Posted: Jun 07, 2012 3:41 pm
Zwaarddijk wrote:Microfarad wrote:Zwaarddijk wrote:Microfarad wrote:What is the exact difference between religions and paranormal beliefs?
A religion need not have any belief involved - e.g. one can be a perfectly "religious" orthodox Jew without believing in any of the Jewish doctrines, just by acting out the customs of religious Judaism. Another difference is that religion usually has some kind of systematic thinking about their beliefs, as well as some kind of communal aspect - which usually is lacking wrt people who think ghosts exist and the like.
But it isn't true for every religion. If a Catholic doesn't believe in every Catholic doctrine's dogma, he will be automatically a heretic.
Of course, but .... the point is that it would be a flawed generalization to think this is true of every religion - and it's fairly common that people think this is a thing that all religions do.
Religions have got a set of traditions and rituals which lack generic beliefs?