"Mr. WD" wrote:
>
> We need to offer them something better than religion, and "if you join
> our club, we won't think you're an idiot" isn't all that compelling.
> Surely we can mine the Enlightenment tradition for a positive
> "spiritual" vision of the well-lived, meaningful life? Actually, we
> _have_ to do this -- the alternative for future generations is
> mandatory mega-church attendance and/or extinction.
Both the prevalence of belief in the supernatural AND the quality (for many people) of such belief when retained changes rapidly depending on the direct involvement of a population in social action or at least the possibility of such involvement. When that possibility fades (with a consequently greater mystification of social relations) both the frequency of belief in the supernatural increases and the quality of that belief changes -- for the worse from the standpoint of progressive politics. The _same_ religious belief is _not_ the same under different social conditions. (This is equally true of secular thought.)
Carrol