What is religion?

Religion is an important aspect of life, it influences a great many things. The odd part is that many people are not actually clear on what a religion is. There are several key aspects that make something a religion although the exact details can vary. In reality there is no firm agreement on just what a religion is.

Religion is a belief system that uses symbols to allow people to explore their spirituality. Religions usually rely on narratives and symbols that are used to offer a meaning to life or to explain things like who the universe was created. In addition most religions have an ethical component that teaches people how they are expected to live. There is a lot of variation within this as can be seen by the number of religions that exist in the world. In fact there is no firm agreement about what constitutes a religion and what does not.

One aspect of religion that applies in all cases is that it is a public process. Having a personal belief system does not make it a religion. By definition a religion is an organized activity that involves other people. Most religions have a hierarchical system for example with priests and bishops and so on but this is not required. Most religions also have a specific place of worship and there are usually sermons, festivals and many other activities that are part of the process. None of this is strictly required; the only requirement is that the religion be a belief system that is held by a group of people who publicly share that religion. However in practice the vast majority of religions have some aspect of these things.

Different religions have developed in radically different ways with the differences largely being cultural. The biggest difference in most cases is that some religions put the emphasis on belief while others put the emphasis on practice. Basically this means that in some cases the most important thing is that you believe the doctrines of the religion while in other cases it is more important what you do than that you actually believe what is being taught.

Another key difference between religions is that some are universal while others are not. That is that in some cases the belief is that the laws of that particular religion should apply to everybody while in other cases the belief is that only certain people should be bound by the laws. There are also many different religions that believe in many different gods. That being said the majority of religions and the ones that are practiced by the vast majority of people have common backgrounds so the differences between them are not all that great. Although this has not stopped the adherents of these religions from fighting with one another.