Religion is a complex of beliefs and practices that are generally held to be supernatural in nature. It is usually a belief in the existence of a supreme being or gods, and it often includes a wide range of rituals. It also typically includes a set of moral and ethical guidelines. In the past, and in some cases even today, religion has been used as a tool of power, as a way to categorize certain cultures as inferior or backwards. This practice has caused a great deal of controversy and debate. In recent years, scholars have taken a reflexive turn, pulling the camera back, so to speak, and examining the construction of the concept that we call religion.
There are many different approaches to the study of religion. Some are more concerned with its beliefs than others, while some focus on its rituals and practices. There are also those who look at the origins of religion, including psychologists and neuroscientists. The majority of people, about 5.4 billion, subscribe to one or more major religions around the world.
Anthropologists argue that religion developed out of human beings’ attempts to control uncontrollable aspects of the environment, such as the weather or success in hunting. This can be done in two ways: manipulation, through magic, and supplication, through religion. The latter involves addressing an all-powerful divine being for help or guidance.
Some scholars, such as Durkheim and Paul Tillich, take a functional approach to religion and define it in terms of its ability to organize values and provide orientation in life. This definition, however, tends to exclude forms of religion that do not believe in unusual realities. It also reflects the Protestant bias of the concept of religion.
Others, such as Ninian Smart and Catherine Albanese, have looked at the notion of a social genus. They have suggested that a new dimension should be added to the classic three-sided model of the true, the beautiful, and the good, namely, the material reality of those who comprise a religious group. This would include their bodies, habits, physical culture, and social structures.
It is also common to define religion in terms of a certain number of specific religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. This type of definition is called a real or lexical definition. It is based on a specific taxonomy, which has been imposed by someone else. This sort of definition is controversial, as it is not based on an objective assessment of what religion actually is.
Some scholars, such as Mary De Muckadell, have opposed stipulative definitions of religion. She argues that they can only be corrected by using a real or lexical definition to show the stipulation to be wrong. She contends that stipulative definitions force scholars to simply accept whatever is deemed to be a valid use of the term, and therefore they are not useful in studying religion. This, she argues, stifles criticism of religion and prevents the development of more accurate theories about it.