At 05:21 PM 11/26/2002 -0600, Joshua Kronengold wrote: >Steven Brust writes: > >It is certainly possible to define religion that way. It even makes a > >certain amount of sense. But then we're left with needing a word that > >means, belief in and reverence for a superhuman power. > >I think that's "'holy other'-style religon". There are lots of >existing, self-proclaimed religons that don't have belief or reverence >for a superhuman power -- Zen (the universal counterexample, and >usually mixed up with a lot of superstitions that -do- have >supernatural powers attached, but nevertheless); confucianism, and >discordianism don't, certainly. Discordianism I'm not familiar with. To cliam that Zen and Confucianism don't have belief or reverence for a superhuman being is only possible for those who know nothing about them. Until someone comes up with a better term, I'll stick with the dictionary definition.