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: religion, faith, religious belief]
    2: an institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was
       raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith
       contradicted him" [syn: religion, faith, organized
       religion]

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.]

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.
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            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.
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            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.).
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            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.)
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            After the most straitest sect of our religion I
            lived a Pharisee.                     --Acts xxvi.
                                                  5.
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            The image of a brute, adorned
            With gay religions full of pomp and gold. --Milton.
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   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.
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               Religion will attend you . . . as a pleasant and
               useful companion in every proper place, and every
               temperate occupation of life.      --Buckminster.
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   3. (R. C. Ch.) A monastic or religious order subject to a
      regulated mode of life; the religious state; as, to enter
      religion. --Trench.
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            A good man was there of religion.     --Chaucer.
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   4. Strictness of fidelity in conforming to any practice, as
      if it were an enjoined rule of conduct. [R.]
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            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.
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   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]

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. 

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."