What is Religion?

[MoonChild78]

In my philosophy of religion class, my teacher said that there is no set definition of religion. So, it made me wonder how do define religion. Everyone in my classes gave very standard of religion, as in those that we learned in conventional churches (be it catholic/Christian/jewish/ect.). But later when I was thinking about it, I came up with so many idea's and thoughts that it made me wonder what everyone here thought? I'm really curious to hear what everyone thinks, be it positive or negative.

[Against The Tide]

A religion can be a set of values and beliefs, telling you how to live an enriching life. A religion is usually centred around spiritual belief - one or many dieties, and may have answers about mans big questions - the afterlife, creation and so on.

[plumedsnake]

Religion is Life and the process of trying to get through it.

[Eternal Night]

Religion in my personal op is a lie........

Something for us as humans to believe in......It is like it is in built in us to need hope and well religion gives us that..Only to let us down wen we bite the bullet.

Also as much as it is there to give us hope........it's a form of torture as well, espec certain religions like Christianity .
Working and striving to what we think is a 'better person'.......when really we should just concentrate on accepting ourselves for who and what we are.......warts and all.

[LostSheep]

Religion is a means of controlling the masses. It's a way for personal spirituality, beliefs and feelings, and things like attachments to nature, to be pigeonholed and filed into neat boxes so that labels can be attached to people, and consequently those people can be kept obedient by their religious leaders.

[Zephyrstorm]

Religion is mankinds attempts to understand the world, to pass down certain social norms, and is composed of a variety of assumptions about the big questions (i.e. How did we get here? What happens when we die?...) It may make certain assumptions about deities, the soul, and the nature of reality.
In so far as religion teaches norms and mores, it is a means to control individuals. As such, it also serves as a support structure during times of crisis.

[Earthwalker]

In my philosophy of religion class, my teacher said that there is no set definition of religion.

It's interesting how many folks will argue against this though. I often find that those who offhandedly dismiss ALL religion have a rather narrow conception of religion. I also often find that attacks against religion rarely apply to Neopaganism or paths other than Abrahamic monotheism. >.<

But anyway, if you look at all typical definitions of religion, you get some idea of what the word means and what it doesn't mean. Religion does not have to be organized, it doesn't have to be dogmatic, it doesn't have to involve a God or Gods, and it dosen't have to have a sacred text. It doesn't really *have* to be anything save what Zephyr says: it is fundamentally about asking and answering the bigger questions of life that often have no one true answer. The etymology of religion suggests a 'reconnection' to something we have distanced ourselves from. A reconnection to our place in the greater universe? To Nature and our fellow human beings? Religion looks at these questions and tries to make sense of it. It's the part of our worldview that informs us on the nature of the world and our place in it.

Other than that, religion as used today typically denotes the 'public sphere' of this quest rather than the 'private sphere' of the quest for meaningfulness. We like to call the private sphere 'spirituality' nowadays, but not so long ago religion and spirituality were much closer synonyms. Perhaps the tendancy of more dogmatic religions to squelch personal exploration and gnosis of the Divine is what has accustomed us to a division of religion and spirituality? Such a divide tends not to exist in Neopaganism, and I've been known to refer to my path variously as a religion and a spirituality.

[Mesektet]

The Practice and Art of Applying Significance to Reality.

[plumedsnake]

Religion is how we deal with dissatisfaction, and a sense of something unfulfilled.

[Beatnik Bettie]

"Religion is the opiate of the masses" - Karl Marx

[plumedsnake]

"Religion is the opiate of the masses" - Karl Marx

Hey, this is the 21st century. Today OPiates are the Religion of the Masses.

[Beatnik Bettie]

Hey, this is the 21st century. Today OPiates are the Religion of the Masses.

:lol:

QFT!

[gourd_one]

:hahugh:

I once heard it stated that technically religion is what happens when two or more people share discuss or practice their spirituality, which is by nature a very personal thing

I can accept that, but I consider organized religion to be a club or cult which requires that members share the same belief system or practices..

not very religious,

gourd

[sari0009]

Most dictionaries basically give monotheistic definitions of religion (belief, faith, belief, faith, belief, deep conviction, belief, practicing beliefs) and list a focus of the definition on rites as "archaic," as if such religion must be barbaric, immature, and unstable.

When people identify by belief, however, then they have the highest chances of becoming the most immature, hurtful, and dangerous...and all that is seen as necessary evils of civilization (triumphalism (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sari0009&nextdate=3%2f19%2f2006+23%3a59%3a59.999)) but it doesn't play well with pluralism. Too often, when people talk about morals, they wage cultural war and/or kill each other.


It's important, therefore, to articulate moral-ethical systems that allow for identity yet do not exclude people in the process, so I thought a lot about "Divine" and "Deity" and think it'd be very difficult to talk about religion without discussing these!Divine – universal forces of both internal and external connectivity that allow patterns to exist, come into creation, and even play.Divine is best defined from a pluralistic and multidisciplinary approach rather than a proprietary one and yet mainstream dictionaries define divine as pertaining, addressed, appropriated, or devoted to God or proceeding from God (and their idea of deity is peculiar to monotheism) while many other pantheist or pagan glossaries vary on the definition of divine or just don’t include (http://www.neopagan.net/Pagan_Glossary.html) this very important word.I like to view the divine as both immanent (internal) and transcendent (external) but have had to spend most of my time managing the immanent and found that most powerful and practical.I see nature as divine and everything that exists is natural.
It makes sense to me that the divine is about making connections of one sort or the other.
Deity – strong patterns (anthropomorphized or not) that create and amplify connectivity internally, externally, and between.


With this definition, what a deity is could be wildly interpretive rather than just a being we worship (and yes, people may define "worship" differently too (http://web.mac.com/donna_kato/Site/Inkjet_Transfers.html)). Deities to me are real but tweak-able which means, for example, that some people might use a less cluttered archetype, such as earlier versions of Aphrodite and Kali. (I was studying computer programming at the same time I got into pantheism and then polytheism so classes with their methods in C (computer) programming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_%28computer_science%29) definitely affected how I think of deity.)While not all deities should be anthropomorphized, it makes sense to me that certain ones are because they the uniquely human patterns and connections that we live. It makes sense to anthropomorphize Aphrodite since this Goddess has to do with human love.Ultimately, I ideally view religion more as being a set of rites, practices, and a web of virtues, with a maximum emphasis on connection and personal excellence and minimal emphasis on belief. This allows a person involvement in multiple religions/paths, and doesn't view morals, ethics, or virtues as proprietary (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sari0009&nextdate=11%2f29%2f2007+23%3a59%3a59.999), because when that happens, then we get into power struggles (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sari0009&nextdate=7%2f12%2f2007+23%3a59%3a59.999).

[DoktorSick]

Religion is like a joke that has been told over and over again.
Until it's not funny anymore.