The question is not easy to answer.
The groups, practices and systems that people identify as "religions"
are so diverse that it is no easy task to bring them all under one
simple definition. Of course, this difficulty has not stopped people from
attempting to define religion. While no one definition of religion can
completely sum up what religion is, they all tell us something about religion
and perhaps bring one to a closer understanding of what we mean when we talk about
"religion."
"Religion: A general term used... to
designate all concepts concerning the belief in god(s) and goddess(es) as well
as other spiritual beings or transcendental ultimate concerns."
~ Penguin Dictionary of Religions (1997).
~ Penguin Dictionary of Religions (1997).
"Religion: Relation of human beings
to God or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases,
merely supernatural."
~ Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (online, 2006)
~ Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (online, 2006)
"Religion: Human beings' relation to
that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine."
~ Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006)
~ Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006)
"Religion: (2)
a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes,
beliefs, and practices; (4) a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to
with ardor and faith."
~ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (online, 2006)
~ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (online, 2006)
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a
spiritless situation. It is the opiate of the people."
~ Karl Marx
~ Karl Marx
"Religion is the human attitude towards
a sacred order that includes within it all being—human or
otherwise—i.e., belief in a cosmos, the meaning of which both includes and
transcends man."
~ Peter Berger
~ Peter Berger
"Viewed systematically, religion can be
differentiated from other culturally constituted institutions by virtue only of
its reference to superhuman beings."
~ Melford Spiro
~ Melford Spiro
"Religion is what the individual does with
his own solitariness."
~ A.N. Whitehead
~ A.N. Whitehead
"...for limited purposes only, let me
define religion as a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate
man to the ultimate conditions of his existence."
~ R.N. Bellah
~ R.N. Bellah
"Religion is the daughter of Hope
and Fear, explaining to ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."
~ Ambrose Bierce
~ Ambrose Bierce
"A religion is a unified system of beliefs
and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set
apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral
community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
~ Emile Durkheim
~ Emile Durkheim
"One's religion is whatever he is
most interested in."
~J.M. Barrie, The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)
~J.M. Barrie, The Twelve-Pound Look (1910)
"Religion consists in a set of things which
the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain
of."
~ Mark Twain
~ Mark Twain
"Religion is an illusion and
it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual
desires."
~ Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
~ Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
"We go into religion in order to feel
warmer in our hearts, more connected to others, more connected to something
greater and to have a sense of peace."
~ Goldie Hawn, Beliefnet interview
~ Goldie Hawn, Beliefnet interview
"Religion is something left over from
the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we
adopt reason and science as our guidelines."
~ Bertrand Russell
~ Bertrand Russell
"Religions are the great fairy
tales of conscience."
~ George Santayana
~ George Santayana
"Religion is all bunk."
~ Thomas Edison
~ Thomas Edison
"To be religious is to have one's attention fixed
on God and on one's neighbour in relation to God."
~ C.S. Lewis, "Lilies that Fester" in The Twentieth Century (April 1955).
~ C.S. Lewis, "Lilies that Fester" in The Twentieth Century (April 1955).
"Religion is to do right. It is
to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Religion, whatever it is, is a man's total
reaction upon life."
~ William James
~ William James
"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of
the soul; Unbelief, in denying them."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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