What is religion?

[Uberman]

I don't know. Tell me. I took a course recently called "Anthropology of Religion" and I still don't know. Does anyone? Care to make a tentative proposal?

[Smokey D]

A set of beliefs that suppose the existence of a deity or force which interacts with humanity in a specific way. Usually entails some sort of moral code, eschatology and theory on the nature, origin and destination of the human soul.

[Uberman]

So is it defined by a certain set of elements, and if you have enough of them, it counts as one? Is there nothing more specific?

[Smokey D]

Probably not. What exactly are you looking for?

[CabbageStabbage]

Originally Posted by Smokey D

A set of beliefs that suppose the existence of a deity or force which interacts with humanity in a specific way. Usually entails some sort of moral code, eschatology and theory on the nature, origin and destination of the human soul.

Buddhism doesn't really have a god or force - though it does have Karma if that counts.

A religion is an organization based on a set of rules and beliefs (Bible, Torah, Qu'ran, Vedas). A religion deals with the non-secular: the spirit, right and wrong, etc. When a religion deals with something secular, it has a non-secular basis (Think being forbidden to eat something - that is based off of a belief that that food is 'unclean').

I define faith as the actual belief in a god or gods or karma or life force, and religion as everything that surrounds that.

[Smokey D]

Buddhism doesn't really have a god or force - though it does have Karma if that counts.

It does, and Buddhism has many aspects so closely related to divinity its pointless to draw a distinction -- heavens, hells, demons, 'great souls'. Many Buddhist sects are much more explicit and announce a belief in a universal force they call God.

[Shell]

Originally Posted by CabbageStabbage

Buddhism doesn't really have a god or force - though it does have Karma if that counts.

A religion is an organization based on a set of rules and beliefs (Bible, Torah, Qu'ran, Vedas). A religion deals with the non-secular: the spirit, right and wrong, etc. When a religion deals with something secular, it has a non-secular basis (Think being forbidden to eat something - that is based off of a belief that that food is 'unclean').

I define faith as the actual belief in a god or gods or karma or life force, and religion as everything that surrounds that.

Couldn't karma be considered a force?

[Uberman]

To say that religion deals with the non-secular doesn't say much, because secular just means non-religious, no?

[CabbageStabbage]

Originally Posted by Uberman

To say that religion deals with the non-secular doesn't say much, because secular just means non-religious, no?

You're right.

Time to define 'secular'.

dictionary.com says, "worldly, not spiritual". Not very helpful.

[Uberman]

See, this is all contributing to my grand theory of everything being silly.

[CabbageStabbage]

Problem with "everything being silly" or "nothing exists" theories is that by their own definition, they don't exist.

So your "everything being silly" theory is silly, and thus we should ignore it.

[Uberman]

precisely: human life consists of ignoring this theory

[Joel_DK_Clash]

Originally Posted by Uberman

See, this is all contributing to my grand theory of everything being silly.

Haha, Duh...

The first line on Wiki:

Religion is a human phenomenon that defies easy definition.

The rest of the paragraph pretty much says what everyone else has been saying in this thread. How would you define religion?

[Uberman]

Well I guess I'm pretty comfortable with anthropologist Clifford Geertz's definition, the only thing I remember getting out of that class:

Religion is defined as (1) a system of symbols (2) which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men (3) by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

But. I think this could refer to many symbol systems other than those which have been traditionally defined as religions, e.g. belief in the absolute authority of science.

[Der Übermensch]

It does, and Buddhism has many aspects so closely related to divinity its pointless to draw a distinction -- heavens, hells, demons, 'great souls'. Many Buddhist sects are much more explicit and announce a belief in a universal force they call God.

Which has almost no base with what the Buddha said. Its all concepts created by different sects that came after his death. Its kind of like the Catholic Church and purgatory. It may be right for all we know, but they came to it by extrapolation.

[BassRevelation1029]

Originally Posted by Uberman

I don't know. Tell me. I took a course recently called "Anthropology of Religion" and I still don't know. Does anyone? Care to make a tentative proposal?

religion: a world-life view. Simple as that. It does not have to be about a god at all.
at least thats the nice definition

[Uberman]

Which has almost no base with what the Buddha said. Its all concepts created by different sects that came after his death. Its kind of like the Catholic Church and purgatory. It may be right for all we know, but they came to it by extrapolation.

Looking at the idea of skilfill means (teaching to the understanding of the audience), I almost believe that the Buddha only spoke in terms of karma and rebirth, let alone devas and pretas and so on, because he felt that was what his Hindu audience would comprehend.

[Ghostfire3]

Religion: A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.

Source: www.dictionary.com

[Uberman]

the such referring to what?

[antiant]

here's what happens when you do your reasearch and some searching:

[URL="http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/WhitePapers/Larue_whatisreligion.htm"]What is religion?[/url] (click on link)

and...

What is Religion?
Defining Religion: The Problem of Definition
From Austin Cline

Many say the etymology of religion lies with the Latin word religare, which means “to tie, to bind.” This seems to be favored on the assumption that it helps explain the power religion has. The Oxford English Dictionary points out, though, that the etymology of the word is doubtful. Earlier writers like Cicero connected the term with relegere, which means “to read over again” (perhaps to emphasize the ritualistic nature of religions?).

Some argue that religion doesn’t really exist — there is only culture. Jonathan Z. Smith writes in Imagining Religion:

“...while there is a staggering amount of data, phenomena, of human experiences and expressions that might be characterized in one culture or another, by one criterion or another, as religion — there is no data for religion.

Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study. It is created for the scholar’s analytic purposes by his imaginative acts of comparison and generalization. Religion has no existence apart from the academy.”

It is true that many societies do not draw a clear line between their culture and what scholars would call “religion.” This does not mean that religion doesn’t exist, but it is worth keeping in mind that even when we think we have a handle on what religion is, we might be fooling ourselves.

Definitions of religion tend to suffer from one of two problems: they are either too narrow and exclude many belief systems which most agree are religious, or they are too vague and ambiguous, suggesting that just about any and everything is a religion.

A good example of a narrow definition is the common attempt to define “religion” as “belief in God,” effectively excluding polytheistic religions and atheistic religions while including theists who have no religious belief system. A good example of a vague definition is the tendency to define religion as “worldview” — but how can every worldview qualify as a religion?

Some have argued that religion isn’t hard to define and the plethora of conflicting definitions is evidence of how easy it really is. The problem lies in finding a definition that is empirically useful and empirically testable. So far, the best definition of religion I have seen is in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It lists traits of religions rather than declaring religion to be one thing or another, arguing that the more markers present in a belief system, the more”religious like” it is:

* Belief in supernatural beings (gods).
* A distinction between sacred and profane objects.
* Ritual acts focused on sacred objects.
* A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the gods.
* Characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration), which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual, and which are connected in idea with the gods.
* Prayer and other forms of communication with gods.
* A world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some specification of an over-all purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.
* A more or less total organization of one’s life based on the world view.
* A social group bound together by the above.

This definition captures much of what religion is across diverse cultures. It includes sociological, psychological, and historical factors and allows for broader gray areas in the concept of religion. It’s not without flaws, though. The first marker, for example, is about “supernatural beings” and gives “gods” as an example, but thereafter only gods are mentioned. Even the concept of “supernatural beings” is a bit too specific; Mircea Eliade defined religion in reference to a focus on “the sacred” and that is a good replacement for “supernatural beings” because not every religion revolves around the supernatural.


A better definition is:

* Belief in something sacred (for example, gods or other supernatural beings).
* A distinction between sacred and profane objects.
* Ritual acts focused on sacred objects.
* A moral code believed to have a sacred or supernatural basis.
* Characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration), which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual.
* Prayer and other forms of communication with the supernatural.
* A world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some specification of an over-all purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.
* A more or less total organization of one’s life based on the world view.
* A social group bound together by the above.

This is the definition of religion used here. It describes religious systems but not non-religious systems. It encompasses the features common in belief systems generally acknowledged as religions without focusing on specific characteristics unique to just a few.