Mia McDavid wrote: > It is, in fact, part of my belief system. However, I also point to the > fact that, historically, societies *do* have religions. Whether the > *government* is religious or not, people worship. Greeks, Romans, > Hindus, Jews, African Animists, Christians, Muslims, Shinto, NeoPagan, > Materialist, SuperPatriot--it is in human nature to follow the call of a > higher power, whether we call it God, or the Ancestors, or the Forest > Spirit, or the Destiny of America. Individuals may be athiests, but > humans as a group are religious creatures. This seems to me to be a terribly bleak view of humanity. That we as a species cannot but continue to cling to superstition to "explain" things that we don't understand. I'll grant you that religion seems to satisfy something innate in our species (although I suspect that the what it satisfies is our compulsion to find patterns in our environment, even when those patterns don't really exist), but why does that preclude an ability to overcome that innate predisposition? It would seem to me that it is possible, even desirable, to accept the physical nature of the universe, and to accept that there are things we as individuals (or as a species) don't know, without resorting to some supernatural belief system not based in reality. Sigh. -- Frank Mayhar frank at exit.com http://www.exit.com/ Exit Consulting http://www.gpsclock.com/