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What's a religion?

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    #46
    Re: What's a religion?

    I'm not sure to understand you... It's a joke ?
    (sorry if I'm "first degree", it's partly because I'm not yet very comfortable in English)

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      #47
      Re: What's a religion?

      Originally posted by Shunyanand View Post
      I'm not sure to understand you... It's a joke ?
      (sorry if I'm "first degree", it's partly because I'm not yet very comfortable in English)
      Yeah I was making light of the issue. Look, I'm not saying religion is evil or good. It's just..not for me. I look at it from an outside perspective of being an atheist. No, I'm not a hater. I'm just a keen observer. And at times that does indeed include me. I don't want to be that a hole atheist being smug because I know everything and religion is crap. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying first there is a difference between being spiritual and being religious. One is let's say home videos. While the other is cable you pay for. When you move out of the realm of spiritual and one on one with your deity du jour and into the realm of communal and religion and social thought...you are selling that idea to the person next to you. And I'm not referring to only Christianity. Any religion. I'm almost certain that when the followers of Apollo were looking for devotees and they went over to the followers of Aphrodite, let's say,they sold their deity. In some way or another religion (not a deity) can only move through this world by word of mouth. No one is saying hey, my beliefs on this deity suck. Of course not. It's more hey, this deity gives you ever lasting life! This belief of nature gives you freedom from suffering. This view gives you this and that view gives you that. You are selling something. You are selling an idea. Now as for Jesus giving out free hugs. Great. But Paul was selling his church on the back of Jesus.
      Satan is my spirit animal

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        #48
        Re: What's a religion?

        It's quite difficult to define religion because everyone has it's own religion.

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          #49
          Re: What's a religion?

          To be honest I couldn't really tell you.I was baptised Anglican at about three months old and have never really went to church since.As I got older and started to look into religion I found most of the christian religions to constricting for me.I found that my own beliefs were enough and there was no need of churches as by then the whole world was sacred.
          silly old man

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            #50
            Re: What's a religion?

            Worship and/or veneration of something or someone(s), whether it/he/she/they exist or not. It is whatever you decide to worship that you bow in reverence to in awe.

            I know a lot of people who claim to worship a god but in their actions they worship their shiny new car or the money they wasted to get it. Some could also say we worship what we put most of our effort into, whether it be a job, a hobby or our family. I am guilty of putting most of my effort into my kids, therefore I venerate my children more than anything in my life right now.

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              #51
              Re: What's a religion?

              What "religion" means to the common westerner and what it means to the academic are two different things.
              For instance, in the academic study of religion, we consider atheism to be a religion, complete with orthodoxy and orthopraxy, sects and movements, dogmas and "holy" or highly revered figures. Many atheists, however, would probably be appalled at the thought.

              Also, the idea of religion in the modern west is very different from elsewhere in the world, and in time. Biblical Hebrew, for example, which was the language of ancient Israelite religious culture (one of the source religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), has no word for "religion" in the way the west understands it. Orach comes closest, but means something akin to "life path" or "mode of existence" and covers everything from how to worship to how to tie your shoes. Tao and Do in the Chinese (Sinitic) language families has a similar conceptual meaning, hence Aikido in Japanese means "the life-path of harmonious spirit." This concept of religion is rather foreign to the modern westerner -- so much so as to lead some to not classify many eastern religions, such as Taoism and Buddhism, as religions at all.

              I find many Americans believe that a religion must have a god/gods, must teach its people to be good and "moral," and must be preoccupied with the afterlife. This is a very Christian-centric worldview. There are numerous religions that have no deities, or at least have no specific teachings about deities. Most religions of the world (not most religious people in the world) have no concern for or, in some cases, even no teachings about what comes next after death. There are religions that do not have moral codes, and there are even some (new and ancient) that actually encourage what westerners would consider amoral or even evil behavior (theft, random murder, human sacrifice, genocide, eugenics, and forced sex with minors are all examples of morals from certain religions from antiquity).

              So the best definition, I've found, is the anthropological one:
              "A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." --Clifford Geertz, Religion as a Cultural System
              Last edited by Orecha; 17 Dec 2013, 09:39.
              ʼŌraḥ Qaḏəmōnī, a revival of Ancient Israelite religion -- PathOfAncients.org

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                #52
                Re: What's a religion?

                Asking 'why' and presenting reasons for the first answer
                Work hard Play hard.
                What is history?

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                  #53
                  Re: What's a religion?

                  For me, a religion is an institution. Religions generally have a set of rules or dogma for its followers to abide by. A spiritual path (to me) is most of the answers I see people giving here for their definition of religion. Spirituality & religion are very different to me.

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                    #54
                    Re: What's a religion?

                    Religion is the physical and spiritual manifestation of a set of beliefs one believes. Basically with such a topic, it is easy to say two possibilities. The first being that if we presume, Hypothetically there is no gods, then why was religion created. Well going off this basis we have only two answers, to make a system to elevate guilt, and the other being to make it possible for the system that the ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians used called "Divine Right". On the other hand the way I see religion is the connection between our two worlds, the physical and the spiritual worlds. This is evident in mysterious structures and other un-explainable things. This is what i believe to be fact anyways.

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                      #55
                      Re: What's a religion?

                      I think that religion is your beliefs, and how you PRACTICE your beliefs. So a Christian believes in God and then goes to church every Sunday to worship their god. So...I guess it's a mixture of your beliefs and rituals.

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                        #56
                        Re: What's a religion?

                        Very wise and correct definitions of the concept were already written. If you face it through Sociology, for example, you will find out that people perceive "Religion" as something that they look up to. As a reference, as an idol. In the end, something that makes them feel euphoric, and happy. Like when someone says, for example, "Metallica is my religion!", or "Manchester United is my religion!". And, in practical terms, in many cases, they are being serious. There are people who have authentic altars built, in their homes, in honour of a certain band or musician, a football club, a political party or figure, or anything else, for that matter. An animal species, etc. I have a friend who is literally devoted to cats, for example.

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                          #57
                          Re: What's a religion?

                          Religion is something you do on the basis of something you believe about the nature of whatever is divine and sacred in or about the universe.
                          "I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What God desires is here
                          (in your head) and here (in your heart) and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man - or not."
                          ~from Kingdom of Heaven

                          "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
                          ~Thomas Jefferson

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                            #58
                            Re: What's a religion?

                            I kinda feel my beliefs would be degraded if I followed an established religion,formal religions tend to have way to many rules and a lot less direct connection to a deity.

                            Just my personal belief,why I do not follow a conventional established path because in my mind that becomes to constrained.
                            MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                            all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                            NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                            don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                            sigpic

                            my new page here,let me know what you think.


                            nothing but the shadow of what was

                            witchvox
                            http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

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                              #59
                              Re: What's a religion?

                              to borrow from potter stewart, i know it when i see it
                              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                              sigpic

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                                #60
                                Re: What's a religion?

                                In my opinion, religion is the addition of organisation, ritual standardisation, or dogma, or any combination of the three to a spirituality. A religion has a classification to it, as in signs, traditions or beliefs which can identify it from others. I'm not sure if that fully explains it, but that is at least the basics of what makes a religion, in my mind. ^-^;

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