What is religion?

Religion is a strong spiritual dependence, which comes from the attachment of subjective consciousness to hope. Religion is a kind of social behavior, which includes belief, religious organization, ceremony, culture (religious architecture, religious painting, religious music) and so on. A successful religion can be accepted by the general public and has a great influence on the social development of mankind in a certain era. Religion is a kind of worship of masters recognized by the society and a kind of enlightenment of cultural customs. This is a social and historical phenomenon. Most religions believe in or respect supernatural power, the creator and controller of the universe, which endows people with souls and continues to the belief system after death. The subject of studying religion is religion. Religion can be roughly divided into spontaneous religion and man-made religion. Spontaneous religion is a very primitive religion, generally the religion of primitive society. Modern religions are basically man-made religions. The emergence and development of religion in human history is indeed related to many factors, such as social factors, psychological factors and spiritual factors. However, as a social behavior with such a long time, such a wide range and so many people in history, the most basic and main factor is that religion has become an important social behavior with the function of cultivating and strengthening human sociality since human beings became group active creatures and social groups. Although there may be different religions in different historical periods, different regions and different nationalities in the world, it is common for all successful religions to cultivate and strengthen human sociality. The difference between religion and superstition refers to blind belief or worship of people or things. Divination, physiognomy, geomantic omen, fortune telling, word-breaking, evocation, dream interpretation, etc. in Chinese history. , is a long-term activity, mostly produced or popular in feudal society, customarily called feudal superstition. Religious belief and superstition do have something in common in epistemology. They all believe in and worship gods or supernatural forces. But superstition does not belong to religious category, and its differences are as follows: first, religion is a social ideology, a historical phenomenon in the development of human society to a certain stage, and it has objective laws of its occurrence, development and extinction. In the process of adapting to the long-term development of human society, religion has formed unique religious beliefs, religious feelings, and religious theories, doctrines and regulations that are compatible with this belief. There are strict religious ceremonies, relatively fixed places for religious activities, strict religious organizations and religious systems. Superstition, on the other hand, has no common object of worship, no established purpose, regulation or ceremony, and no common place of activity. The object of superstition may be ghosts, mountains and trees. Superstition generally refers to fortune-telling, divination, drawing lots, spelling, dream interpretation, falling immortals, watching Feng Shui and other activities. , is carried out by gods, witches and superstitious professionals with witchcraft. The masses go to see the fortune only to predict the future and destiny, and do not regard it as their own worldview; Superstitious professionals just use these activities to defraud people of money as a means of making a living. Second, religion is a cultural phenomenon. In the process of its formation and development, religion constantly absorbs various human thoughts and cultures, permeates and tolerates politics, philosophy, law and culture, including literature, poetry, architecture, art, painting, sculpture, music and morality, and becomes an integral part of the world's rich culture. Superstition does not have these characteristics. Third, religions have social organizations established according to law, managed according to law and carried out standardized religious activities. To protect the normal religious activities and social welfare undertakings of religious organizations within the scope of national laws. The national religious policy encourages religions to carry forward fine traditions and positive factors and adapt to socialist society. Superstition is just a scam of a few superstitious professionals who sacrifice their lives for money. Some superstitious organizations are even places that shelter evil people from evil practices, endanger the masses and even engage in illegal and criminal activities. Some people think that people who are not religious can't learn religion. But people cannot believe in multiple religions at the same time. Therefore, they think it is impossible to study religion in religion. But in fact, many religious believers are studying other religious factions with great concentration. Because for them, there is only one god, although there will be different names, images, and even "two places at once", which is somewhat similar to the religious view of the Greek and Roman world. The origin of the word religion China culture believes that there is a founder and an object of worship "Zong"; There are a group of followers, and a certain ceremony is "teaching"; The religion of western culture evolved from Latin "re" and "legere", which means "re" and "get together". It refers to a group of people who get together for a purpose and develop to the point where they have the same belief, the same belief, and are not afraid of life and death for this belief. It is worth noting that in Chinese, the word religion is not equivalent to the meaning of English religous belief. Religion was originally a Buddhist term, not its present connotation and extension. For example, Taoism in China is not called this in history. The word religion is used to refer to the changes in the meaning of all religious beliefs due to translation. As a special Buddhist term, the meaning of the word religion, that is, calling yourself a sect and converting to other religions, has been forgotten. The origin of religion existed as early as the primitive society, and its root and foundation lie in the low level of productivity development and the weakness of primitive people to the forces of natural struggle. At that time, religious norms often became social norms that people abided by together. In the most primitive times, before the emergence of class differentiation, human beings began various religious activities. This can be known in many archaeological discoveries and historical records. Man is the most complicated creature in nature, especially in thought and spirit, which is more complicated than other creatures in nature. And people's actions are dominated by thoughts. Why do spiritual activities, such as people's ideological activities, people's awe of natural forces, and thinking about various phenomena in nature, become social activities like religion? Judging from the origin of primitive religion, religion is the only effective means to limit people's natural attributes, ensure and cultivate people's sociality in an era when organizations that manage people's collective activities such as state machines have not yet appeared and science education is still underdeveloped. From archaeology and folklore, we know that primitive religions worship things around them, such as hunters worshipping various animals and mountain gods; Fishermen worship river gods and water gods; Collectors may worship various plants, such as tree gods and flower gods. The objects of worship are neither abstract spiritual gods nor the only gods that dominate the world, but natural things closely related to human activities. Moreover, the sacrificial activities are attended by all tribal members and presided over by tribal leaders or so-called priests who can communicate with the gods. Therefore, worship is not only a ceremony, but also an activity to enhance the collective consciousness of all employees. Perhaps the latter is the real purpose of worship activities. As for the worship of spiritual sustenance and spiritual comfort and the leading role of religion, it is only the secondary role brought by the development and popularization of religion in the middle and late period of social activities, rather than the fundamental reason why religion has become a very important social activity. With the development of society, the scale of collective activities is growing. Especially with the emergence of the advanced organization form of the state, religious worship has become more and more abstract, and the dead, ghosts and ghosts have all entered the worship object, and the religious worship ceremony has become more and more horrible, and even people have to be worshipped. It is unreasonable to say that these behaviors are spiritual sustenance and spiritual comfort, but it is more reasonable to interpret them as suppressing people's natural characteristics and supporting strengthening people's sociality. The emphasis on obedience and the role of special religions in maintaining social order are the main reasons for the existence and development of religions. Therefore, the rulers of past dynasties were particularly enthusiastic about religious ceremonies, and sometimes they used the state machine in their hands to promote a religion they liked. Even some rulers designate a religion as the state religion, which is consistent with the laws and regulations of the country. The supreme ruler of the country is often the supreme leader of religion. That is to make full use of the role of religion in ensuring and cultivating people's sociality.