What makes a religion?

[FatAndFaithless]

I'm about to say summin that I know just about every one of you will disagree with and I am sure in time and with more socialization with other atheists I will change my mind but here it is...

I know that the actual definition of religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. That being said I personally feel it is just a belief system. It doesn't have to be a god or directed at anything. My -belief- is there is no god, no afterlife, no such thing as souls etc. I believe this 100% but I will not straight forward tell someone that their beliefs are wrong. To me this is my belief system and that is all that it takes to make it 'a religion'. I mean they have that Jedi religion but that isn't directed at a god or anything is it? I honestly don't know please tell me lol

Here's the definition from Wikipedia.

Religion is a cultural system of behaviors and practices, world views,sacred texts, holy places, ethics, and societal organisation that relate humanity to what an anthropologist has called "an order of existence".Different religions may or may not contain various elements, ranging from the "divine", "sacred things", "", a "supernatural being or supernatural beings" or "...some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life."

Believing that there are no gods and no afterlife isn't a 'belief system.'  Those are just a few disparate beliefs you hold.  They don't proscribe actions or prohibit actions, they don't tell you how to live your life or set up some framework within which to view your place in the universe.  They don't have attendant practices or rituals or texts or places or organizations.

And religions don't have to be theistic (eg. Buddhism.) And the reason that Jedi is technically a religion (though many places don't consider it a religion in legal discussions much like they don't consider FSM), is because it does have prescriptive ideas and ways to live your life and rituals and texts and a way to view your place in the universe. Jedi isn't that much more ludicrous than a lot of Eastern religions.