The Meaning of religion

This just came to my attention, a quote from the New York Times, dated August 19, 2007 (by Mark Lilla, but that is irrelevant, he is typical of the academic establishment in this regard.) The quote: "We in the West find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still inflame the minds of men....We..assumed that...human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that political theology had died in 16th century Europe..."
What is interesting here is the lack of knowledge of what religion could be. The obvious assumption is that Islamic extremism is religious:, religiously motivated, concerned with theology.

Actually the motivation of these people (what I am calling Islamic extremism) has nothing to do with a sane definition of religion. This battle between cultures is hormonal. Bin Laden is no more religious than, oh, Pat Robertson. These desicated ideas are merely the wallpaper over the surge to dominate. Without understanding the basis for the conflict any solutions will be equally accidental and temporary. In another's phrase: "Ignorant armies clashing by night." And history continues. Academe continues. It all fits and is appropriate. Some people with a particular intent though can profit from looking beneath the wallpaper to the actual stucture of the room.

The Nature of Psychic Phenomena

Sitting here watching the rain mist here in drought proclaimed Snellville, and remembering I heard something on the radio last Friday night, some preacher or somebody, saying to his listeners (and me as I surfed across the radio dials) pray for rain in Atlanta. And here it is misting for three days now. Do I think the thoughts of the listeners were responsible for this?? They could have played a part. Really I have no idea if they did have an effect on this lovely rain event. But so-called thoughts affect the weather. A few points though, about such inquiries. They almost always flounder in confusion on the question of the nature of psychic phenomena. First, there is only a physical realm, if you are going to describe reality. There is no separate mental stuff. So what could have happened with the good folks thinking rain for Atlanta? You have to picture somewhat the unpictureable complexity of 'what is' and grasp that while 'thoughts' (whatever they are, but certainly not some cumulousy thing) are part of a huge machinery, they are not the only part, so they could have an effect, but being only a part of a bigger machinery the question of causality turns out to be NOT possible to be contained within a binary sentence--you just cannot say yes, thoughts caused the rain or no, thoughts did not cause the rain. The fact is they were just one swirl in a hugely larger structure.