What IS 'Religion'???

[SageTree]

I think that'd work for sure.

That spark to transcend, to reach a little higher or dig a little further in....

Touching something 'outside' or to 'see something in' ourselves or what our Self really is.

 

[Sunstone]

About the only thing that all religions have in common are rituals and a community of followers.

• Some religions come without reference to the supernatural --- most notably some strains of Buddhism.
• Some religions come without a belief system -- most notably Shinto and similar religions.
• Some religions come without a moral/ethical framework -- most notably some of the native religions of New Guinea, and some native North American religions.

But no religions come without a community of followers and a set of rituals -- even the ones that say they have no rituals, have rituals in the anthropological sense.

However, defining religion is about as close to impossible as you can get.

 

[blackout]

Personally, I think that Merriam-Webster explains quite well what I view religion as...

a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

and since religious is described as: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity

Then religion is: A personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs and practices relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity.

This makes deity an option, but not required as there is also "ultimate reality" available as well. This covers religions which have beliefs concerning karma and enlightenment and so on yet no particular god concept. That there is more to the world than just what we can see, taste and touch, but there's no definitive stance on deity. This makes religion something that deals with beliefs and practices concerning concepts of what may be "beyond" this physical world.

Draka,

Thank you for unpacking that definition.

Would you mind fitting your preferred definition into the poll options?
(I realize they're not perfect)

I see here, beliefs, practices, transcendence, and maybe supernatural elements?

Is that about right?

 

[Quintessence]

This is an interesting topic, thank you. Religion is such a difficult term to define. Honestly, I cannot say I have any singular definition of it that I adhere to, but I tend to be broader or more liberal with my definition than restrictive. I answered the poll closer to the broadest definition of religion I acknowledge. It's not a perfect poll, but I doubt if I could have done any better. =}

 

[Acim]

The whole NECESSARY emphasis in the poll is I think misleading. I answered it anyway, and reluctantly so, with that emphasis.

IMO, for religion to be what it is, it is a belief system. That would be mundane, to the point, definition I would go with. The rest is closer to desired than something that is necessary, and for sure as far as sound bite definitions go.

If I added just a tad onto that definition it would be in vein of "belief system that brings one closer to God" which is short version of how I'd put that phrasing, and is more in line with desire than 'by definition is absolutely necessary.' I don't think it is 'absolutely necessary' that the religious belief system bring one closer to god(s). I think it is inevitable, but also is inevitable without belief system in place. Evolution theory is a belief system that I think plausibly brings someone closer to God, whether one is initially conscious of this or not.

Religion, like science, is a process or activity. It has its meaning rooted in being a noun (thus more like a thing) and there are denominations / branches of it, but in practice it is process, and as process it is a path that I think ultimately supersedes definitions or conscious choices of what is actually occurring. Meaning I might think I am going from Catholicism to Lutheran as conscious choice, which for sure on the surface is the case, but at deeper level, I'm on path that was leading me to deeper understanding of myself and what it is I say I am most interested in.

 

[Storm]

I voted belief system, worldview, and works.

Religion starts with worldview. It gets codified (belief system), and really that's enough to qualify. But it's worthless if it isn't put into practice.

 

[SageTree]

But it's worthless if it isn't put into practice.

Quoted for Truth.

 

[Rhizomatic]

...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.

-J.Z. Smith, Imagining Religion

That being said, I've always found engagement with sacred reality to be the most useful criterion for distinguishing religion from other phenomena.

 

[Adramelek]

I am a Setian Black Magician. "Setianism" is primarily a life philosophy which can be summed up in one word Xeper which is an ancient Egyptian verb pronounced (Khefer) which translates to "Become" or "I Am Come Into Being". The premise of Xeper is Self-Ascension, the life Work of transforming ones Self from a human state into a divine State of Being, in other words, becoming more than just the sum of your parts via the conscious practice of individual methods and techniques (new and old) of the Black Arts - the spawn of that great Dark Fire of psychecentric awareness.

Setian philosophy is a religion in the sense that it does involve worship of the psyche/Self as the most sacred of divine gifts. Second, many Setians are convinced in the literal existence of the Egyptian god Set as the most ancient semblance of the Prince of Darkness, the divine creator of the human psyche, and is thus revered as the great benefactor of that which has become humankind. Therefore, Setian philosophy does possess a god concept which is what makes it both a religion and a philosophy of Life.

Xeper.
/Adramelek\