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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (41183)	6/20/1999 5:43:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Well, honestly, I do find a lot of the fireworks that have erupted on this thread a bit weird. I see no reason why the bizarre polarities and personal attacks are taking place at all. However, I posted this definition because it expressed the religious fervor that enveloped the early years of communism, since you wished to exclude communism on definitional grounds.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (41183)	6/20/1999 6:04:00 PM
From: jbe	Respond to of 108807

By that definition, this whole discussion has been pretty silly, since everybody here is religious. You are quite right, Christopher. The fact is, of course, that the word "religious" has long been used (misused?) to mean "fanatical," "passionate," etc., in instances like the following: He felt a religious fervor for Art. The Russian philosopher Berdyaev was among the first to popularize the notion that Communism was a "religion," for example. He based that on the theory that there was something "inherently religious" -- i.e., something inherently passionate, fanatical, all-or-nothing -- in the Russian Soul (whatever THAT is). Thus, when Communism came along, it was embraced with the same passionate belief that Russian Orthodoxy (presumably) once commanded. It was the religious impulse Berdyaev focussed on, rather than the religious content. But I would agree that it would be better to jettison the words "religion" and "religious" in describing the impulse to believe in, and proselytize, any purely secular doctrine/tenet, because they only confuse the issue. Joan