Word Finder - religion

definition

Belief in a spiritual or metaphysical reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.

example

My brother tends to value religion, but my sister not as much.

synonyms

• faith

definition

A particular system of such belief, and the rituals and practices proper to it.

example

Eckankar is a new religion but Zoroastrianism is an old religion.

synonyms

• faith

definition

The way of life committed to by monks and nuns.

example

The monk entered religion when he was 20 years of age.

definition

Rituals and actions associated with religious beliefs, but considered apart from them.

example

I think some Christians would love Jesus more if they weren't so stuck in religion.

synonyms

• superstition

definition

Any practice to which someone or some group is seriously devoted.

example

At this point, Star Trek has really become a religion.

definition

Faithfulness to a given principle; conscientiousness.

definition

Engage in religious practice.

definition

Indoctrinate into a specific religion.

definition

To make sacred or symbolic; sanctify.

Thus the ancient Greek religion was especially disposed to belief in heroes and demigods.

The test of religion is its effect on conduct.

The third and concluding volume, which was to treat in a more condensed form the principal problems of practical philosophy, of philosophy of art and religion, never appeared.

In her view the aim of every religion was merely to preserve certain proprieties while affording satisfaction to human desires.

Its basic idea is that the state had no right to interfere with the religion of its citizens.

The document is entitled "Secrett Inventionis, proffitabill and necessary in theis dayes for defence of this Iland, and withstanding of strangers, enemies of God's truth and religion," a and the inventions consist of (1) a mirror for burning the enemies' ships at any distance, (2) a piece of artillery destroying everything round an arc of a circle, and (3) a round metal chariot, so constructed that its occupants could move it rapidly and easily, while firing out through small holes in it.

The Argentine constitution recognizes the Roman Catholic religion as that of the state, but tolerates all others.

It suffered much during the Wars of Religion, especially in 1568 after its capture by the Protestants under Coligny.

Myers claimed her as anima naturaliter Christiana and the inspired exponent of the religion of the future.

The Hebrews of Israel and Judah were, political history apart, men of the same general stamp, with the same cult and custom; for the study of religion and social usages, therefore, they can be treated as a single people.

Whilst the fathers agree with the Stoics of the 2nd century in representing slavery as an indifferent circumstance in the eye of religion and morality, the contempt for the class which the Stoics too often exhibited is in them replaced by a genuine sympathy.

He appeared on the 6th of March before the standing committee of the two Houses to explain his conduct, when he stated that he had come over because he saw danger to the Protestant religion in the king's service, and expressed his willingness to take the Covenant.

Having been taught that there is no absolutely true religion, Mendelssohn's own descendants - a brilliant circle, of which the musician Felix was the most noted - left the Synagogue for the Church.

He viewed the "innovations in religion" with abhorrence.

But " philosophy of religion " can be construed in many different ways.

Christianity is a prophetic religion.

Belief in a primitive historical revelation, once universal among Christians, has almost disappeared; but belief in a very early and highly moral theism is stoutly defended, chiefly on Australian evidence, by Andrew Lang (The Making of Religion and later works).

Of course, defence easily passes into counterattack, as when early apologists denounce Greek and Roman religion.

The seven powers which create and rule the world are without doubt the seven planetary deities of the later Babylonian religion.

If, in the Gnostic systems, these become daemonic or semi-daemonic forces, this points to the fact that a stronger monotheistic religion (the Iranian) had gained the upper hand over the Babylonian, and had degraded its gods to daemons.

The syncretism of the Babylonian and the Persian religion was also the nursing-ground of Gnosticism.

It was from the Moravians that Schleiermacher learnt his religion, and they even made a passing impression on Goethe; but both these men were repelled by their doctrine of the substitutionary sufferings of Christ.

The Mahommedan religion occurs among the coastal population.

The fetters of nationalism were to be broken, and the Hebrew religion in its essential spiritual elements was to become the heritage of all humanity.

In Moses (q.v.) was seen the founder of Israel's religion and laws; in Aaron (q.v.) the prototype of the Israelite priesthood.

In 1802 he published Reflections upon the State of Religion in Christendom, in which he attempted to explain and illustrate the mysterious foreshadowings of the Apocalypse.

On the other hand, Kant's religion is of a type which requires a sort of deistic God, standing outside the world and constraining it into moral paths, or standing outside our moral struggles and rewarding our goodness.

They are said to have revealed no vestige of religion.

But the privileged class alone are eligible to the greatest offices of the state; they have in their hands the exclusive control of the national religion; they have the exclusive enjoyment of the common land of the state - in Teutonic phrase, the folkland.

And, as the old distinction survived in law and religion after all substantial privileges were abolished, so presently a new distinction arose of which law and religion knew nothing, but which became in practice nearly as marked and quite as important as the older one.

The first contains prolegomena on the life and writings of Boetius, on his religion and philosophy, and on the manuscripts and editions, a critical apparatus, and notes.

Deists and orthodox in those days agreed in recognizing not merely natural theology but natural religion - " essential religion," Butler more than once styles it; the expression shows how near he stood intellectually to those he criticized.

Their religion was a nature-worship intimately connected with the veneration of ancestors.

They adopted the Mahommedan religion and founded an empire which in the 17th and 18th centuries ruled over a large part of the eastern Sudan.

Hinduism, which was once the religion of Java, but has been extinct there for four centuries, is still in vogue in the islands of Bali and Lombok, where the cruel custom of widow-burning (suttee) is still practised, and the Hindu system of the four castes, with a fifth or Pariah caste (called Chandala), adhered to.

A new process of manumission was now established, to be performed in the churches through the intervention of the ministers of religion; and it was provided that clerics could at any time by mere expression of will liberate their slaves.

His immoralities, like his acts of persecution, were exaggerated by his opponents; but his private life was undoubtedly a scandal to religion, and has only the excuse that it was not worse than that of most of his order at the time.

We must also reject the theory that this degradation of the planetary deities into daemons is due to the influence of Hebrew monotheism, for almost all the Gnostic sects take up a definitely hostile attitude towards the Jewish religion, and almost always the highest divinity among the Seven is actually the creator-God of the, Old Testament.

It is first displayed in the shape of natural and necessary usages consecrated by religion.

Upon the king's illness in May he held frequent meetings of Monmouth's friends at his house to consider how best to act for the security of the Protestant religion.

But when Ahmad Shah returned to Kabul the Sikhs rose once more and re-established their religion.

One of the recommendations of Egmond the Abbey was the free exercise there allowed to the Catholic religion.

The general position which He takes up, that "the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath," 2 is only a special application of the wider principle that the law is not an end in itself but a help towards the realization in life of the great ideal of love to God and man, which is the sum of all true religion.

Finally (c), in the so-called " post-exilic " period, religion and life were reorganized under the influence of a new spirit; relations with Samaria were broken off, and Judaism took its definite character, perhaps about the middle or close of the 5th century.

He used his influence with the emperor of Russia, as also with the emperors of China and Japan and with the shah of Persia, to secure the free practice of their religion for Roman Catholics within their respective dominions.

In 1344, shortly after their return, Ulf died in the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra in East Gothland, and Bridget now devoted herself wholly to religion.

There is no state church in Australia, nor is the teaching of religion in any way subsidized by the state.

But Mr Howitt finds in this being " no trace of a divine nature, though under favourable conditions the beliefs might have developed into an actual religion."

Other authorities suggest that it is going much too far to deny the existence of religion altogether, and instance as proof of the divinity of the supra-normal anthropomorphic beings of the Baiame class, the fact that the Yuin and cognate tribes dance around the image of Daramulun (their equivalent of Baiame) and the medicine men " invocate his name."

A good deal perhaps depends on each observer's view of what religion really is.