Reply #123: Missing the point, again.

[Inland]

It doesn't matter if they play "an important part", in some sense. Teeth play an important part of the tooth fairy stuff as well, but it doesn't make the exercise relevant to dentistry.

Religion is bigger than angels and fairies. Religion is bigger than superstition. For better or for worse. Nobody ever organized a way of life around the concept of tapping spikes three times to get a hit, or whether to have sex on game day. That someone really believes that doesn't make it religion and sure doesn't make religion the same as it. That somebody really believes in something that isn't provable doesn't make it religion and doesn't make religion the same as it. It's really quite ignorant simply pick something that is truly believed and unproven and say, "there's no difference between that and religion". Moreover, it's not coincidence that it's usually something childish or insane.

Restricting conversations to ethical considerations isn't really part of a religion and theology section. Most threads with ethical considerations borne of explicitly religious themes are treated as an invitation to flame, even in R&T. Good luck.