{"id":2641,"date":"2009-09-06T08:42:30","date_gmt":"2009-09-06T16:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=2641"},"modified":"2009-09-06T08:43:43","modified_gmt":"2009-09-06T16:43:43","slug":"religion-unplugged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/religion-unplugged\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion Unplugged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wandering through Queens on Friday night, I came across a <em>bot\u00e1nica<\/em>, a fascinating small store of a type that I had never seen before. Wikipedia has a useful description <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bot%C3%A1nica\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, and although as John knows all too well, Wikipedia is not always (ever?) the most reliable source of information, judging by what I saw and heard (I was with a Latin American friend who had a chat with the store\u2019s primarily spanish-speaking proprietor), it\u2019ll do here.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0In any event, as an example of syncretic religion at work, this little shop (and what it was selling) took some beating. In addition it was a useful reminder, stripped off much of the usual intellectual flummery, of the universal fears and beliefs that lie at the heart of almost all religion \u2013 and do so much to\u00a0explain its continuing appeal. As for me, materialist to the end, I bought a candle dedicated to Juan del Dinero, a benevolent spirit (some prefer the euphemism \u2018folk saint\u2019) known for his ability to deliver riches. Here\u2019s hoping.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Hey, you never know<strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wandering through Queens on Friday night, I came across a bot\u00e1nica, a fascinating small store of a type that I had never seen before. Wikipedia has a useful description here, and although as John knows all too well, Wikipedia is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/religion-unplugged\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[94],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2644,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}