Defining "Religion"

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Dec 4, 2014 at 12:28

Hi, Donevan. How's this:

James 1:
[26] If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
[27] Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

That doesn't allow any room for vain philosophy or suicide-murder. I't a "Christian" notion, of course, taught by Jesus' brother; so we can't expect non-believers to accept it. To them, "religion" is whatever they want it to be. Even if Mr. Webster or "Mr. Oxford" agree with what they decide to call it, that doesn't make them right and James wrong: The truth is the truth; and TRUE religion is true religion.

That said, no, Islam is not "pure religion". Muhammed was a military leader; and Qur'an reads like a political/military manual, interspersed with distortions of the Bible. "The Thought of Chairman Mao Tse Tung" actually reads much the same -- I read them both at the same time in my life. Mao gave tactical advice, much as Muhammed did; but about 90% of his work is proverbs, reflecting his Confucian upbringing and mixed with Marxism.

Shalom Shalom :-)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".