What is a religion?

(The date and time are dummy values to be updated when the meeting is scheduled.)

I invite you to take a minute or so to answer the following question:

• What is a religion?

I'm not asking for a precise definition — just a few main ideas.

I think that most people will cite ideas such as belief in the supernatural, belief in God, belief in afterlife.

In striving to identify the essence of religion, I developed a definition without reference to any of these ideas. Here is my definition:

• A religion is a social system that is based on non-predictor axioms (NPAs). Such a social system fosters a group identity, and this group identity provides the psychological basis for believing the NPAs.
• A religion is distinguished by axioms that cannot be refuted by sensory evidence.
• [Human Life, fig. 12.1 (see end note for full title of book)]

This definition of religion is based on the means by which knowledge is obtained, and in this context, a distinguishing feature of religion is non-predictor axioms. For this context, you can think of a non-predictor axiom as an axiom that cannot be refuted by sensory evidence. For example, the existence of the afterlife dichotomy cannot be refuted by sensory evidence. This definition of religion may encompass other beliefs that are not normally thought of as religious beliefs, such as belief in magic or belief in gremlins, but for the present purposes, we can encompass such beliefs in the category of religious beliefs.

In the meeting, I will present these ideas for discussion.

Reference: Philip Bitar, Why Human Life Makes Sense, Edition 5 (2023), chapter 12

Meeting times and locations

Time is PST or PDT, depending on time of year, X = TBD:

X:00 pm in-person — Marysville Library, 2nd meeting-room door on LHS of entrance hallway

X:15 pm online — link to be posted here before meeting

If you plan to attend in person, when you register, please add a comment "Plan to attend in person" to help me in preparing room accommodations.