Terminology and an open floor

The other day I tried to design a paranormal-independent terminology for talking about the phenomenon we call “religion.” I suggested calling a received belief system a “kernel” and an institution that transmits received beliefs a “monitor.”

On further reflection I don’t like “monitor.” Too many things are called monitors. (In case anyone cares, what I meant was not the square thing that sits on your desk and shows you my blog, but a virtual machine monitor—an ancient, rather mainframey terminology.) But I’d rather go with a hardware analogy—“repeater.” (See the Wik.)

If any of my readers (perhaps two or three have stuck around after the Andrewlanche) has any better suggestions, I am certainly open to them. (Unqualified Reservations is not a mere outlet for my deranged, extremist rants. It is a community of individuals whose goal is to learn, grow, and change together. Please let me know if I’m layin’ it on too thick.)

So a religion is a kernel, and a church is a repeater. But not all kernels are religions, and not all repeaters are churches.

The interesting question then becomes: how do we separate repeater and state?

The floor is open for your comments. Also, in case you have any large chunks of text from obscure Eastern European novels to paste into the window, this is not only allowed, it is encouraged.