Sunday, March 20, 2011

What does religion mean?

Religious people
Religion is for some people a concept which they integrate in their daily lives. Religious beliefs are part and parcel of their lives. Nothing can be concieved without recourse to religion. Still, religion is a term that needs clear definition to avoid any ambiguities.
What is religion?
Religion is a belief of some superhuman power or powers, in particular a god or gods, which usually involve obedience, reverence, and worship; and as part of a system which defines a code of living, especially as a way of achieving spiritual or material improvement.

Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.
Features pertaining to religion
  • The word religion may also be called faith or belief system.
  • Religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. 
  • Most religions have organized behaviors, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity, regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (either natural or architectural), and/or scriptures. 
  • The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture.
Different religions
Religion have taken different forms in different cultures.
  • Some religions place an emphasis on belief, while others emphasize practice. 
  • Some religions focus on the subjective experience of the religious individual, while others consider the activities of the religious community to be most important. 
  • Some religions claim to be universal, believing their laws and cosmology to be binding for everyone, while others are intended to be practiced only by a closely defined or localized group. 
  • In many places religion has been associated with public institutions such as education, hospitals, the family, government, and political hierarchies.
Source: Wikipedia

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