"Apple is a new religion. . . "

[guitarist]

Yeah if we imagine it from the point of view of a complete outsider, a detached observer, it's easy to see how it looks like a devoted, admiring following, and the gadgets are like religious icons.

[GGD]

mrlynn wrote:
". . . and Steve Jobs was its high priest"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a...ory_1.html

. . . In a secular age, Apple has become a religion, and Steve Jobs was its high priest.

Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, and that same year, an Eastern Washington University sociologist, Pui-Yan Lam, published a paper titled “May the Force of the Operating System Be With You: Macintosh Devotion as Implicit Religion.” Lam’s research struck close to home, quite literally — her husband has a mini-museum of Apple products in the basement.

I call BS.

/Mr Lynn

Both the author and the article exist.

http://www.ewu.edu/CSBSSW/Programs/Crimi...an-Lam.xml
http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content...l.pdf+html

[graylocks]

decay wrote:
With Apple, I can see and use a product right in front of me.

With religion, I must believe in stories I am told, with little proof to back them up.


So yeah - nothing like religion. IMHO.

ooh, great distinction.

and as apple fans we can even joke about our adoration and Jobs' RDF which would be sacrilegious and grounds for excommunication in a true religion.

[rgG]

Well, we did call him "Leader" around here. Just sayin'.

[Seacrest]

Apple under Jobs was one of the few companies that made it evident that they truly cared about every minute detail of the products they were creating. Whereas the ethos of the rest of American (or global) businesses was largely "how little can we do for the customer and still get paid," Apple's goal is to refine everything they do to the point where their customers are happy — eager even — to "overpay" for their products.

Like another Bay Area guy who just passed, Jobs really did have a "Commitment to Excellence" that was unrelenting, and that's what I admired about him, and what drew me to his products.

Religious devotion?

Uh, no. Not for me.

Just a recognition that there was something special in much of what the company and its “Leader” were doing.

[blooz]

Now that the media has decided, on its own, to paint us as worshippers in a religion, which we aren't, they will now turn around and excoriate us for being blind to his faults, which we aren't.

What we really are or do isn't important to them, their story is important to them.

[guitarist]

I think people are reading just the headline, not the article, picking out the two words, "religion" and "priest", and riffing on it. Filling in the blanks with stuff that has nothing to do with what it contains. I think there's plenty to disagree with, with this questionable sociological hypothesis, but bypassing all that, and just critiquing a headline is pretty silly.

But, ignoring the article is an option, too.

Or, just make stuff up, about what we think the article is about, then take shots at it. That works, too.

That's how I do about 90% of my posts here!

[mrlynn]

GGD wrote:
[quote=mrlynn]

I call BS.

Both the author and the article exist.
Huh? Who said they didn't? Look up 'BS'.

/Mr Lynn

[GGD]

mrlynn wrote:
[quote=GGD]
[quote=mrlynn]

I call BS.

Both the author and the article exist.
Huh? Who said they didn't? Look up 'BS'.

/Mr Lynn
Perhaps you can clarify what part of the statement you were calling BS

1) Apple introduced the iPod in 2001
2) and that same year, an Eastern Washington University sociologist, Pui-Yan Lam
3) published a paper titled “May the Force of the Operating System Be With You: Macintosh Devotion as Implicit Religion.”
4) Lam’s research struck close to home, quite literally — her husband has a mini-museum of Apple products in the basement.

[deckeda]

GGD, it's pretty clear that like the rest of us, Mr. Lynn was disagreeing with Lam's assertion regarding Apple being a religion, not that fact that Lam or his hypothesis exist(ed).