timber wrote-
Quote:spendi, you present not answers but responses which do not satisfy the query to which you are responding. Sophistry, rationalization, and equivocation, no matter how sincerely and nobly presented, do not constitute rebuttal.
The request you made in Post 1937378 (page 441) did not seek a rebuttal.It asked for a difference to be demonstrated between science and religion.
I offered you a very brief explanation of one aspect of the difference and it is a well known one.
Obviously,if you think the two words are synonyms there was no point in you asking for their meanings to be distinguished.
They do mean different things.If the point of your request was to get an admission that they mean the same thing you could only expect to get such an admission from people who don't know the differences I pointed out to you.
I will agree that the practice of religion with the intent of personal salvation is a selfish and private act and thus is a superstition under the terms I explained.
A nutritionist might ask what is the difference between breakfast and supper.Both involve the ingestion of nutrient and,using your methods of thinking,are the same thing.
The English language contains thousands of groups of words which are similar superficially but which can be distinguished from each other with some careful thought.Roget's Thesaurus provides a long list of them.One can use butter or margarine for a similar purpose as you might know but they are not the same thing.
I think the quote above suggests that you don't even understand your own posts and that you have got it so firmly fixed in your head that religion and superstition mean the same thing that you are unable to appreciate an attempt,over-simplified as it is,to show you the essential difference. The reason you have got it firmly fixed in your head is that it allows you to deploy your argument with little effort.That is what bigoted means.
A state of bigotry is not only defineable but has a function as well which is normally the self-serving one of saving effort and is therefore selfish and might then be classed as a superstition in its own right.You believe religion and superstition are the same,you chant the mantra,you shut your eyes to explanations of the difference and-lo and behold-like magic-they are the same.
To you.
But not to me and not to anyone else who has studied this matter but slightly.
And from this magic you hope to derive power and influence which is a manifestation of pride and might be seen as a black art.
Would we wish the kids to be organised by people who not only don't know the difference between religion and superstition but refuse to accept the obvious explanation of the difference when it is explained to them.
I rather think not at the level of the Supreme Court.
