Quote:
Originally Posted by Plethon
Religion is a set of rituals and dogmas, usually with a professional (although not always) priesthood performing rites and thus keeping, so the belief states, the societal and the cosmic order going. In addition, there may be also religious law and regulations pertaining to all aspects of life (especially marked in Judaism and Islam). A good example of that was the Roman religion (the etymology of the word religio is unclear, some refer it to religare, "to reconnect"). Its rites were strictly connected with upholding the community and the cosmic order, whereof the community was constituent part. It had no pretentions to universality (the concept of humanity being not yet developped in the modern sense). Participation in sacred rituals was part of being a Roman civis, no faith or belief or recitation of anything like Lord's Prayer was a prerequisite to being religious in that sense. Even words like religio, pietas or devotio had more a societal meaning (devotion to the family, the gens and the respublica).
Faith is something else. It is an inner conviction about suprantural things, a conviction that arises out of a combination of indirect proofs (inductive and deductive) and a set of analogies. These (religion and faith) are two different things but are often confused in the modern vocabulary. Someone can have much faith, but not be very religious (observing rituals, going frequently to the worship etc.), and vice versa: some people observe rituals because of the societal convention, but have no faith.
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All right, now I have an operational definition of religion -- and one I agree with (incidentally, this is one of the best posts I have yet seen on Stirpes).
In the sense described above I am not religious nor do I have faith. Certain things interest me, however: gnosis, neo-Platonism, Hermeticism, and alchemy. They have become fused together over the centuries in Europe, and arguably they represent one of the subterranean, hidden threads that provide meaning and context to European life: European culture, science and philosophy are almost incomprehensible if this living (but hidden) heart is taken out of it.
I was initially reluctant to put down the words above, but since this is a forum devoted to Europe and Europeans, perhaps it is fitting I do so.