[geeks] Religion and the Presidency

[der Mouse]

>> What is religion to you, then?  I use the word to mean one's
>> relationship with whatever deity or deities manifest in one's life.
> That, honestly, sounds like what I would define as spirituality, not
> religion.

Does this mean you have a different word to talk about one's
relationship with the spirit world?  Or do you see the spirit world as
a subset of the divine world, even for others?  Or do you use the same
word and depend on context or adjectives to disambiguate?  Or what?

I certainly know that for me, both non-spirit manifestations of deities
and non-divine spirits have reality.  I also know that I'm not alone.
It is useful to have language that draws the distinction....

> One could express the distinction this way:  Spirituality is personal
> belief in a higher power in the Universe.  Religion is standardized,
> institutionalized, formalized belief in such a higher power, in
> lock-step with a thousand other people.  Spirituality is about faith;
> religion is about churches.

What does faith have to do with belief in a higher power?

Okay, that's at least slightly flip, but there's some seriousness in
it.  I gather you do not have any experience leading you to believe any
deities have reality for you - but how does that make it a matter of
faith for those who do have such experience to so believe?  Do you need
to experience cluster migraines to believe they exist?  Is it faith to
believe phobias exist if you've never had one?

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