(February 24, 2026 at 9:39 am)Leonardo17 Wrote: - So what is religion?
- In it’s origin, it’s a sum of philosophical teachings and practical advices that includes methods that will allow individuals (like you or me) to create and maintain a stronger bond with this Ultimate Reality.
That’s all.
Yes, I think that's a very fair summary of what religion is.
It appears to be normal for people to ask certain basic questions. For example, about what is the fundamental basis of existence -- is it matter, or mind, etc.? Then if we can work out something about the qualities of this fundamental basis, we want to know how the human mind fits into this. And, most importantly, if reality operates in a knowable, regular way, how should we live in order to be best in alignment with this system?
(This is not to say that EVERYBODY asks these questions. Lots of people aren't interested. But it looks as though every different culture has tried to come up with answers.)
Unfortunately, the word "religion" is unpopular these days. I saw a survey recently in which a large percentage of regular church-going Christians denied having any religion. They don't like the word, so they say something like "I don't have a religion, I have a personal relationship with Jesus." This seems problematic to me, but it tells us something about the word.
A lot of people, understandably, assume that anything that qualifies as a religion has to include something which isn't in accord with modern scientific beliefs. 6-day creation, or something like that. But all of us here believe in things that can't be proven scientifically. We just draw a sort of fuzzy line between our unprovable beliefs (which are not religion) and other people's (which are).
I mean, it just comes down to a definition of a word, and arguing about definitions on the Internet generally doesn't end up being a worthwhile thing to do.
