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What is your definition of religion?

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Inspired by @Conscious thoughts 's thread. Mine? I'm not even gonna touch a definition. Too hard to come up with one that encompasses all religions. If you say your belief system is a religion then it is one. I'm not gonna argue. Most atheists don't say they are a religion. Thus I don't believe they are a religion. Some Satanists say they are others say they are just a philosophy rather then a religion. I consider my beliefs religious tho some dont. I might have a definition but I find it hard to word it.

I consider it a physical expression of your spirituality through thought, prayer, ritual, and communion. Of course it's not limited to this. Cultural religions based on tradition, duty,and practice is religion too.

You're part of a religion if you have practices that transform your spirituality to life.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I'm not even gonna touch a definition. Too hard to come up with one that encompasses all religions

For me, a religion is any world view that includes a supernatural deity, which I define as a conscious, volitional entity believed to transcend mankind and our known reality, and is its only source. It may also include (and usually does) a culture of attitudes, rituals, symbols. Here's a formulation (I've modified it) that I find useful. The first two elements are always present, the third nearly inevitable to some degree. Elements lower on the list are less essential.

* Belief in supernatural beings (gods).
* A world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein.
* Organization of one’s life based on the world view.
* A doctrine or dogma
* 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 social group bound together by the above.

There is also commonly a mythology, and symbols, but again, these are accidental characteristics, not essential to religion..
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
Actually the word 'religion' is vague and unclear. The word probably meant something more specific even a hundred years ago. It seems most people today are think-for-themselfers. Is that 'religion'?
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Except our resident professor in math told us, there there is form of logic that accept some contradictions.
The axion of noncontradiction was just one example, there are of course many other possible axioms, and arguably most formal systems are built on multiple interlocking axiomatic premises. It is possible to construct logical or mathematical systems out of a wide variety of such systems of axiomatics (fuzzy logic and erotetic logic are logic systems that either weaken or do away with strict dualistic, noncontradictory truth values, Buddhist philosophy does great things with contradictory statements, and Hegelian logic arguably removes the notion of contradiction altogether)

I know of no logical or mathematical system that would function without any axiomatic element at all, however.
 

InvestigateTruth

Well-Known Member
Inspired by @Conscious thoughts 's thread. Mine? I'm not even gonna touch a definition. Too hard to come up with one that encompasses all religions. If you say your belief system is a religion then it is one. I'm not gonna argue. Most atheists don't say they are a religion. Thus I don't believe they are a religion. Some Satanists say they are others say they are just a philosophy rather then a religion. I consider my beliefs religious tho some dont. I might have a definition but I find it hard to word it.
In RF, religions are divided into two: Revealed and non-revealed.
Revealed religions are those who is believed by adherents that God has revealed its teachings. I supposed non-revealed religions are those that their teachings are not Revealed by God, but are discovered by some people.
Atheism is not a religion, but it is a belief, just as how adherents of a religion have a belief.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Few religions make any distinction between sacred and secular.

It's more a Christian than a universal concept.
Any religion that believes in unseen spirits and deities who have power to affect reality thereby has supernatural beliefs, and such beings are found in the very great majority of religions of which I'm aware. Even the belief that "the universe" has a purpose is supernatural in its nature.

There are some versions of Buddhism that are avowedly unsupernatural, but they're most popular in the West; and a lunch-friend of mine has been a speaker at their assemblies for many years. The meeting I attended had many ceremonial aspects, so it felt quite ambiguous.
The term supernatural is somewhat problematic being that it is both judgemental and culturally contingent.
It has a clear definition; it lacks the connotations of words like "superstitious" and "baloney". What word would you use instead?
Most followers of religions would reject such a distinction if it made conceptual sense to them (which it probably wouldn't).
They could only do that by omitting the parts about supernatural beings ─ gods, angels, devils, holy water (magic water), benign and malevolent forces and so on, no?
 

Segev Moran

Well-Known Member
Inspired by @Conscious thoughts 's thread. Mine? I'm not even gonna touch a definition. Too hard to come up with one that encompasses all religions. If you say your belief system is a religion then it is one. I'm not gonna argue. Most atheists don't say they are a religion. Thus I don't believe they are a religion. Some Satanists say they are others say they are just a philosophy rather then a religion. I consider my beliefs religious tho some dont. I might have a definition but I find it hard to word it.

A Religion, is a set of social behaviors and rules that are based on traditions and beliefs.
Although some parts of religion might me based on scientific ideas, most religions are mainly based on ideas that cannot be proven and are based on faith rather than evidence.
For that matter, North Korea's leaders are a religious leadership.
Nazi Germany was the same.
Most of today's countries still lead a religious (some more and some less) leadership.
Each religion has its own ways to promote and control their system, but without an exception, all of them, are based on ideas that are not proven by scientific measures.
Atheism has got nothing to do with religion. It is a lack of belief in god or idea of that sort.
As most atheists are seculars, they will usually not practice any religion (there are religions that are not based on a god/s idea).
No... science is not a religion. it is the exact opposite.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Yes, I don't believe in truth or know in the standard western sense. I am a skeptic. So I use an understanding of truth and knowledge that in all likelihood contradicts yours. :)
It certainly opens the highways for conversations. :)
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
And, of course, an apple is an animal (in your perspective)

I know an apple to be a fruit, its called knowledge, no faith required in my perspective. (Not sure how you consider an apple thought)
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
I know an apple to be a fruit, its called knowledge, no faith required in my perspective. (Not sure how you consider an apple thought)
Knowledge can puff up, in my understanding... but, as you intimated, an apple is an animal.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Knowledge can puff up, in my understanding... but, as you intimated, an apple is an animal.

You can never have enough knowledge. If it upsets you then i feel your pain

Dont play silly buggers, i have intimated no such thing.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
You can never have enough knowledge. If it upsets you then i feel your pain

Dont play silly buggers, i have intimated no such thing.

LOL... upset about what?

And you DID! When you mentioned unicorns. :D

I think you just got upset because I mentioned that atheism is a faith.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
LOL... upset about what?

And you DID! When you mentioned unicorns. :D

I think you just got upset because I mentioned that atheism is a faith.

Bollocks, unicorns are a mythical creature, i did not mention apples until you misrepresented me,. You must be upset about something to deliberately misrepresent someone to distract from their point.

Nope i was asking why you considered the precise opposite of faith to be faith. But if you can't answer without misrepresentation then fair enough
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I think you just got upset because I mentioned that atheism is a faith.

Wasn't that your intent?

"I always flinch in embarrassment for the believer who trots out, 'Atheism is just another kind of faith,' because it's a tacit admission that taking claims on faith is a silly thing to do. When you've succumbed to arguing that the opposition is just as misguided as you are, it's time to take a step back and rethink your attitudes." - Amanda Marcotte

You seem to have no idea what atheism is. It's not a belief. It's the result of two beliefs, namely that [1] one shouldn't believe anything without sufficient evidentiary support (skeptical empiricism), and that there is insufficient evidentiary support for gods to be a theist, but is not a belief itself.

Furthermore, no belief derives from atheism, and so, if there is nothing new to believe because one is an atheist, no faith is needed, just as no faith is needed to be an avampirist or an aleprechaunist. No other belief is derived from not believing in vampires and leprechauns, and so, no faith is required to be either, just an unwillingness to believe by faith.

It's remarkable that you still don't know that. You still see atheism as an unsupported ideology when it is neither. Aren't you a preacher or pastor or minister? Shouldn't such a person know better? Are you at all interested that you may not understand what atheism is or that you may be mischaracterizing them as faith-based thinkers? I don't think you are. I think you're more than content to go on mischaracterizing atheists and atheism, and no interest in finding out if you are wrong or being right if you are.

Convince that I'm wrong if I am.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Bollocks, unicorns are a mythical creature, i did not mention apples until you misrepresented me,. You must be upset about something to deliberately misrepresent someone to distract from their point.

Nope i was asking why you considered the precise opposite of faith to be faith. But if you can't answer without misrepresentation then fair enough

I think I covered that already. Above you honestly mentioned that unicorns are mythical but you want to use that point even when you have no idea that God is mythical. Therefore apples and animals. It was as misapplied as yours was. You can argue against that but there is no reason to since I won't.

Faith, in my definition, is to believe something even though your senses haven't yet perceived.

Your knowledge and everyones knowledge combined , even as much as we know, is infinitesimal.

An atheist believes there is no god with the infinitesimal amount of knowledge they have. It is a faith statement because it is not based on knowledge because the amount of knowledge everyone has is insignificant to what is yet to be discovered.

So, your declaration is not based on real knowledge until you have all knowledge. It is your faith to the point that you will even argue the fact that there is no god with the infinitesimal amount of knowledge you have.
 
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