2.0 The Special Case of Religious Experience and its Conceptualization

2.1 All human experience (personal and communal) presumably comes to an end in death, as must be the case according to our current understanding of the physical laws of nature.

2.2 Most humans experience life as value and death as loss of value - otherwise it is hard to imagine our survival  (at least to date :-) of natural selection.

2.3 Because life is transient and uncertain whereas death is (presumably) forever and inevitable, death presents an ultimate threat to positive human value, meaning and purpose.

2.4 The word " god" is a cultural symbol used the express the experience of the overcoming of death as a problem - however that overcoming is conceptualized.

2.5 Because the word " god" expresses an experience whose basis (the overcoming of death) is not possible in the natural world, it invariably (with the exception of pantheism) involves some implied or explicit claim to supernatural transcendence of the natural world.

2.6 While supernatural transcendence is implied by god-talk, those who use god-talk are restricted to the natural world. This gives god-talk its indirect character: it must use metaphors whose home base is the natural world to express a perceived encounter with a supernatural reality which is nonetheless revealed in that world.

2.7 The behaviors associated with encountering, sharing and responding to one's god concept constitutes a person's (or community's or society's) religion.

3.0 Types of Worldviews Related to Religious Conceptualizations

[Note: Please let me know if I have grievously misrepresented a particular point of view.]

3.1 Pantheism: the belief that natural reality itself mediates the experience of overcoming death. Unlike the various theisms, there is no god who transcends the natural realm. It can be distinguished from naturalism or atheism in that it makes use of the god concept and religious behavior.

3.2 Polytheism: the belief that the experience of overcoming of death is pluralistic. A number of gods are conceptualized as mediating this experience.

3.3 Monotheism: the belief that the experience of the overcoming of death is monistic. One god is conceptualized as mediating this experience.

3.4 Weak atheism: Lacking the experience of the overcoming of death, or experiencing the overcoming of death but not expressing this experience through god-language.

3.5 Strong atheism: A belief that the experience of the overcoming of death is invalid, or experiencing the overcoming of death but believing that expressing this experience through god-language is invalid.

3.6 Agnosticism: Belief that the experience of the overcoming of death can not be known to be valid or invalid, or believing that expressing this experience through god language cannot be known to be valid or invalid.

4.0 Dialogue Between Religious (and non-Religious) Worldviews.