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Originally Posted by Michael Chui  Hm... also worth noting is the fact that, near as I can tell, people don't describe systems like the Egyptian, Bablyonian, or Greek as "religions": they're called "mythologies". Is there a specific reason for this? (Besides mine. :P) |
I was just about to head out the door to go to work, so I will give a more full response to this later today. In the 30 seconds that I
do have, I will say this... Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, even Judaism used to be similary called mythologies (or similar terms), rathe than religions. When the study of religion was starting out (academically speaking), it came out of religious schools, seminaries and monasteries, so the only "religion" was Christianity -- everything else was primitive mythology. Now, even Egyptian, Babylonian, etc. "mythologies" are referred to in academic studies as religion. For example, at my home university, there is a course in Greek and Roman Religion. So it's a trend that's developing, but isn't quite there yet.
I'll write more when I get home from work this evening.