by his contemporaries is not the end of the story, his teachings are experiencing a revival, another spiritual movement sprouting legs amongst us nearly 200 years after his lifetime. Slowly more and more communities, and not of only aboriginal descent, are beginning to hear his message as they find what they feel is a key to a new world order. Does any of this sound familiar? It should as the story is the same old story. It becomes the same by virtue of the interpretation being made through the same set of lenses. It is possible that 2,000 years from now people will be divided into little segregated camps considering anyone else that does not hold the exact interpretaion of Handsome Lake's teachings that they do as the enemy. If I suggest that I find some things about religion comical ...how can one not?
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 8:45 PM
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this is where I got the info by the way
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/religion/
posted by
calmcantey75
on January 3, 2005 at 8:28 PM
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latin: religio
some scholars have tried to link it to the latin word relegere ( reread) and relinquere ( relinquish) and religare ( relegate, unite and bind together, go over and over again).
The precise meaning is unclear because it doesnt mean the same to all people, but it does seem to point towards bondage of sorts. Its really just my opinion.
posted by
calmcantey75
on January 3, 2005 at 8:25 PM
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It's only my opinion, gomedome
But i think the 2,000 year old answers are the only ones that work. Humans haven't changed, their needs are still the same, and looking only to themselves has never been good enough. We need ideals to progress, and that is a quest for higher things. Denial of a higher being is expected in a physical sense, but not a spiritual one.
posted by
pappy
on January 3, 2005 at 8:20 PM
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it's more like 'the tie that binds' jackie o
posted by
pappy
on January 3, 2005 at 8:16 PM
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jackie_o -- what language is that?
it doesn't appear to be a Latin derivative.
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 8:14 PM
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the word religion actually means
" return to bondage"
posted by
calmcantey75
on January 3, 2005 at 8:10 PM
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pappy -- okay -- close but not quite.
I've never said that pushing religion on people was tearing the world apart or anything remotely close to that. There is not one indentifyable reason for societal ills but a host of reasons and all centering around human shortcomings. One of those shortcomings like it or not is a propensity for all people to only see their own God as being the one true God and wasting so much energy and resources to proliferate this myopic delusion. But that is but a fragment of the world's problems. Human greed is but another.
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 8:07 PM
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Fair enough gomedome, i reread your post
You say that religion has done a pretty lousy job of holding the world together so far. I say that it is greed and desire of gain that tears the world apart, not the pushing of religion onto people who don't want it. People do want it, but the only ones you hear about are the ones trying to profit from it.
posted by
pappy
on January 3, 2005 at 7:34 PM
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pappy - It's a shame that this is what you derive from this posting
My point (because you obviously missed it) is that 2,000 year old answers ain't working anymore. I'll leave it at that, don't want it to sound as if I am harbouring a grudge or something.
posted by
gomedome
on January 3, 2005 at 7:27 PM
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I won't ignore you, gomedome
But really, is that the best you can do? You think religion is comical because people do such terrible things? Holding up hypocrites as examples while ignoring all the quiet faith and trust that has held the world together is hardly a fair, or even rational way to look for truth. Religion is peppered with noisy assholes because they NEED it the most. When have you ever heard of a man struggling through a lifetime of travail to come home to the blessed peace and comfort of atheism? Your illogic sounds more like a grudge to me.
posted by
pappy
on January 3, 2005 at 6:47 PM
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