The variety of religious beliefs and organizations is so immense that scholars have found great difficulty in reaching a generally accepted definition of religion. In the West, most people identify religion with Christianity – a belief in a supreme begin, who commends us to behave in a moral fashion on this earth and promise an afterlife to in general terms. First, religion should not be identified with monotheism (belief in one God). Most religions involve many deities. Even in some versions of Christianity there are several figures with sacred qualities: God, Jesus, Mary, the Holy Ghost, angles and saints. In certain religions that are no gods at all.
Second, religion should not be identified with moral prescriptions controlling the behavior of believers-like the commandments that Mose3s was said to have received from. The idea that the gods are interested in how behave on this earth is alien to many religions. To the ancient Greeks, for example, the gods were largely indifferent to the activities of Humanity,
Third, religion is not necessarily concerned with explaining how the world come to be as it is. In Christianity, the myth of Adam and Eve purports to explain the origin of human existence. And many religions have myths of origin of this sort; but equally, many do not.
Fourth, religion cannot be identified with the supernatural, as intrinsically involving belief in a universe ‘beyond the realm of the sense’. Confucianism, for example, is considered with accepting the natural harmony of ht e world, not with finding truths that ‘lie behind’ it.
What is religion?
Characteristics that all religions do seem to share are as follows. Religion involves a set of symbols, involving feelings of reverence or awe, and arte linked to rituals or ceremonials (such as church services) engaged in by a community of believers. Each of these elements needs some elaboration. Whether singing, eating certain kinds of food - or refraining from doing so - fasting on certain says and so on. Since ritual acts are oriented towards religious symbols, they are usually seen as quite distinct from the habits and procedures of ordinary life. Lighting a candle to honour or placate a god differs completely in its significance from doing so to light a room. Religions rituals are often carried on by involve ceremonials practiced collectively by believers. Regular ceremonials normally occur in special places- churches, temples or the shrines where the ‘miracle’ of the gods drinking milk happened in India.
The existence of collective ceremonial is usually regarded by sociologists as one of the main factors distinguishing religion from magic, although the borderlines are by no means clear- cut. Magic is the influencing of events by the use of potions, chanting or rituals practices. It is generally practice by individuals, not by a community of believers. People often choose to resort to magic in situation of misfortune or danger. Thus Bornislaw Malinowski’s classic study of the Trobraind islanders of the Pacific describes a variety if magical rites performed before any hazardous voyage by canoe (1982). The islanders omit such rites when they are simply going fishing in the safe placid waters of a local lagoon.
Although magical practices have mostly disappeared from modern societies, in situations of danger magic- like superstitions are still common. Many who work in occupation that are dangerous or where chance factors can drastically affect performances- such as miners, deep- sea fishermen or sports players- indulge in small superstitious rituals or carry particular items in times of stress. An example might be a tennis player who insists or wearing a particular ring during big matches. Fortune telling by star sings, based on astrological beliefs which have been inherited from magical ideas in pre modern sciences, still commands a following, although most people do not take it too seriously.