*This was a session at [Sol 2012](/Sol_2012).*
[Brandon](/Brandon): What are the various definitions of the word "religion?"
- [Ben](/Ben): **Supernatural**: a system that includes a supernatural entity that provides absolute meaning
- [Hank](/Hank): Lets you explain things that you can't explain with science
- [Brandon](/Brandon): **People**: ex. cultural/ethnic Jews
- Brandon: **Calling**: anything that drives us powerfully to value something
- Science itself doesn't say to value science ... the drive to value science is a religious impulse
- [Eric](/Eric): The practice of art can be an expression of a sort of religion of art
- [Lion](/Lion): It should be possible for people with different callings to connect religiously ... they may be expressions of higher levels: truth, love, caring
- Eric: What distinguishes a fetish from a religious calling is whether it's about self-gratification or about reaching for something higher
- Brandon: Selflessness (even if it's not about other people) ... there may be a fuzzy line between the two
- Lion: Carl Sagan had a genuine concern for other people as well as truth, but was unable to identify that
- Eric: I used to think caring about other people was a kind of fetish, a form of selfishness, to make you feel good
- Brandon: There's some truth to that, but there's more to it
- Eric: Like Paul Krafel's two levels of thermodynamics/flow
- Brandon: Or more like the first and second solutions to the problem of the Second Law
- Lion: **Opiate** (Napoleon's view)
- Brandon: About controlling people ... but Hell is also used that way
- Lion: Some people find enormous comfort in the concept of Hell
- Eric: Using comfort
- Brandon: Jonathan Haidt quote: "Religion blinds and binds"
- Hank: A kid asked whether I really believed the scientific story of the origin of Crater Lake, and I described the Native American version ... the kid didn't get any of it because he was taught young-Earth creationism
- Eric: **Theocracy**: uses both carrot and stick ... Opiate is a subset of this
- Ben: **Moral Compass**
- Brandon: **Aspiration**: Conservatives believe we need practice to push ourselves to overcome our baser nature and realize our aspirations
- Hank: I debated "are humans naturally good or bad" once, saying that society has degraded our natural goodness
- Eric: **Choice of Goal**: covers the whole gamut, distinguishes from philosophy, science, art, politics
- The choice may be made by theocrats
- SolSeed chooses respect for life and the Destiny ... not all religions need these
- Brandon: **Ritual, Language, Metaphors and Stories**
- Lion: **Lineage**: Project that is carried across generations
- Maybe not really a religion in itself