From Wikipedia on 22-Mar-2012
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. 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. There are thousands of religions in the world.
The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system, but religion differs from private belief in that it has a social aspect. Many religions have organized behaviors, clergy, 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. However, there are examples of religions for which some or many of these aspects of structure, belief, or practices are absent.
My Own Writing
Religion is a combination of legend, history, ethical system, and rituals.
It was during the Iron Age (about 1200 BCE to about 400 CE for Europe and the Near East) that alphabetic characters and written language were developed from earlier hieroglyphic writing systems. That enabled the creation of literature, including the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible, which eventually gave rise to the Christian Bible.
For 99.99% of Earth’s history, there was no religion because there were no people. But as soon as we evolved into existence, we promptly declared ourselves the center of the universe and imagined that it was all created for our own benefit. We are a very humble species, after all.
Religion has at least three aspects: reflection, community, and ethics. There’s the quiet, reflective, meditative, tranquil side of religion that is expressed through monasteries, cathedrals, stained-glass windows, and quiet chapels–peaceful places where you can pray or meditate. The emphasis is on reflection and quiet rather than noise and sensory stimulation, putting the focus on the inner world, rather than the outer. Another aspect is the ethical component, the right and wrong. Another is the community component: interacting with other people, your connections with and responsibility to other people. All three of these things are virtually absent from the kind of world you get with laissez faire capitalism, with its emphasis on sensory stimulation and satisfaction, self-reliance and independence. It creates a world of value-free judgments; as long as there’s money or a market to pay for a thing, the marketplace makes it available (excerpt for certain things like mind-altering drugs). For example, no one is going to not let you buy a gas-guzzling SUV to drive back and forth to the mall. The salesman is certainly not going to criticize you for buying it. Even though you could make an argument that it’s evil, since it wastes resources and endangers other drivers. Religion provides an ethical system. If these aspects of religion are ignored, it will express itself in other way. Look at al Quaeda, look at religious fundamentalism, Christian, Judaic, Islamic. If you try to suppress it, it will find a way to come back. This is a revenge effect, a feedback loop.
It is possible to be religious without being superstitious. The word ‘religion’ comes from the Latin ‘religare’–to tie back or restrain. This implies a system of beliefs to constrain or discipline your actions.
There’s a similarity between the words ‘religion’ and ‘yoga.’ ‘Religion’ comes from the Latin ‘religare’ (to tie back) and yoga comes from the Sanskrit ‘yunakti’ (to join).