Religion
is kind of human knowledge based on some specific (canonic) set of irrefutable concepts, texts, believes, symbols, and practice.
Typically, religions are characterized in the following:
1. The existence of at least one God is assumed. God is some subject that in some way, that is not available to humankind, has abilities that greatly exceed the abilities of any human.
2. The human is supposed to recognize the will of God and obey it.
3. God likes some actions and activities of humans; these actions and activities are qualified as good.
4. God dislike some actions and activities of humans; these actions and activities are qualified as evil, or bad.
5. The set of concepts at least pretends to play an organizing role in the society, and/or to lead it to the happiness and the prosperity,
6. In general, the follower of the religion is supposed to be more powerful, wise, noble and generous than followers of other religions.
Some branches of some religion are so dogmatic that they do not identify themselves as religions, but as "the only true" knowledge;
then, followers of other religions are considered as bad, infidel, and are supposed to be punished.
Often, the dogmatic religions are aggressive with respect to any other concepts, that declare them not only "false" but even crime.
Some other religions allow the deviations of the believe from the canonic concepts, do not imply the punishment of the "infidel" humans just for having a "wrong" believe; however, it is supposed that the "true" believe helps to the humankind to do good things and to avoid any evil thing.
Examples of religions
The most known religions are
Islam (the adepts call themselves muslims),
Christianity,
Judaism,
Marxism,
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Paganism,
Pluralism (or Positivistic Pluralism),
The classification of religions by cases above it approximate; within the most of kinds, there are species, that are pretty different from each other. For example, the catholics (branch of christianity) may kill protestants (another branch of christianity) just for being adepts of protestantism; the stalinists (branch of marxism) may kill the
Trotskyists (another branch of marxism) just for being adepts of Trotskyism, id est, for the belonging to the "wrong" branch of the same religion.
Role of religion in the human society
The religion takes the special role in the human knowledge. Most of achievements and tragedies of human civilizations and associated with some religion.
The Arabian civilization, that brought the humankind the fundamentals of Al-Gebra, was based on the Islam.
The so-called Western civilization, that brought many technical achievements, used in IXX and XX centuries (steam machines, cars, aircrafts, opto-electric devices, computers)
were based mainly on the Judaism and the Christianity,
although the achievement of the Roman Empire in the Science of Law (used until now) seem to be related with the
Polytheism.
The philosophy of pacifism, which allows the human civilizations to avoid
at least big military conflicts already during more than half-century (touch a wood!),
came from countries, where the dominant religion is Hinduism, and is closely related to the Hinduism.
The Religion-less societies almost did not exist in the human history.
There were few intents to build-up a society that exclude the religion.
Such communities ether did not last long, as the Paris Commune,
or led to creation of a new religion, for example, the Marxism (called also Marxism-Leninism,
as it happened at the beginning of the Soviet Union.
Many documents, that survived during centuries, assume the existence of Gog(s), and often, God(s) play the important role in the
topic of the text. This indicate that religions should be considered as important part of the human knowledge.
Many religions, like the christianity, and the marxizm-leninism have some of elements,
typical also for the science; they try to systemize their concept and develop them using some elements of
logics. However, all the religions, including even the positivistic pluralism fail the requirement of negability.
According to R.Kipling, the truly religious person should believe in his "fait" even if all around indicates the error.
("Trust yourself, when all men doubt you"). In addition, many of them (like Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Marxism-Leninism) fail also the requirement of pluralism, which deviates them from the scientific knowledge.
Since the beginning or the documented history, the religion plays important role in the human society. There were several intents to substitute the religion with the common sense and science, but these intents were not successful.
Classification of religions
The main specification of religions indicates, how many gods does it assume.
This classifies the religion as monotheistic or polytheistic.
The most radical monotheistic religions seems to be Judaism.
Islam also pretends to be monotheistic, but allows existence of Devil, who also in some sense, has certain power, that greatly exceed the human abilities and is not available for humans.
Some intermediate position takes the Christianity, that assumes not only existence of Devil, but also Jesus and apostles, who used to handle the Power, that usually is not available for humans; any scientific intent to learn and use such an ability is considered as evil.
In polytheistic religions, many Gods are assumed; sometimes, each of gods handles his or her own area of deals, and
even conflicts between Gods are allowed.
Practice of the religion
Usually, religion assume certain specific practice. This practice may includes prays, reading the scared books,
it may include special singing, dance, body modifications, and
sacrifices.
The meaning of sacrifices varies from one religion to another.
The extremal case of sacrifices is the human sacrifice, id est, the ritual kill, massacre of humankind.
In many cases the sacrificed humans were not condemned in doing anything bad to other humans directly, but to a God, making him discontent with the humankind and in such a way bringing the disasters to humans. It was assumed, that after the sacrifice, the
God become more content and kindly with the survivors. In some cultures, the human sacrifices could be used to regulate the population. Often, the religious sacrifice does not require killing of a human(s); but means that the adept dedicates his life to the serve to God; the adept makes things that pleases God.
Taboos of religions
Usually, the religion specifies the things that should not be done under any conditions.
The Categorical imperative specifies the set of actions, the religious human should not do on any conditions.
The religious fait is considered as strong tool to survive the anti-humanistic conditions, caused by an accident or by the religious fanatics (usually, fanats of another religion).
Religion and other kinds of human knowledge
Religion is related with the
customs (unwritten rules), folklor, literature, art and science.
Often, the religious customs are mixed, confused with the canons, described in the canonical texts. These texts, in their turn, often are used as subject in literature and art (for example, paintings). In addition, the narration, legends can be used for creation of new religions.
