What Is Religion?

The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set of qualities that distinguish the religious from the remainder of human life, is primarily a Western concern. The attempt is a natural consequence of the Western speculative, intellectualistic, and scientific disposition. It is also the product of the dominant Western religious mode, what is called the Judeo-Christian climate or, more accurately, the theistic inheritance from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The theistic form of belief in this tradition, even when downgraded culturally, is formative of the dichotomous Western view of religion. That is, the basic structure of theism is essentially a distinction between a transcendent deity and all else, between the creator and his creation, between God and man.

--King, W.L. (2005). "Religion (First Edition)". In Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA. p. 7692.
 

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and longlasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic .

--Clifford Geertz, "Religion as a Cultural System". In Michael Banton (1st ed.). Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, London, Tavistock 1966, p. 4.

The current working definition of religion is contested widely for its Western-centric standards and its European origin, but scholars have been and will continue to search for an all-inclusive definition and a better understanding of the institutions the word "religion" stands for worldwide. 

For the purposes of exploring religion in order to expand the subjects of the word, I have developed a seven-faceted approach that encompasses the things that every religion appears to have, and using these seven concepts, we can examine other species' behaviours and physiologies for signs of a non-human religion.

Let's check it out!