Document Type : Original Article
Author
Faculty member (instructor) of the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies
Abstract
One of the most challenging questions in religion studies especially philosophy of religion is to give a definition of religion and its basic elements.
This paper after give a definition of religion, examine its benefits and disadvantages. Pay attention to three areas ‘beliefs’, ‘practices’ and ‘emotions’, between human’s needs and potentials, is one of the benefits of that definition and essential to the principle of conclusiveness, but the attempt to solve the problem of define the religion will be useless unless following cases that are among theoretical defects of attempt to define religion be resolved: 1. reach to minimal subscribers between religions; 2. Ambiguity in explaining the essential elements of definition; and … Finally, we must regard the necessity of a ‘systematic view’ in defining this term one of the difficulties and challenges before us that should be seen scientifically and methodically.
The article ends with reflection on another definition of religion to open a way to analyzing conceptual elements of religion.
Keywords
)