The Conversation website
by Joseph P. Laycock
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University
Now, why might that be?Religion’s dirty secret
So does Bitcoin’s having prophets, evangelists and dietary laws make it a religion or not?
As a scholar of religion, I think this is the wrong question to ask.
The dirty secret of religious studies is that there is no universal definition of what religion is. Traditions such as Christianity, Islam and Buddhism certainly exist and have similarities, but the idea that these are all examples of religion is relatively new.
Perhaps because, as I suggest over and again, things like religion are in fact rooted existentially in different historical, cultural and uniquely personal contexts. Going all the way back to the caves. And what makes the modern rendition what it is revolves largely around the fact that in the modern world science has yanked "the gods" out from under most and made it all more and more about a God, the God.
Indeed, the vaguer the better when it actually comes down to demonstrating that your religion is the only one that counts in regard to morality and immortality. Of course that's the beauty of faith though. You can believe something even when having no demonstrable reasons to.The word “religion” as it’s used today – a vague category that includes certain cultural ideas and practices related to God, the afterlife or morality – arose in Europe around the 16th century. Before this, many Europeans understood that there were only three types of people in the world: Christians, Jews and heathens.
So, for those who worship and adore Bitcoin, only those among them who also worship and adore one or another traditional God and religion have all bases covered.
Just out of curiosity, does that include anyone here?
I'm trying to imagine Ayn Rand's reaction to Bitcoin. She worshipped and adored the almighty dollar. But she was also rather adamant that you can't take those dollars with you to the other side. Not if the other side doesn't exist.
https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=186929