The Many Altars of Modernity

Chapter 2: Pluralism and Individual Faith

There have been erudite debates over the concept of religion. Given the great variety of phenomena subsumed under this concept, does it make sense to use the concept at all? I must confess that I find this question sublimely uninteresting. Every concept can be taken apart to show that it does not reflect the complex reality it is intended to delineate. For example, one can define the species homo sapiens in terms of the specific traits that distinguish it from the other large apes – among them, erect gait and the absence of a tail. But then, who knows, we may come upon a previously undiscovered tribe whose members have all the traits of humans, but who move around on all fours and display a magnificent ...