I am seriously disturbed and distracted by your icon :) I can only define this for myself of course, everyone will have a different opinion.
I think Webster's has it right. "Religion: A personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices." For me the truly defining part of that is the word institutionalized.
If you believe the Christian, Mormon, Quaker..etc. doctrine but don't practice it, then I don't think you qualify as religious. I think being religious requires active participation in one of the major branches of religion.
The easiest way I can think of to qualify that is that I have never met anyone that claimed to be religious and wasn't actively practicing one of the major religions. Those I know who claim the faith but don't practice don't claim to be religious.
As for the variety of flavors of major religions...well most of the religious texts like the Bible are open to serious interpretation. It is what binds the religion together and simultaneously gives it's followers grounds on which to separate over the most minute things. Last I looked there were over 34,000 denominations of Christianity and while they like to argue, they all still self identify as Christians.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2011-03-23 07:01 pm (UTC)I think Webster's has it right. "Religion: A personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices." For me the truly defining part of that is the word institutionalized.
If you believe the Christian, Mormon, Quaker..etc. doctrine but don't practice it, then I don't think you qualify as religious. I think being religious requires active participation in one of the major branches of religion.
The easiest way I can think of to qualify that is that I have never met anyone that claimed to be religious and wasn't actively practicing one of the major religions. Those I know who claim the faith but don't practice don't claim to be religious.
As for the variety of flavors of major religions...well most of the religious texts like the Bible are open to serious interpretation. It is what binds the religion together and simultaneously gives it's followers grounds on which to separate over the most minute things. Last I looked there were over 34,000 denominations of Christianity and while they like to argue, they all still self identify as Christians.