what religion is defined as

There are numerous definitions of religion and only a few are stated here. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. The sociologist Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. By sacred things he meant things set apart and forbidden beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits. On the contrary, a sacred thing can be a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred. Religious beliefs, myths, dogmas and legends are the representations that express the nature of these sacred things, and the virtues and powers which are attributed to them. Some recent scholarship has argued that not all types of religion are necessarily separated by mutually exclusive philosophies, and furthermore that the utility of ascribing a practice to a certain philosophy, or even calling a given practice religious, rather than cultural, political, or social in nature, is limited.