What Is Religion?
Religion is a system of beliefs and practices that binds people together. It is a source of comfort during difficult times and provides meaning for life. It is also a way to express personal values and beliefs. It includes beliefs about a supreme being, values such as justice and fairness, and rituals such as a special way to pray. Examples of religion include Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and hockey. Some religions believe in a heaven or hell, and most believe that one or more deities control the fate of all human beings. Some people have no belief in God or a higher power, while others may be atheists or agnostics. A religion can also be a special organization that brings people together, such as the Girl Scouts or the American Legion.
The concept of religion is controversial, with different schools of thought offering different approaches to understanding it. Some philosophers use a functional approach to define religion, which views it as a set of social phenomena that can be observed in societies. Other scholars, such as those influenced by Sigmund Freud and Emile Durkheim, argue that religion is a belief in a transcendent reality, while others have adopted a realist view that defines it as a set of beliefs and behaviors that create and maintain a group.
A third school of thought argues that there is no such thing as a religion. This view has been popularized by those influenced by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. It is based on the notion that social kinds are created by humans and not by nature. It also reflects the idea that a social kind does not need to be reflected in all cultures, and thus can be invented at a particular time and place for specific reasons.
In the last fifty years or so, scholars have debated these issues, with some arguing that a functional definition of religion is too broad and inclusive and that it distorts our understanding of forms of life in other cultures. Others, such as those influenced by Charles Horton Smith, argue that it is not possible to have an objective, comprehensive definition of religion. They have used this critique to support a realist position that views religion as a real thing that would operate in society even without the term.
Moreover, some scholars have argued that it is a mistake to analyze religion solely as a mental state or social phenomenon, because this misses the point that it is a fundamentally human activity. It is this contention that led some scholars to propose a polythetic definition of religion, which sees it as a complex set of activities and behaviors, such as rituals, beliefs, and a social structure. It seems avant garde today to consider such a definition, but the approach was once common among Christian theologians, who analyzed their own faith as simultaneously fides (belief), praxis (practices), and instituution (social organization). Such a definition is helpful in understanding the complexity of religious dynamics.