Religion - Can it be defined?
Religion is a human phenomenon that cannot be easily defined. It is commonly understood as a group of beliefs or attitudes concerning a real or imagined object or person, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought. It is sometimes used interchangeably with “faith” or “belief system.
Occasionally, the word “religion” is used in the more restrictive sense of “organized religion,” which means that it is an organization of people supporting the practice of some religious belief, often taking the form of a legal organization.
Sociologists and anthropologists see it as an abstract set of ideas, values, or experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. It may also be defined as the presence of an awareness of the sacred or the holy. The Encyclopedia of Religion describes it in the following way: “In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels — a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience — varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture.”
The following statistics show the number of adherents in all known approaches, both religious and non-religious worldwide. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are the largest world religions today. Approximately seventy-five percent of the world’s population belongs to one of these four religions. Christianity has the largest number of professed religious adherents, followed by Islam. The third-largest group of approximately one billion people adhere to non-religious approaches which include Humanism, Atheism, Rationalism, and Agnosticism. Hinduism with 900 million adherents is the third largest religion followed by nineteen smaller groups of religious adherents.
While there are many differences in the organized religions and philosophical beliefs, there are also many similarities in some when comparing different religions. For example, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all believe that there is only one God and also share similar views on Heaven, hell, spirits, angels and life after death. While many people of many cultures and beliefs may have a different definition for what religion is, for me, as a Christian, it’s not really a religion—I define it as a relationship with Jesus Christ that is the basis for the way I live my life.
If you would like more information about religions of the world, do some research online or visit your local library.