[PR3SSUR3]

Now perhaps we can get down to the nitty gritty.

Faith, or the reliance or trust in oneself, is natural and is refined with upbringing. Taking religion as its meaning of a system of faith and worship - even removing the familiar supernatural elements entirely for a moment - does not mean one should be labelled 'religious' or 'following a religion' simply because one can operate successfully from day to day and efficiently pursue love and ambition. The 'faith' is individuality and survival instinct, the 'religion' that is borne from this daily repetition is merely straightforward common sense - to not persist with aims and purpose is to stay still, or regress. Humanity is the culmination of these things, plus compassion, and it is also not a 'religion' - to practice social relations and act on instincts while supressing others are traits we have learned over millions of years.

So your broadening of the term religion is seeping into biology, science and mathematics and being used somewhat incorrectly.

Incidentally I would not consider myself to be an 'atheist', either. Must I 'become' a type of person for not believing in the fanciful concept of a God or Gods? I think not - I'll leave it to the nutters to create their own labels for their strange lifestyles, though they're perfectly entitled to call me an atheist or anything else from the other side of the fence.

STE: the religions that are producing so many negative people commiting so many negative acts are obviously severely flawed, or this would not be happening. Even if those people are not remotely interested in the religion itself and only wish to exploit it in order to gain control of others, the religion cannot remain blameless as its pompous and superior stance is just asking for exploitation and its dangerous persuasive power to be used for ill gains. If a film or book caused so much trouble it would be shut down or banned as a serious threat. Come to think of it, that's just what they should do with The Bible, The Qur'an, The Mahabharata, and The Granth Sahib and definately The DaVinci Code (whoops apocalypse!). Not all religions are tainted with the bad reputations of their preachers (Catholics) and followers (Islam), but it goes to show they can be all open to criminal misuse once they are given significance.

I guess you're also clinging on to the 'you can't prove God does not exist' angle. I can prove that the text in The Bible about when and how the earth and its creatures were created is a load of nonsense (I don't actually own any fossils, but there are plenty about), and since this tome is The Man's bestseller one would think it to accurately interpret his work. Not looking good for The Jewish or Christian God then, unless someone made some incredibly huge typos of course, which is possible ("Six BILLENIA!? I thought you said six DAYS!!". Maybe he meant six cosmic days?).

Of course I'm concentrating on the religion I am most familiar with - just like I'll concentrate on horror films instead of Westerns yet discuss films in general. It's hardly ignorant. Fundamentally, the core principles of loyalty, respect and commitment are all the the same, whatever the individual rules of each religion.

A shame Haunted has left the conversation, perhaps to prepare some more fascinating cinematic allergories she believes far too deep for the rest of us to have to put up with. Yet nobody called her a hippy or non-watcher of horror films. Come on Haunted, we can all go through the old film school/media course notebooks and furrow our worthless brows a little - so let's hear your thoughts.