govern point

What is religion? On some levels what isn’t it – it is what YOU believe in and the constructs you follow based on a doctrine, but here are some other ways to look at religion when trying to define what religion is.

Dictionary.com:

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.
3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.
4. the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.: to enter religion.
5. the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.
6. something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience: to make a religion of fighting prejudice.
7. religions, Archaic. religious rites.
   Archaic.
8. strict faithfulness; devotion: a religion to one’s vow.

Here is what some other famous folk think:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opiate of the people.”
—Marx

“Religion is the daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.”
—Ambrose Bierce

“Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of.”
—Mark Twain

“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.”
—Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” —Napoleon Bonaparte

“We go into religion in order to feel warmer in our hearts, more connected to others, more connected to something greater and to have a sense of peace.” —Goldie Hawn

“Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.” —Bertrand Russell

“Religion is all bunk.” — Thomas Edison

“To be religious is to have one’s attention fixed on God and on one’s neighbour in relation to God.” —C.S. Lewis, “Lilies that Fester” in The Twentieth Century (April 1955).

“Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” —James 1:27, New Testament

“Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Religion itself is nothing else but Love to God and Man. He that lives in Love lives in God, says the Beloved Disciple: And to be sure a Man can live no where better.” —William Penn

“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; Unbelief, in denying them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson