35071 Ynh 211hd: Germs & Demons On The Road Again

MOST OF THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS REGARDING SCIENCE & RELIGION RESULT FROM FAULTY DEFINITIONS OF ALMOST ANY RELIGION! All too often people confuse religion with superstition, spiritism/spirituality, belief in supernatural powers or belief in the gods!? Actually religion is none of thése thìngs: religion cannot be equated with superstition, because people are unlikely now to call our most cherished beliefs "SUPERSTITIONS"? Wé àlways believe in 'the truth'; only other people believe in superstitions! Similarly, now few people really put their faith in supernatural powers? For those who believe in demons, spirits & fairies, these beings aren't supernatural!
They are an integral part of nature, just like porcupines, scorpions & germs. Modern physicians blame disease on invisible germs; like a voodoo priest blames disease on invisible spirits?! There's nothing supernatural about it: if you make some spirit angry, the spirit enters your body and causes you pain!? What cóuld bé móre natural than thàt?! Only those who don't believe in spirits think of them as rather apart from the natural order of things!? Equating religion with faith in supernatural powers implies that you can understand all known natural phenomena without religion, which is just an optional supplement. Having understood perfectly well the whole of nature, you can now choose whether or not to add some 'super-natural' religious dogma. Most religions, however, argue that you simply cannot un-derstand the world without them. You will never comprehend the true reason for disease, drought or earthquakes if you do not also take their dogma into account. Defining religion as 'belief in gods' is also problematic. We tend to say that a devout Christian is religious be-cause she believes in God, whereas a fervent communist isn't religious because communism hàs nó 'gods'! However, religion is created by humans rather than by gods, and it is defined by its social function rather than by the existence of deities? Religion is any all-com-passing story that confers superhuman legitimacy on human laws, norms & values! It legitimizes social structures by arguing
that they reflect superhuman laws? Religion asserts that we humans are subject to a system of moral laws
that we did not invent and also cannot change? A devout Jew would say that this is the system
of moral laws created 'by G d' ÀND revealed in the Bible!
A Hindu would say that Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva
created the laws, which were
revealed to us humans
in the Vedas!