What are the 5 characteristics to make a religion?

Answer 1

Honesty, peace, love, honour, preservation of life, understanding, respect, and acceptance of those who are different.

Unless the religion involves killing, of course.

Killing of animals and humans warrants an intervention, into the practices of the culture, the sacrafice of animals to a higher power that the animals carcase might provide food, clothing, shelter, tools. The sacraficing of a human on the other hand, requires more investigation, sacrafice for a crime is acceptable, sacrafice for what, who, how they are is murder.

Answer 2

a set of beliefs, where the beliefs are derived from fears or desires, and the beliefs...

1) guide social behavior,

2) guide thinking for the individual (i.e., tell the individual the meaning of their life experiences, or tell the individual what they should or should not think),

3) provide life goals for individuals, couples, and families,

4) attempt to provide resolution to questions that have no clear answer, that is, until those questions are answered by science or another entity that has equal or greater authority and influence (e.g., science, governments, a religious leader, or real experiences.);

5) may be sacred in that they are not questioned, and in some cases, to question them is a violation of rule that can lead to real punishment by the group, or potential spiritual punishment (hell), or is just considered foolish by the leaders and followers of a given religion,

6) Aside from beliefs, the religion usually provides a place of "worship" to one or more gods and "prophets" of the religion,

7) And, usually provides for ceremonies or traditions centered around various human milestones or events, such as harvest time, birth and death, etc.. .

8) is greatly impacted by the natural environment, for example, a desert-based religion is very different from a jungle-based religion is it's metaphors or mythologies - these tend to expose the fears and desires of the culture (e.g., to eat shellfish is an abomination (Judaism: avoid getting ill at all costs, v. it is good to eat the brains of your enemies - Guinea: desire to control or gain power to defeat enemies).

Religion can be understood as a set of beliefs that everyone in a culture can agree on in order to get along, survive, and thrive. This does not mean that the beliefs are true, and some religions have beliefs which lend themselves to more economic success (compare modern Christianity to Islam to Buddism).

Morality or moral systems exist in the neurological structures of humans. They are probably a secondary motivational system where the activation of this system is a developmental process that takes place within the family and society of the individual.

The individual can learn rules for behavior which when broken cause arousal of energy (what we call anger) that directs the behavior to punish or control the behavior of the individual who broke the social rule (anger is an innate emotion but the expression of anger is mostly learned). However, the rules themselves are always based on fears and desires; however, for humans, not all fears and desires are innate and therefore they need to be learned which probably lead to a modulated motivational coritical structure which is circuited to other corical structures.

So, our understanding of morality and anger are social constructs which hardly reflect the primary purpose of rules and anger which is essentially to help increase motivation for things we need or want and to avoid or prepare for things we fear; and since we survive in groups, we need rules in order to enhance cooperation.

Answer 3

I don't know the official answer, but would suggest these:
* one or more gods (if there is no god involved, it is arguably not a religion)
* a belief system, a set of interacting beliefs set in some sort of system
* an infrastructure (like churches, priests)
* believers
* ceremonies (where believers meet and reaffirm their beliefs)

Answer 4

Religions are usually characterised by belief in a God or gods, although animistic religions believe in spirits that inhabit the environment around us. The gods must be worshipped and it is very common to make sacrifices to the gods.

Most religions teach high moral values and principles of good citizenship.

Besides, religion also specifies the ways/method/teaching to worship God.

Second, religion must consists of laws, rules & regulations.

It also must to have some rituals (something we perform every day. Eg : Praying.) & rites (something we perform just once in our life. Eg: Hajj & marriage).

Lastly, it must has religious community (followers).

Answer 5

put simply, there aren't any definite characteristics of religion.

at first, it may seem an easy question to answer. one can throw out characteristics such as "worship of a diety/god/gods" or "belief in a god/diety/gods" or "beliefs regarding afterlife", but these are not present in all systems we consider to be religions. for example, Buddhism, Satanism, Taoism, and Jainism all lack a belief in a god or godlike diety (they could fit into the category of deism, Atheism and/or agnosticism). these "religions also lack a focused idea on an afterlife. however, we do consider them to be religions.

i took a course in world religion a year ago and i remember asking the teacher what her thoughts were towards covering Buddhism and taoism in a "world religion" course while some feel as though they aren't really religions. her response was "well, no, it doesn't fit THEIR definition of religion...". i think that says a lot. mainly that religion is something like philosophy. they don't necessarily have any boundaries. it is what it is. and moreso, i think my teacher was referring to the distance between understanding between eastern and western concepts. westerners often have a hard time disciphering through eastern concepts (an vice versa, I'm sure). popular religions to them (Buddhism, taoism, Shinto, and jainism) would probably be considered philosophies by most westerners because they don't fit our traditional thoughts on religions like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

also, some people at times make the case that since there are no real set boundaries of what religion is, labels like Atheism and Agnosticism are"religions". most atheists find this categorization offensive and being an atheist myself, i would have to agree. one's obtuse definition of... "one or more agreed upon beliefs held by a group of people on or about life...". at first, it seems like atheism could fit into this definition, and you're right, it would. however, a definition like this is too obtuse for religion, for it includes some things we don't usually consider religions. such as...yoga, feminism, any political party (communism, fascism, socialism, conservativism, liberalism, anarchism, etc.), practically any side of any issue (abortion, race relations, homosexual rights, etc.). personally, if atheism were a religion, it wouldn't change my thoughts on theology. however, theres clearly boundaries in religion.

Answer 6

A set of rituals performed by a group of people, who may or may not have a shared cultural and ethnic background.

alternate answer: There are many different religions on Earth, which have a wide range of characteristics; the most defining feature that is found in all religions is a sense of reverence for something, which can be a higher power (as in Christianity), a spiritual quest (as in Buddhism), or even a system of morality (in the case of Confucianism).

Answer 7

It is a characteristic of nearly all religions to believe in a God or gods, or in spirits that can control the natural world.
Religions tend to reflect the cultural values and ideas of the group within which they were founded.

Most religions also teach high moral values, and many provide some sort of reward or punishment in order to encourage compliance with those values.

Some religions actively seek converts, while others make no such effort but will accept converts who wish to join. The modern Zoroastrian faith (Parsis in India and Pakistan) does not generally accept new converts, so it is almost impossible to become a Zoroastrian unless born to the faith.

Answer 8

Rigidity, unaccepting of other beliefs, controlling, male-dominated, narrow in scope, non-scientific, devoid of proof, denial of evidence to the contrary that there is a supernatural being that controls human destiny, fear of the unknown.

Answer 9

Beliving, centering, and basing your life around trash.