Idle: File-Sharing Is Not a Religion, Says Swedish Government

Dangerous_Minds writes "ZeroPaid is reporting on an attempt in Sweden to recognize filesharing as a religion. The religion's website calls this 'Kopimism' and says that sharing of knowledge is sacred. Apparently, Swedish authorities were not convinced. A recent report shows that the attempt failed to convince the authorities to recognize Kopimism as a religion."

Comments

there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[TheGratefulNet]

this is clearly an agenda and bias. everyone should have the right to be insane (er, I mean, have a religion). age of the fantasy should not be relevant at all.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[Xacid]

Well asking for that is a bit of a catch 22. It's kind of like trying to be President of the USA and be an atheist. It's not that it can't happen, it's that the majority of people wont allow it to happen (or at least hasn't). A mental health professional who could make such a claim is likely to not be in the profession much longer.

However, I did come across a report somewhere a while back that did make such a claim. I wish I could recall the specifics or find a link for you to support that.

But when you really get down to it - is faith any different than believing in any other supernatural item? An adult who earnestly still believes in Santa is pretty much in the same boat. At least that was my thoughts on the idea of faith after I learned Santa wasn't real. If that could be fabricated on such a large scale - why not anything else?

Mind you - I'm not saying there is or isn't any higher being or whatnot. But I'm certainly in no position to claim any factual knowledge of the existence or lack thereof of such a being.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[kurzweilfreak]

Talking to invisible friends: check.
Believing in invisible friends: check.
Believing that wanting something really, really badly is going to make it come true: check.
Thinking that talking snakes, people that can walk on water, and other manner of physics-defying shit really happens: check.


Just because you can get a whole lot of people to go along with your batshit insane ideas doesn't mean that they aren't batshit insane. See the Heaven's Gate cult among all the other examples throughout history.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[Anonymous Coward]

Those things are, of course, comparable to religion. After all, all of it can be proven and observed and none of them are missing evidence where evidence should be present (definitely not religion)...

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[Anonymous Coward]

A mockery of real religions by assholes who just want an excuse to steal things.

If it were a real religion, they'd just want an excuse to kill things instead.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[TheGratefulNet]

how can any MAN say what is or is not a religion?

the very notion is unprovable. it boils down to 'the club is closed. sorry, no newcomers.'

bullshit. fairy stories are just as fake from 2000 years ago as they are from last year.

the world would be far better off with no religion at all. however, we have this pox upon us and the least you can do is allow everyone to choose their crazy stories.

saying yours is sane and that guy's is not *is* what is insane.

hey, I think the absurd stories of some guy being a son of a god being but actually he's the new god being and the old god being somehow got pushed up/out somewhere - how is THAT not insane thinking? yet, we allow it. fully allow it and even *celebrate* this ignorance.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[TheGratefulNet]

religion is a mockery of rational thought.

if you want to tell me about this jesus character, I'll tell you and equally bizzarre story. are you setting yourself up as JUDGE, here?

my, my. what WOULD your church elders say?

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[iCEBaLM]

"Real religions" are just as fake as the one proposed by file sharers. That's the point. Why does one group get to have their imaginary friends but another doesn't?

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[Daniel Dvorkin]

A rational response in a religious debate by an AC - this cannot be the Slashdot I know.

Hah! But it's only a "rational response" to the degree that trying to avoid answering hard questions is a rational goal -- that is, if you don't have a good answer and are trying to lead the debate off in another direction entirely. To recap, OP asked:

But when you really get down to it - is faith any different than believing in any other supernatural item?

and AC replied:

The debate of belief and disbelief in God is a key part of the Western philosophical tradition.

This is kind of like answering the question "Did you steal that money?" with "People like having money." It's a dodge, a retreat into generality. I find it hard to believe that AC (or you, or anyone else in the discussion) doesn't have a pretty specific opinion on the answer to OP's question.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[Daniel Dvorkin]

If you really, truly, genuinely believe that accepting the theory of relativity is equivalent to believing in the power of prayer, you are simply incapable of understanding or contributing to rational debate on this or any subject.

Re:there is no way to disprove a person's religion

[im_thatoneguy]

Biases: Atheist, Ex-Christian, 12 years of denominational school, PhD philosopher father, many friends who are psychologists...

- Santa and Supernatural Jesus are both ridiculous since they make extraordinary claims without any evidence. The claim that I am a wizard would have equally ridiculous basis.
- Santa and God are not. There is equal empirical evidence that there was a creator of the universe as that there wasn't, which is to say 0 evidence. But in this case we know the universe exists and we know it came into being somehow so dividing it up into either "Random" or "Divinely Crafted" isn't a terribly ridiculous way to divide the two theories.
- It could, however, be logically and philosophically argued though that if there is a God that created our universe he's been proven to be an asshole and not a loving or caring all powerful entity.
- Mental Illness though is recognizing as abnormal human thought processes that are outside of normal reason and logic. It's not outside of normal reason and logic to find causation where none exists (Belief in the Supernatural). It's not mental illness to attribute meaning or purpose to actions which have none--in fact, quite the contrary, we're hardwired to find patterns in noise. If you find an abnormal number of patterns in noise to the degree that you ability to find real patterns in data through the noise of false-positives then you have a mental illness. The centuries of philosophical tradition prove that the notion of a divine being is within the normal threshold of an average 'healthy' human mind.

Now that's not to say that it's rational. You could also use the exact same argument to say that Racism is also not a mental illness (I would agree with that statement) based on the fact that it's a seemingly 'normal' part of the human condition. That's not to say it's a belief system that should be encouraged but it's also not a "disease" since it's within the design-spec of the experience.

Yes, I believe that supernatural beliefs are the product of irrational thought. But there is plenty of irrational thought in the average, well functioning individual. Similarly while it would be great if we all had 150+ IQs it doesn't lead to follow that everyone with a 100 IQ is mentally ill.

Also from my experience most Christians think they're using sound logic to found their beliefs. It's like solving a physics question with the wrong equation. You might be great at math, but if you think gravity is -8m/s^2 you're always going to come up with the wrong answer.

Religion isn't a defect of the mind, it's a defect of education. Proof being that your upbringing is by far the largest predictor of your religiosity. That goes to show it isn't mental illness, it's just bad parenting.

Re:Not helping the cause

[SilverHatHacker]

Funny, that can be said about most religions too. Followers do something stupid (Crusades, terrorism, crazy priests, etc.) and the rest of the world decides that anything connected to them must be stamped out immediately for the greater good.

It makes sense

[Chris Down]

"This religion doesn't rely on needless superstition and blind faith."

"Doesn't fit the criteria, then."

Jesus did it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus copied and shared his loaves and fish.