Religion is a social class whose members exhibit certain common characteristics. This class includes beliefs, behaviours, and norms that are found in all cultures or societies. For example, all cultures practise a form of ceremonial ritual to mark the death of a loved one. However, the precise nature of these ceremonies differs between cultures. These characteristics can be characterized using a variety of different methods, from open polythetic approaches that allow for a wide range of properties, to monothetic approaches that impose a set of properties on the class.
The essential feature of religion is man’s awareness of his dependence on the Divine. This sense of dependency is the source of a desire for communion with the Deity and of hope. The conviction that the Deity can bring aid, peace, and happiness to men leads them voluntarily to act in ways they feel will produce these results. This desire for communion engenders love of the Divine, although in lower grades of religion this is a very rudimentary idea and conformity to a recognized moral standard is a more important consideration.
The term “religion” originally meant the observance of taboos or a life of chastity and obedience to which people voluntarily bind themselves by vows more or less solemn. In this sense, the word was a synonym for “scrupulousness” or “conscientiousness”. Today, the term is more commonly used to refer to an entire genus of social formations, or even to the notion that there are no such things as religions.