Does everyone have a religion

Answer 1

AnswerWhether or not they realise it, everyone has a particular school of thought to which he or she subscribes. Most people elect to follow a particular, organised belief system, such as Christianity or one of the many other religions and/or philosophies. The remainder often do not realise that they, too, subscribe to a particular belief system, whether that be Atheism, agnosticism or just plain materialism...

Answer

No every one does not have a religion, A religion is based on theological doctrine of an organisation. Theological doctrines have formed around them various schools of thought, however they are by they nature inflexible and regardless of whether they espouse sensible doctrine or not demand acceptance through blind faith. religion is the belief and or worship in a higher intelligence that consciously oversees the doings of the universe. I am definitely not religious, and do not subscribe to any religious doctrine, I believe in an overall power of which we are all an inseparable party part, The part that I play in this is entirely up to my self, the closest one could come to calling me religious is that I have philosophical inclinations formed as the result of the thing I have seen and done and learnt from others. None of this however brands me with the term religious.

Answer "Religion" is defined:

- in "The Little Oxford Dictionary" [1969] as "System of faith and worship"

-in "Collins Australian Pocket English Dictionary" [ISBN 0-00-433053-6] as "...2. Any specific system of belief, worship etc often involving a code of ethics...4. Any object that is seriously pursued"

-"Collins" English Dictionary [ISBN 0-00-433174-5] defines "religion" as "...5. Something of overwhelming importance to a person: eg football is his religion."

This means that religion is anything you strongly believe in: it might be a type of car such as "Holden" or "Ford", it may be a belief in a god ["theism"], or it may be a belief that there is no god ["atheism"]: they are all beliefs and do not have to be be theological.

Answer

At the risk of turning this into an argument the fact that I prefer to drive a Holden doesn't mean that my religious beliefs are Holden. It only means that it makes a u turn in a smaller space. The spirit of this Question asks if every one has a religion. There is little doubt that the religion being spoken of is conviction that there is a higher power that controls and stands over us and that we must pay homage to or fear that or those higher powers. This is usually accompanied by a set of rules or ethics that are expected to be adhered to wether they are sensible or not. If we were to take into account the fact that fanaticism or things of overwhelming importance to the individual, like milk to a baby, or water to an animal are of religious significance then the word religion has been watered down to a point of meaninglessness. No not every one believes in a god as is recognised in the accepted (thoelogical) meaning of the word.