2010-04-22
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A theory of religion
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Jim StoneUniversity of New Orleans
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Here's (from the first post in this thread) what I say about supermundane reality. I think this is sufficiently clear and circumscribed that it doesn't include non-religious ideals for which people have fought and died, or non-religious 'non-material realities.' If you think otherwise, examples would help.
'I take it to be intuitive that religions are concerned with a reality that surpasses the ordinary world that sense perception reveals. This reality consists either of (a) sentient supernatural beings (e.g. gods) or of (b) an insentient metaphysical principle underlying the universe (e.g. The Unconditioned, Sunyata, or The Tao). This principle has features that mark it as belonging to a different order of reality from the objects that make up the mundane world: it cannot be named or cognized, it can be described only in contradictions, it doesn't arise or pass away, it issues in everything else, it is utterly changeless, or...
In short, religions relate practitioners to a reality that transcends the mundane world revealed by sense perception; we might call it a 'supermundane reality.' ...Even supposing we occasionally see the gods walking among us, a significant part of their existence must be unseen. (Indeed, the beings in question might better be described as 'supermundane' than 'supernatural,' for the practitioners may lack our concept of 'nature.') They reside primarily on Mount Olympus or in a celestial realm. A 'god' who rents the apartment next to mine, gets a job driving a bus, joins the Libertarian Party, marries a coworker, and becomes completely immersed in the mundane realm forever, is a theological oxymoron. Similarly the insentient metaphysical principle must at least partly transcend nature, even if we sometimes see its operations in nature. It comprises a level of reality deeper than what sense perception (even assisted by scientific instruments) reveals, and its nature is best discovered by other means, e.g. meditation.
In addition, the elements that comprise the reality to which a religion relates us must be sufficiently grand (taken either individually or collectively) that they can figure centrally in satisfying the sort of substantial human needs that people generally want religions to meet (e.g. long life, immortality, the end of suffering). Gremlins do not a religion make. '
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