Culture And Religion

Religion should not be confined to the "religions" of the world. The definition of religion should be expanded to any body of people corresponding to the attributes suggested in the previous post about religion and spirituality.

1 . A group of people

2. Shared notional and behavioral expectations

3. Shared events embodying those notional and behavioral expectations

4. Continuity over time of the above.

Such an understanding would not exclude politics, sports, music, social class, race, style, and most other products of particular cultures. Religion is only one example of how groups identify themselves like each other and not like those not them.

Spirituality is not foreign to religion and each religion has its "own" spirituality, usually given little focus or attention.

However, this writer thinks that there is a consensus over time on spirituality that is universal rather than one that defines and divides. It is conveyed in a variety of words, sayings, stories, and poetries, that are simply various ways of saying in words that cannot capture perfectly the experience of being a person living in the spirit life.

I will offer two examples to point interested readers towards what I am talking about by means of the story in the movie Peaceful Warrior (gymnastics) and in the work of Brendan Sodikoff (inventing restaurants) in posts to come.