Religion is a social reality which powerfully affects human thought and behaviour in cultural system.
Religion was a form of primitive science, based on logical thought as dreams are regarded evidence for the existence of spirits. It is thought that magic works because of the influence of like terms; therefore religion is the sigh of the oppressed and the opiate of an oppressed society.
Religion was the product of gods, spirits and demons which help people to understand and control experience. Religion exists in order to support the social structure, imaging and control of experience.
Religion is sui generis- the only one of its kind and as a coherent system in its own right, with its own functions.
Religion is not an addition to reality and does not suspend natural laws or scientific process nor does religion compete with social consciousness. Religion cannot be explained in terms of society, culture, psychology, politics, economic or otherwise.
Primitive religions, called nature religions are merely experience divine reality through nature. It is in fact religion of nature, rather than nature religion; but ethnic religions are contrasted with higher religions because they do not possess much material culture.
Religion is higher than other religion with the use of Temples, vestments, sacred books, spiritual and moral values. Ethnic religions are contrasted with “World religion” whether defined theologically, geographically and historically, and have spread across the globe, belonging to humanity as a whole, the manifestation of an inherent religious endowment within human nature.
There are many definition of religion, the best known are “belief in spiritual beings”, a system of relations between human beings and supreme powers superior and external to human consciousness, and the visible world.
Some definitions are basically psychological, the experience of the awe inspiring and fascinating mystery, the balance between hope and despair; the recognition of ultimate reality.
Religions are symbol systems of information, which enable human beings to construct their lives. Religious system occurs within a system and becomes imaginatively credible that helps the believer to focus and articulate the experience.
The object of faith and worship is made imaginatively credible before the believer begins to rationalize and explain it. The real is made more real through the creative power of the intellect.
Religious symbol systems are an objective cultural and historical reality with a narrative structure. Some believers religious experience is an immediate intuition or mystical experience.
Religious experience is always expressed through collective and cultural tradition. Religion is a confrontation with reality, perceived in a way, participation in and communion with that reality.
This communion is essentially worshipping and the creature recognizes the object of faith as that which is most real. Religion as a socio-cultural system operates within a culture. Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful pervasive and long lasting moods and motivations in people by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence, clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.
Religion using the symbols of culture unifies and intensifies experience and makes the real more real. The believer finds meaning in experience by shaping to reality and shaping reality to self.
Religion replicates both what is and what is coming into existence, and so helps people to construct their lives. Religion and culture are so inter- twined that neither of them could do without the other. It appears that to behave properly in a given society means expressing the dictates of the religion cultural understanding of that society.
This understanding place religion on its proper place as a roof of genuine normal human behaviour, thus talking about religion is also talking about the culture that breeds such religion.
Religion becomes salvific when it points out specific conditions under which human beings fulfill their destiny, and also be saved.
The general understanding of religion is that all religions are revealed to point out the specific ways through which human beings can both explicitly and implicitly serve the supreme beings and be saved.
Historically, human persons developed appetite to worship, since the down of consciousness. Human persons developed the feelings for supreme beings as soon as they became conscious that they are humans.
Human persons created religions at the same time as they created works of art. Human beings search for God was not as a result of their intention to appease powerful forces rather the early faiths expressed the wonders and mystery that seem, always to have been an essential component of the human experience of this beautiful yet terrifying world.
No culture, however primitive and backward, has been found that does not have ideas on divinity, spirits, human survival, super-natural forces, along with corresponding rites.
The sacred world formed their world view which in turn formed their way of seeing and doing things. Religion existed even among the ancients and was not lacking from the beginning of human race and from that time, true religion which already existed, is nowadays existing as in former times with various rites to the religion as a system in the culture.
