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"Religious" redirects here. For a member of a religious community, see
Religious order.
For the 1997 studio album by British rock band Spear of Destiny, see
Religion (album).
A religion is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, or religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience.
The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to
communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from
shared conviction.
In the frame of European religious thought,[1]
religions present a common quality, the "hallmark of patriarchal
religious thought": the division of the world in two comprehensive
domains, one sacred, the other profane.[2]
Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of
belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or
object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life" or a Life stance.
The development of religion
has taken many forms in various cultures. "Organized religion"
generally refers to an organization of people supporting the exercise
of some religion with a prescribed set of beliefs, often taking the
form of a legal entity (see religion-supporting organization). Other religions believe in personal revelation. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system,"[3] but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.
Etymology
The English word religion is in use since the 13th century, loaned from Anglo-French religiun (11th century), ultimately from the Latin religio, "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety, the res divinae".[4]
The ultimate origins of Latin religio are obscure. It is usually accepted to derive from ligare "bind, connect"; likely from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect." This interpretation is favoured by modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell, but was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. Another possibility is derivation from a reduplicated *le-ligare. A historical interpretation due to Cicero on the other hand connects lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully".[5]
Definitions of religion
- Further information: Sociology of Religion, Transcendence, Theism, Sacred (comparative religion), Religion and mythology, and Myth and ritual
Classical
from 
