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Abstract
McCaffree's challenge to traditional definitions of religion, and his suggestion that religiosity is about individual integration into a moral community are discussed. This is taken as an opportunity to examine difficulties in defining religion, and attempts to go around the definition issues by offering analogies. Religious emotion, as discussed by William James and Emile Durkheim, is found to be no different than strong emotions directed at our secular commitments. Devotion, and self-sacrifice are discussed in both religious and secular context. The denial of death and fantasies about an afterlife are central to religion, and are unlikely to disappear in the foreseeable future.

The return of martyrdom as an ideal calls for specifying the psychological mechanisms involved. Sacralized violence gives death a cosmic meaning, while death in the service of a secular ideology, national or supra-national, can have only a historical meaning. The idea & the ideal of martyrdom, central to all historical religions, have been marginalized in the modern world, as the creation of sacred space has been narrowed. Modernity means the marginalization of honor, death, & immortality, which were once so central to humans. The inspiration for martyrdom, both for individuals & for groups, must include not only honor & the belief in immortality, but real despair as well. Adapted from the source document.

The name Scientology (a copyrighted and registered trademark) brings to mind a wide array of claims, observations, impressions, findings, and documents, reflecting a complex and controversial history. The religion/not religion debate over various groups and organizations, prominent in the Western media over the past thirty years, has usually presented the public and politicians with a religion versus "sect" or "cult" dichotomy. The classification issue in this article is framed differently.Hopkins (1969) offered us the terms of the debate in the bluntest and most direct way when he asked in the title of an article in Christianity Today more than thirty years ago "Scientology: Religion or racket?" Read today, the Hopkins article sounds naive and charitable, but this question still stands before us, and yet deserves an answer

Can we develop a credible risk assessment system for new religious movements? We are challenged by the complexity of interactions between beliefs, individual members, leadership & the surrounding environment. In addition, our ability to predict the actions of specific groups is severely hampered by a strong apologetic bias on the part of most NRM researchers. Beyond the problem of bias, we are faced with one practical problem & that is obtaining reliable intelligence. The truth is that scholars do not really know much about what is going on inside the thousands of religious groups in existence today. Adapted from the source document.