Religion & Politics

There is a saying, avoid conversations involving politics or religion. The justification for this is the conversation will go on " - forever - ". That seems to be a good reason, and therefore you find that among males - a preferred subject would be - spectator sports -. Hence, today we find that both politics and religion have tended to move more into the direction of - spectator sports -.???><<

Now, I have only a few words on this topic, but a question naturally will arise as to the difference between politics and religion and that is a good question. Most people do like to think of them as different and of course there is the wonderful notion of the separation of church and state. I think that is a notion that requires a good deal of " introspective " thought, because that separation exists in many ways in the minds of the people who believe in it. To my knowledge it is quite difficult to actually build a measuring device for that separation. The examples of the issues that present them selves in this way are very numerous, and I would prefer that you introspect yourself on account of - it has a lot to do with your point of view on those subjects.

I must note the following - both politics and religion have concerns about behaviors. This is a very personal idea - but generally it seems that religions try to encourage " good " behaviors - while governments inspired by certain political perspectives may try more to discourage other " bad " behaviors. And now the conversation turns around the issue of " good " and " bad " which is also connected to " who's in charge, now? ". If we throw in another subject - say - science - and ask how does science play with those two modes of thought - you get something else interesting - because for example we do have the learned topic of " political science ", but hardly anyone ever discusses " political religion " as a general topic - all that much - and that, maybe, a good thing.

I will say this - many people are quite religious about their politics and some people are political about their religion. Not too many people are " scientific " about either their politics or their religion and that might not always be such a good thing - in the sense that science likes to remain objective, and tries to use " facts " simply to make the point as opposed to more emotional arguments relating to how things should be and why.

Back to the end less conversations resulting from the topics of religion and politics I would note that sometimes they can be shortened if people try to listen as well as talk. That would mean to listen to someone who is expressing something with which you disagree. Also, I have often noticed that if you do discuss science at all, those conversations can often be quite brief unless they connect somehow to some religious or political current. Finally, and I believe this would be the proper domain of " psychology " but an interesting question would be over all, do people fall asleep more at science lectures, religious meetings, or political gatherings? I hope someone has studied that.