03.20.08
“Religion”: a short review of language (part 2)
I’ve discussed so far the words faith, reason, and science. Now I’d like to do religion. As with in the previous post, I shall start with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry.
religion 1) the service and worship of God or the supernatural 2) devotion to a religious faith 3) a personal set or institutionalized system of religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices 4) a cause, principle, or belief held to with faith and ardor
Since the entry includes the word religious in two of the definitions, religious shall follow next.
religious 1) relating or devoted to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity 2) of or relating to religious beliefs or observances 3) scrupulously and conscientiously faithful 4) FERVENT, ZEALOUS
Does anyone else find it a bit irritating when the dictionary uses the word it’s defining within the definition? Oh well. I’ll just assume definition 2 is referring to definitions 1, 3, and/or 4.
As a little exercise, let’s take our modern understanding of science and see if any of the above definitions apply. I’m doing this because of the big stink regarding science and religion these days.
science 1) an area of knowledge that is an object of study; esp :NATURAL SCIENCE 2) knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method
That’s the dictionary definition. Does it have anything in common with religion? Well, I already mentioned in an earlier post that science can encompass the supernatural. Of course, the word religion itself does not have as a definition “belief in God or the supernatural,” but the first definition of religious does indeed encompass such meaning. Yet the first definition of science is quite interesting. Science especially relates to natural science, but it is not necessarily exclusive to natural science.
Now on to the second definition of science. It gets really interesting here, because now we have the term scientific method, which is a specific institutionalized system of practices. This is a partial fulfillment of the third definition of religion. Nonetheless, a partial fulfillment of a definition means little or nothing, since a concept has to fulfill every single requirement of at least one definition to be categorized under that word.
And here we come to a certain group of people who, in trying to exclude the supernatural from science, actually undermine their own cause. I am speaking of the secular humanists, who staunchly denounce God and the supernatural. This is important, because it is an acknowledgment of an ultimate “reality”. This fulfills definition 1 of religious! Furthermore, because it fulfills the requirements for the word religious, and because the secular humanists apply their “reality” to science and the scientific method, they have fulfilled all of the requirements of definition 3 of religion! This also applies to proponents of the less extreme view that science cannot observe the supernatural.
1″Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3″Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.Matthew 7:1-5
I’ve been going on all this time about the definition of religion in today’s culture. Here comes the real issue for the Christian–the definition of religion according to God.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27
And I’ll leave it here with no further commentary, except to say that it is a science, in one sense of the word, to know how to avoid “being polluted by the world.”
