NathanJ: When did our planet and its ecosphere start - along with that of other planets and the spaces around them? How were they created?

Go here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yOUgTaKDkM
&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u9YmpCg9bY
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn7VcOU3x2g

It seems that experts in the field of sociology,
like Emile Durkheim emphasied, a society requires some
shared set of beliefs to ensure its cohesion. Of
course these beliefs don't have to be religions.
It can be a social or cultural feature that has the
same effect as another, and may in that sense serve as a
substitute for it. Actually many other belief systems have
been suggested as functional equivalents of religion,
including humanism, fascism, and communism.

Some people argue that these and other belief systems fulfill
the functions of religion so well that they can actually
be regarded as "religion."

The essential difference between such belief systems and
religionis, of course, that though the former serve
some of the same functions as religion, they are not
oriented toward the supernatural, a distinction that should
not be disregarded.

Dear Foxy,

Your posts, as usual, are insightful. Sociology is just one of a number of perspectives that one can have on a phenomenon as complex as religion, see my earlier post about the “six blind wise men”: a psychologist, an anthropologist, a sociologist, an evolutionist (of the Dawkins or D. S. Wilson kind), a philosopher, an ethicist, a historian (sorry, that makes seven). As you rightly point out, only a combination of more perspectives allows us to distinguish religion from other belief systems or mere ideologies, political or social commitments, obsessions superstitions etc.

Dear AJ Philips and Banjo,

Regarding the definition of "atheist", it just occurred to me that most of us are atheists most of the time: even if one believes that God exists while the topic is discussed, when preoccupied with say "how to get from A to B in time", or by "what's for dinner", they fail to remember God. At those times, as well as when they sleep, they don't believe in anything relating to God or gods, thus they must be atheists.

If you are going to have a belief in God, why should you be limited to one God, why not many Gods, all ancient peoples had a belief in many Gods. In fact that was a commonality in the past to worship a particular god to to achieve a specific outcome. Are not Christianity and Islam simply branches of the same religion? Both being off shoots of Judaism, where the principle of the mono god originated.

Dear George,

Thank You for your kind words and comments.
Religion is a complex subject and although it
may often be functional for society, it can also
be deeply implicated in social conflict. A full
understanding of the role of religion in society
must take account of this fact.