Wow….what a turn-out in the wine cave this month! Our group of 17 (?!) had a great time exploring ideas together and talking shop!! The topic de noir: religion. Here’s where we started out…
The Questions We Considered…
- Why do we privilege the quantitative measure of people over qualitative ways of measuring?
- Is the mind and consciousness a communal object?
- Do we have a democracy? What are our responsibilities being part of a democracy and what can we do to promote it?
- What role does big philanthropy play in shaping public policy?
- Is religion more harmful than helpful? If we assume that religion is outmoded, what would be an appropriate replacement?
- Does knowledge have value in itself or does it have to be used in order to have value?
The Question(s) We Chose…
- Is religion more harmful than helpful? If we assume that religion is outmoded, what would be an appropriate replacement?
Some Things We Explored in the Process…
- What do we mean by ‘religion’? What counts and what doesn’t?
- What’s the difference between a cult, religion, and spirituality?
- Does the supernatural have to be involved in order for something to be a religion?
- Is superstition an element of religion?
- Must it involve proselytism or conversion?
- If we were to replace religion with something else, should we start from scratch or pick out the things from religion that we like and work well? For example, the community aspect.
- Are the connections between religion and tribalism?
- If there is harm caused by religion, what exactly is that harm and how does religion “bear that cross” (so to speak)? Is it religion itself…or things that can come along with religion that do the harming?
- And more…
Thank you to the Philosophy Learning & Teaching Organization (PLATO) and Montana Internet for supporting philosophy in the community and helping us bring activities like these to the Helena community!
