Conception Of Religion

What is the true definition of the word religion? Well, religion is a set of beliefs and practices that recognize the existence of a god or many gods. We need religion in our lives because it gives us a sense of belonging to our common faith and helps us set morals in our lives. The importance of faith in our lives has created a bigger understanding to us and has showed us how we can have a closer link to it.

As a result, I believe that the best definition of religion is “a set of guidelines that defines who you are, whether or not you worship a god or gods. Religion varies from person to person and is based on personal faith and it is also greater than its followers and allows individuals to explore the true meaning of life” (Nguyen and Ibaviosa et al., 2014)

A number of problems are often encountered when dealing with the study of religion, the foremost problem has to do with defining religion. For instance, definitions that attach and limit religion to simply a belief in God/gods tend to be vague as well as narrow and to some degree not entirely accurate. This is mainly because definitions like the one mentioned above neglect to take into account atheistic religions that do not believe in God/gods. This is illustrated in a definition provided by the oxford English dictionary, ‘Action or conduct indicating belief in, obedience to, and reverence for a god, gods, or similar superhuman power; the performance of religious rites or observances.’

What does it mean to be religious? According to John Bowker (2006), it can mean so many things to different people (p.6). Therefore, John Bowker argues that being religious does not have a perfect explanation and it does not mean one simple thing. I totally agree with John. I agree because “as a religion develops, disagreements can arise” (Coogan, p 10). Everyone had his or her own true meaning of being religious. In addition, religion is a key element in most human cultures. John and I believe that understanding the differences within a religion, you can cultivate many skills that will serve individuals well during their lifetime. For instance, I learned a lot about Christians and Muslins. I am not a very religious person, but I do believe there is a god. Within those two religions, a lot of debates occur about god. Christians believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Unlike Islam, Muslims do not believe that he was the Son of God. Islam suggests that Jesus was a prophet. Essentially, I trying to make a point that both have different views on religions, but both want to serve a purpose to be happy with in. My next question is what is a religion. I understand that when it comes to defining the term “religion” it tends to be difficult. As stated earlier, there are millions of definition or interpretations of the word. Nevertheless, we have to realize that even though it is hard to understand what make up a religion to different people, we have to understand that it serves a

Defining the world ‘religion’ is not an easy process, fraught with difficulties. Throughout the ages, many attempts have been made. Often time’s people tend to focus on a very narrow definition that matches the person’s own beliefs but not others. One of the reasons it’s notoriously difficult to define because it crosses so many different boundaries in human experience. According to the Miriam Webster dictionary, religion could be identified as ‘a set of ideas concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs’ . Some see religion as a belief, while some understand it as the interaction of belief, behavior

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” ― Albert Einstein. According to the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, religion could be defined as, “an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group”. In other word a religion could mean a belief in a supernatural controlling power. In todays society there are many well renowned religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The main thing that all of these above mentioned religions have in common is that they serve as guides on how one should live their life. On the other hand many people started to question religions and their stories. Which in turn led to many individuals becoming atheist. According to the Merriam Webster

Religion was defined in various different ways in Chapter One of our textbook. The term religion is derived from the Latin meaning “to tie back,” or “to tie again.” A universal goal shared by religions is to tie a person back to something that lies beneath the surface of life

Defining Religion Defining religion is a difficult task, as it can mean many things to different people and raise conflicting biases and views. Many people claim that religion is just simply the belief in God. If that were true then it could be argued that there wouldn’t be multiple religions in the world today. Instead the definition of religion needs to be narrowed down more than simply stating that it is a belief in God. An adequate definition of religion is the general belief, which may include a superhuman or supernatural being that is often times, but not always, associated with some form of worship, usually offers some insight into life after death and has a community of followers.

Pascal Boyer 's article of "Why religion is natural?" is one that really gets the audience to think. It begins to raise questions like " Where does religion come from?" and "Who sets the standards for religion?". More importantly, it causes us to wonder what religion really is. In this

What Is Religion      What is religion? According to an Oxford dictionary, religion is the belief in the existence of a supernatural ruling power, the creator and controller of the universe, who has given to man a spirtual nature which continues to exist after the death of the body. Religion appears to be a simple

A dictionary definition should suffice to define Religion but because of the complexity of the subject, it tends to be insufficient one has to resource to the faith meaning to better understand it. Let us look into what the dictionary tell us; First, the belief in a god or in a group of gods. Second and organized system of belief, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods. And lastly an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group. In truth there is no one definition that accurately depicts what religion is. If there is not any explanation that completely envelops the actual meaning, then it is understandable that there is no one true universal religion. Religious

The Idea of Belief The amount of information that exists that directly contradicts the belief in religion is astounding. I have no desire to accumulate the amount of information and force feed it into one argument. Not only would it take a great amount of energy, but it would be so long that the thrust of the argument would be lost. The best arguments are the shortest, they are concise and effective in that they say very much with very little.

For many years we have defined religion as a system of believes particularly belief in a God or gods. The problem with this is that we categorize too much under the umbrella of religion that does not fit under this category; as Craig Martin argues in, A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion, “The colloquial use groups together dissimilar things. All of those things we call ‘religions’ simply do not share a set of core properties”. We tend to define Catholicism when asked to define religion. Many very educated philosophers have tried to come up with a perfect definition of religion and failed. It is an important subject of study because it gives unimportant objects significant meaning. For example, it can turn wine into the blood of Christ. Religion is present in all of our lives in some form. Religion is not a term but rather a state of mind, an idea that cannot be grasped. We classify religion as a noun, but in actuality the name refers to the activity or function. Religion is more about the structure than the content. It does not need to be defined in order to adequately study or take part in it. Anthropologist, Talal Asad, argues, there is a flaw with every definition. This leads to the conclusion that religion simply cannot be defined.

Religion: A Way of Life Religion is something weird to the general public however that was not the case during the fall of Rome and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. During that era religion was one of the few things that tied people together. Without religion the only thing keeping the people of Rome together was the government. Since Alexander the Great’s empire leading to the Byzantine Empire led to a mix of many culture and religions for the very first time. Greece and Rome believed in a set of Gods but the lands they conquered did not. The Eastern Roman Empire showed how one unique religion such as Christianity brought people of many different back grounds together. The fall of the Western Roman Empire led the people to people depending on Christianity. The text Arius, Letter to Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria and The Nicene Creed showed the public matter of Christianity. On the other hand the excerpt Augustine of Hippo, Confessions and The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon addresses the personal effect of Christianity, the private affairs. The point is that is that over the course of about 300 years Christianity has united the fallen people of Rome onto the Byzantine Empire, the transition from the private life to the public use of Christianity.

1. Objective – Define Religion (pg. 436) According to the text, religion is a social phenomenon that consists of beliefs about the sacred; the experiences, practices, and rituals that reinforce those beliefs; and the community that shares similar beliefs and practices. Examples of religions are Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism, and many others that are growing in particular countries. Many religions practice their beliefs through prayers and a figure that a certain religious group worships. For example, Christianity believes in a powerful individual known as God, and they believe that he is the creator of every living organism. It is also a belief that if a person does good in the world, in their after-life will they be able to go to a place called Heaven to be with God.