Your own source admits that Catholicism condemns superstition as a sin.
exactly, its only possible to avoid condemning themselves under their own rules, because they treat their belief as FACT. Most people, when presented with the idea that:
Didums said:
"a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree..."
they will naturally ask, "how this is any better than any other superstition?"
using the definition that most people use (not the catholic one), religion is not excused from superstition.
Please walk me through how religion is not a superstition? Im not sure that you can prove that unless you are going to prove a certain religion.
Really? One major hallmark of Christian theology is the compatibility of reason and faith.
Islam maybe closer in regards to its belief in Occasionalism - ie the belief that everything that happens is simply the will of God. But even many Islamic theologians argued for Occasionalism on the basis that because God is ultimately a rational being, everything that happens is in accordance with God's rational nature.
no matter how much compartmentalized logic these religions claim,
there is no more evidence than there is for my superstitious belief in an invisible Martian ice cream truck.
InvisibleMartianIceCreamTruck said:
"the invisible Martian Ice cream truck simply always has been! from him, is an infinite life force that we all arose from 20,000 years ago! How does he exist on Mars and yet promise his gift of eternal ice cream? well he's immaterial! How do we know he exists? Every human has an empty craving inside, an ice cream flavored desire! Ever wonder why any human, no matter how full, can always want more ice cream? In separation from the invisible Martian ice cream truck, no human can ever say he has truly had his fill! To break the cycle of having to eat every day, we must return to way of life our martian ice cream truck father desired! Only through ice cream binging can we truly ever feel the enlightened content, that all humans desire!"
The above isn't wrong because it contains numerous contradictions. Its wrong because there's no evidence for it. I shouldnt have to disprove, if no one can prove, the Invisible Martian Ice Cream Truck.
By your own admission, I have not made this argument - so in turn you're setting up a strawman. The Catholic definition is not really biased, and in fact it even cites pagan writers like Cicero - especially his statement "Superstition is the baseless fear of the gods, religion the pious worship."
So obviously the distinction between superstition and religion exists outside Christianity, not to mention predates the beginning of Christianity - Cicero after all died in 43 BC.
The catholic definition isn't biased? It automatically counts itself as a factual religion, just so it can avoid condemnation under, "Superstition is the baseless fear of the gods, religion the pious worship." If you can't prove catholicism, then isnt it really just the baseless fear of god?
it states that religious beliefs are often likely to be labeled superstitious by "outsiders".
What would ever prove that a supernatural belief wasnt superstitious? Im pretty sure it would have to be something that was an actually "true" supernatural happening.
Peguy, this study is bullshit because its simply preaching to the choir, who already allege religion to be superior to superstition.
Religion is the walmart of superstition. Of course it pushed all the other gigs in town out of business! who the hell can compete with the biggest superstition of all time?