Religion

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ghost dance \Ghost dance\
     A religious dance of the North American Indians, participated
     in by both sexes, and looked upon as a rite of invocation the
     purpose of which is, through trance and vision, to bring the
     dancer into communion with the unseen world and the spirits
     of departed friends. The dance is the chief rite of the


  
     {Ghost-dance}, or
  
     {Messiah},
  
     {religion}, which originated about 1890 in the doctrines of
        the Piute Wovoka, the Indian Messiah, who taught that the
        time was drawing near when the whole Indian race, the dead
        with the living, should be reunited to live a life of
        millennial happiness upon a regenerated earth. The
        religion inculcates peace, righteousness, and work, and
        holds that in good time, without warlike intervention, the
        oppressive white rule will be removed by the higher
        powers. The religion spread through a majority of the
        western tribes of the United States, only in the case of
        the Sioux, owing to local causes, leading to an outbreak.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Religion \Re*li"gion\ (r[-e]*l[i^]j"[u^]n), n. [F., from L.
     religio; cf. religens pious, revering the gods, Gr. 'ale`gein
     to heed, have a care. Cf. {Neglect}.]
     1. The outward act or form by which men indicate their
        recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having
        power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and
        honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love,
        fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power,
        whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites
        and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of
        faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical
        religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion;
        revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion
        of idol worshipers.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              An orderly life so far as others are able to observe
              us is now and then produced by prudential motives or
              by dint of habit; but without seriousness there can
              be no religious principle at the bottom, no course
              of conduct from religious motives; in a word, there
              can be no religion.                   --Paley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Religion [was] not, as too often now, used as
              equivalent for godliness; but . . . it expressed the
              outer form and embodiment which the inward spirit of
              a true or a false devotion assumed.   --Trench.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Religions, by which are meant the modes of divine
              worship proper to different tribes, nations, or
              communities, and based on the belief held in common
              by the members of them severally. . . . There is no
              living religion without something like a doctrine.
              On the other hand, a doctrine, however elaborate,
              does not constitute a religion.       --C. P. Tiele
                                                    (Encyc.
                                                    Brit.).
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Religion . . . means the conscious relation between
              man and God, and the expression of that relation in
              human conduct.                        --J.
                                                    K["o]stlin
                                                    (Schaff-Herzog
                                                    Encyc.)
        [1913 Webster]
  
              After the most straitest sect of our religion I
              lived a Pharisee.                     --Acts xxvi.
                                                    5.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The image of a brute, adorned
              With gay religions full of pomp and gold. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Specifically, conformity in faith and life to the precepts
        inculcated in the Bible, respecting the conduct of life
        and duty toward God and man; the Christian faith and
        practice.
  
     Note: This definition is from the 1913 Webster, which was
           edited by Noah Porter, a theologian. His bias toward
           the Christion religion is evident not only in this
           definition, but in others as well as in the choice of
           quations or illustrative phrases. Caveat lector. - PJC
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 Let us with caution indulge the supposition that
                 morality can be maintained without religion.
                                                    --Washington.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 Religion will attend you . . . as a pleasant and
                 useful companion in every proper place, and every
                 temperate occupation of life.      --Buckminster.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (R. C. Ch.) A monastic or religious order subject to a
        regulated mode of life; the religious state; as, to enter
        religion. --Trench.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A good man was there of religion.     --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Strictness of fidelity in conforming to any practice, as
        if it were an enjoined rule of conduct. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Those parts of pleading which in ancient times might
              perhaps be material, but at this time are become
              only mere styles and forms, are still continued with
              much religion.                        --Sir M. Hale.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Religion, as distinguished from theology, is
           subjective, designating the feelings and acts of men
           which relate to God; while theology is objective, and
           denotes those ideas which man entertains respecting the
           God whom he worships, especially his systematized views
           of God. As distinguished from morality, religion
           denotes the influences and motives to human duty which
           are found in the character and will of God, while
           morality describes the duties to man, to which true
           religion always influences. As distinguished from
           piety, religion is a high sense of moral obligation and
           spirit of reverence or worship which affect the heart
           of man with respect to the Deity, while piety, which
           first expressed the feelings of a child toward a
           parent, is used for that filial sentiment of veneration
           and love which we owe to the Father of all. As
           distinguished from sanctity, religion is the means by
           which sanctity is achieved, sanctity denoting primarily
           that purity of heart and life which results from
           habitual communion with God, and a sense of his
           continual presence.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Natural religion}, a religion based upon the evidences of a
        God and his qualities, which is supplied by natural
        phenomena. See {Natural theology}, under {Natural}.
  
     {Religion of humanity}, a name sometimes given to a religion
        founded upon positivism as a philosophical basis.
  
     {Revealed religion}, that which is based upon direct
        communication of God's will to mankind; especially, the
        Christian religion, based on the revelations recorded in
        the Old and New Testaments.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  religion
       n 1: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that
            control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his
            morality" [syn: {faith}, {religious belief}]
       2: institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was
          raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own
          faith contradicted him" [syn: {faith}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  88 Moby Thesaurus words for "religion":
     Babi, Babism, Bahaism, Brahmanism, Brahmoism, Buddhism, Buddhology,
     Chen Yen Buddhism, Christianity, Mariolatry, Mariology,
     Mercersburg theology, Weltanschauung, adoration, anthroposophy,
     apologetics, articles of religion, belief, canonics, catechism,
     church, churchgoing, communion, conformity, connection, credenda,
     credo, creed, crisis theology, cult, cultism, denomination,
     devotedness, devotion, devoutness, dialogical theology, divinity,
     doctrinal statement, doctrinalism, doctrine, doctrinism, dogma,
     dogmatics, dutifulness, eschatology, existential theology, faith,
     faithfulness, formulated belief, gospel, hagiography, hagiology,
     hierology, ideology, ism, logos Christology, logos theology,
     love of God, natural theology, neoorthodox theology, neoorthodoxy,
     observance, patristic theology, persuasion,
     phenomenological theology, physicotheology, pietism, piety,
     piousness, political faith, political philosophy, rationalism,
     religionism, religiousness, reverence, scholastic theology, school,
     sect, secularism, soteriology, system of belief, systematics,
     theism, theology, veneration, world view, worship,
     worshipfulness
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  Religion
  
  Agnostic. Atheist. Non-observant Jewish. Neo-pagan. Very commonly, three
  or more of these are combined in the same person. Conventional
  faith-holding Christianity is rare though not unknown.
  
  Even hackers who identify with a religious affiliation tend to be relaxed
  about it, hostile to organized religion in general and all forms of
  religious bigotry in particular. Many enjoy `parody' religions such as
  Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius.
  
  Also, many hackers are influenced to varying degrees by Zen Buddhism or
  (less commonly) Taoism, and blend them easily with their `native'
  religions.
  
  There is a definite strain of mystical, almost Gnostic sensibility that
  shows up even among those hackers not actively involved with neo-paganism,
  Discordianism, or Zen. Hacker folklore that pays homage to `wizards' and
  speaks of incantations and demons has too much psychological truthfulness
  about it to be entirely a joke.
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  RELIGION. Real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known 
  duties to God and our fellow men. 
       2. There are many actions which cannot be regulated by human laws, and 
  many duties are imposed by religion calculated to promote the happiness of 
  society. Besides, there is an infinite number of actions, which though 
  punishable by society, may be concealed from men, and which the magistrate 
  cannot punish. In these cases men are restrained by the knowledge that 
  nothing can be hidden from the eyes of a sovereign intelligent Being; that 
  the soul never dies, that there is a state of future rewards and 
  punishments; in fact that the most secret crimes will be punished. True 
  religion then offers succors to the feeble, consolations to the unfortunate, 
  and fills the wicked with dread. 
       3. What Montesquieu says of a prince, applies equally to an individual. 
  "A prince," says he, "who loves religion, is a lion, which yields to the 
  hand that caresses him, or to the voice which renders him tame. He who fears 
  religion and bates it, is like a wild beast, which gnaws, the chain which 
  restrains it from falling on those within its reach. He who has no religion 
  is like a terrible animal which feels no liberty except when it devours its 
  victims or tears them in pieces." Esp. des, Lois, liv. 24, c. 1. 
       4. But religion can be useful to man only when it is pure. The 
  constitution of the United States has, therefore, wisely provided that it 
  should never be united with the state. Art. 6, 3. Vide Christianity; 
  Religious test; Theocracy. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  RELIGION, n.  A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the
  nature of the Unknowable.
      "What is your religion my son?" inquired the Archbishop of Rheims.
      "Pardon, monseigneur," replied Rochebriant; "I am ashamed of it."
      "Then why do you not become an atheist?"
      "Impossible!  I should be ashamed of atheism."
      "In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants."