Socratic Engagement

Do you avoid all animal products in your diet, or just those that involve slaughter?

I think it is the amount of eating required to satisfy my appetite and keep from losing weight coupled with an intense craving for meat if I go without.

Can you please define "value" in regards to this discussion in precise terms

To value = To attend to situational developments with the aim of preserving or attaining desireable things and/or outcomes

Your two qualifying examples were both based on immediate, neutral observation.

Value beliefs are not neutral. And I believe previously in this thread I was careful to distinguish the difference between beliefs about how things simply are and beliefs concerning how we want things to turn out.

Given that they consider themselves a religion, do you think this is because: they don't really understand what religion is, or they are dishonestly using the term for ulterior motives, or what reasons could you imagine that they would think they are appropriately and legally classified as a religion?

No.. Because its bound up with value beliefs .

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Do you consider Unitarian Universalism to be a religion ?

can a given person or group simultaneously hold more than one "most strongly held belief", or is that position exclusive?

I want to emphasize a distinction between two classees of strong beliefs. The first class are beliefs concerning how things are, in this class, there are many beliefs which are held with equal and utter certitude. My belief that I am sitting in a recliner as I type this response is no more or less certain to me than that I am typing on my cell phone. And these beliefs are as strong as they can get, but they are not of a religious nature.The second class of beliefs concern our desires or how we hope events transpire. These are ordered in terms of personal importance, these are value beliefs. Everyones primary value is the same and nothing can supercede it. We all want events to transpire that comport with the greatest good we can conceive of.

The real question (in regards to our prior discussion) is whether a person or group is capable of going to war for multiple reasons.

They certainly are capable of going to war for multiple reasons, so long as they are FIRST made to be seen as serving a "greater good" .

Moving onto a somewhat different line of questioning, what, exactly, leads you to believe your view of religion to be superior to its overwhelmingly accepted meaning?

This supposed "overwhelmingly accepted" meaning comes from a definition that would be more appropriate for the word theism. This definition ignores the intrinsic sociality of religion. It serves as an excuse for atheistic thinkers to view religion as something to erradicate rather than help to improve.

But how does one determine what a given group's most strongly held beliefs are?

I think the surest way is to observe what they spend their time doing.

Further, are multiple beliefs capable of simultaneously holding this position?

I doubt that I understand this question. I wll say that I think values (beliefs concerning importance) that are virtually identical can be expressed and explained in wildly different ways.

So would I be correctly representing your view to say that the essential definitive characteristics (meaning required to fit the category) of religious people are

1. They have adopted a philosophy of supernaturalism, which divides reality into two distinct portions, believing the "natural/physical" portion to be generally inferior to a non-physical portion. (not just different)

2. They believe that one or more entities exist that are superior to humans

?

I was asked if the following correctly describes my view....

[RELIGION] includes any group of people with strong, like beliefs (correct me if I'm wrong; misrepresenting your statements would be contrary to a meaningful discussion), not necessarily beliefs of a supernatural nature.

not precisely. people can share strong beliefs like "the main reason people debate is to prove their intellectual superiority in relation to their opponent(s)", but since these kind of shared strong beliefs aren't necessarily relevant to ones most deeply held values, They do not form the basis of ones religion as I understand it.

As to whether or not religious beliefs must be "of a supernatural nature" I must admit that the meaning of "supernatural" isn't clear enough to me to say.