On 1/19/2011 11:38 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:29:30 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>
>> In principle, performance of a
>> ritual, whether it involves something like prayer or not, would qualify
>> as religious, if directed at connecting to/effecting supernatural
>> forces.
>
> I think pretty much everyone follows rituals of some sort, regardless of
> whether they admit to it or not.
>
> Is it more or less religious, for example, to pray to a god, than it is
> to wear a red shirt to a ballgame because the last time you went to a
> ballgame wearing a red shirt, your team won?
>
> Religion and superstition are very closely related in a lot of ways - so
> much so that some would say they're the same.
>
> Jim
Why hedge the matter and say "some would say". There is hardly any 
difference at all between someone ringing a bell, to scare off evil Kami 
at the new year, or someone putting on the same shirt they did the last 
time their team won. The only real difference is that one is followed by 
a lot of people, the other, just by one. Its still the same thing. The 
only thing making Prayer different is that it often includes a process 
which "can" sometimes trigger the same effects as meditation, where as 
ringing a magic bell, or wearing a particular shirt, doesn't.

Mind, this wouldn't stop some people arguing that this was evidence of 
something "different" going on, then insisting that "different" means 
"spooks and 2,000 year old zombies".

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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