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Religion does not mean having a relationship with God for many religions do not have a God or have many gods (there are at least 330 million Gods for a Hindu!) The most popular definition of religion comes from Ninian Smart. He believes that religion is an organism (alive and active) with seven dimensions and that for a group to be a religion it must contain these seven dimensions: Myths, rituals, experiences,doctrines, ethics, social aspects, and material forms. Religion fills the need for a human to know what the "ultimate meaning to one's life is". To help one feel purpose, a sense of community, and to feel in some manner of control over their life and possibly, the life to come. Ninian smart describes three approaches to study religion: Antipathy - negative view; Sympathy - positive yet biased view; and Empathy - a neutral view attempting to understand. It is obvious that the empathetic approach is the better approach to study religion. The reason to study religion is to obtain a better understanding of other people and their beliefs, to be better informed and develop a more tolerant opinion. Most people are looking for "the answer" and are not exposed to any other beliefs than was culturally presented or available to them. With the world growing smaller each day it is exciting and interesting to learn to relate to new people, new customs, and new ideas. There at least 6 explanations for the origin of religion: Biological - survival mechanism; Theological - from God; Anthropological - deification of the forces of nature (spirits, objects, animals, etc.); Psychological - unconscious mind; Sociological - social origins; and egotistical - praise, fame, and wealth. It is my opinion that early religions were probably a mix of Anthropological and Biological. Early man must have been very frightened of the unknown and created a means to control his environment and the unknown (rain, earthquakes, heat, the seasons, animals, illness, accidents, etc.) with their religions and beliefs.God in one form or another will, most likely, exist forever. When one vision of God "decays" another will evolve to fill the current need of the culture. It was presented in the writing that humans posses in their neurological history and need for gods and religion that appears to be from our biological heritage. Humans also have that need for enlightenment or need to find a larger purpose. It was interesting to find out that a Cult is a new religion that has not found acceptance in the larger population. A new cult usually presents new ideas that are not widely accepted by its audience. Memes are simple ideas that are easily imitated. In religion that may be ideas, songs, or stories that are easily stored in the brain. Used successfully in religion memes can be copied from one person to another and elicit desire and/or fear (IE: heaven and hell).

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I wonder if I can post this blogg.