Religion pt2

Yes, I agree that it's worthwhile to establish some preliminary definitions. A good definition, from a philosophical perspective at least properly classifies something. In other words, it says what it's genus and species is! What do the things that are like it have in common with it? In what ways do things that differ from it differ? How can you clearly distinguish what group it is a part of, and what is a part of it's group is a good way to look at it. Until the need arises I'm going to more or less go for working definitions instead of precise definitions. Attempting precise definitions when we have such radically different views on things might end up being a venture in semantic argument more than a discussion of anything meaningful.

How would I define religion? Here is my first stab, but it might need revising as we talk and think things through. Religion is the subset of worldviews that involves some form of worship as being integral to it's structure.

It doesn't require that the thing being worshipped actually exist, mind you. It simply requires supplicants and a posited object of worship. It is sufficient for the religion to exist for the object of worship to simply be 'believed in'. The participants in the religion don't even need to have any specific knowledge of the item that they are worshipping.

To clearly elucidate what I mean in the context of making a good definition, like i discussed in the opening paragraph, a religion is a specific type of worldview/belief structure. There are, in other words, worldviews/belief structures that aren't religions at all, and there are subtypes of religions that all share common traits that make them all religions. I would posit that philosophical(metaphysical) naturalism is an example of a worldview that is not at all a type of religion. There is no worship of anything involved; it is clearly and inherently distinct from being a religion by virtue of that. Animism is an example of a type of religion that worships nature, or aspects of nature. Metaphysical Naturalism invokes or asks no worship of anyone; at a very base level it merely acknowledges nature as being all there is. Communism, under the guise of this definition, at least how it was practiced in the Stalinist era of the old Soviet Union, was clearly a religion. The state was worshiped. They even had workers meetings in which they sang songs of praise to the state. Christianity is another example, and the christian object of worship is Jesus Christ.

Sorry about rambling on so long, but I kinda wanted to cover several things. I'm sure you want to talk about some of what I said there, but you'd probably also like to submit your own definition of the word religion. I somehow have a sneaking suspicion that it will be vastly different than mine. It'll be interesting to see if we can come to a definition that we both can agree upon.