Yazata
Valued Senior Member
The common element in every religion is the promise of an afterlife of some form.
I'm not convinced that's true. Nor am I convinced that all religions are focused on whatever afterlife concept they might have.
The ancient Greeks often seem to have imagined the afterlife as dull, grey and dreary. The Confucians don't seem to have emphasized it. Ancient religions were often focused on acquiring divine favor in this life, plentiful harvests, healthy babies and so on. The Buddhists emphasize escaping from the endless wheel of rebirth.
There is an assumption that humans have duality - a physical component and a spiritual/soul component.
Some concepts of an afterlife involve bodily resurrection. The Buddhists explicitly deny the existence of a soul.
Even if that is arguably a common denominator of all religions (which I doubt), it still doesn't define what religion is.We can define religion then as - A set of beliefs that some form of potential continued existence will occur after physical death.
In point of fact, I don't think that anyone has ever produced a truly satisfactory definition of religion. It's still an open question in academic religious studies.
What we have instead of a dictionary-style definition is something more descriptive: a whole collection of qualities that religions often exhibit. Religions are recognized as being religions by family resemblance basically, by their possession of a sufficient number of these qualities. (Nobody has ever determined what counts as 'sufficient' either.)
But having said that, it's quite possible (even probable) that there's no single quality that all religions possess in common that somehow qualifies them as religions.
To ensure the promise is fulfilled and/or to determine the quality of the after death experience - requires obedience to a set of rules that describe - lifestyle, morality and rituals. These details determine how each religion will differ from any other. These include theistic and non-theistic religions.
I think that just about all religions involve personal and social practices. But religious practices needn't be focused on afterdeath experience. They can be focused on improving one's fortunes in the here and now. They can be focused on maintaining the order of nature. They can be focused on maintaining ideal social relationships between people. And they can be focused on psychological suffering and the end of suffering.
If duality is false then all religion is pure nonsense and has no purpose.
Maybe, if we adopt a very narrow view of what religion is.
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