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Do you think that every sentient being is religious?

See, if everyone has an idea of how the whole thing ... and I mean the WHOLE thing ... works.  Then they act
accordingly and so what they do about it? That’s their religion.

Of course, some beings have thought out lots of the details for themselves.
Others have heard -  or at least think that they heard, and have understood -  the details that they got somewhere else.
In any case, whatever it is that they do about either of these circumstances?  That's their religion.

Nowadays when the details do not conform to any one of the traditional doctrines official teachings, the word spiritual is used
instead of religious.
 

tenet means doctrine   " dogma   " scripture   " heresy   "

group-held belief  basic teachng essential doctine   any sacred writing incorrect tenet

This is because the so-called organized religions have gotten a bad name due to the fact that the followers of most of them appear hypocritical they say one thing; do another.  They preach peace and wage war, for example.  Or they teach "Love thy neighbour" but not if she’s gay, or not if he’s a follower of some other religion.

Since very few of us actually come up with entirely new ideas,  most of our so-called spiritual notions are consistent
with one or more of the systems which were superceded taken over and followed by the Judeo-Christian (and Muslim) views.
You realize, I’m sure, that this replacement of ancient beliefs by Christianity and Islam did not happen everywhere in
the world.  Sure it did in the West Europe and the Americas, but it took a lot longer than most people think.

People who accompanied my ancestors we're Spitzes from Finland and Norway did not get converted until around the year
1000 CE current era.  The process is still going on in Asia and Africa:  Islam is gaining converts by leaps and bounds.
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In some places, but not that many, people practise the religion of their ancestors which goes back as far as 10 to 15
thousand years BP before the present/ago. If one generation of dogwatchers lives to see their grownup young at the age of around
30 years old, so 100 years gives rise to over 3 generations; a thousand years is 300 generations and 10 thousand years is
3,000 generations. Think of all the grannies and mommies and kids and puppies.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are grouped together because they share one main idea:  There is one god who created,
and is responsible, for everything.  And he, yes, he exists beyond it all somewhere (heaven?) but you can reach him anytime, almost.  At least, he can reach you!  So we say he is in two places at once, or transcendent above and beyond and
immanent right here and now.

By the way, his name is God.  If you believed in him, you would refer to him as Him.
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Of course, there are differences in the details, which is what makes Judaism, Christianity and Islam three very different
religions.  Part of the difference has to do with time: the chronology the order of the emergence of their respective doctrines, the place in  history.  And part has to do with the combination of culture and geography Believe It, or Not! of the place out of which each religion arose.

My friend Dahlia, the llama,
says that all religions have 2 main areas of focus: cosmology and ethics. The cosmology area explains how the universe started, where it came from, and what its nature is. The ethics part explains how we should behave and relate to one another, to the larger society and to the environment in order to be happy.

In the area of cosmology, few religions agree, but in the area of ethics almost all religions agree on the fundamentals --  that we should emphasize patience, honesty, humility, tolerance, and forgiveness. Therefore Dahlia thinks that it is best
not to get into arguments about the differences, but to focus on the things that we have in common.
 
 

                                                        End of Part I:  perception becomes belief becomes religion.

Part II:  kinds of religions,  Judaism, Christianity, Islam  Part III:  Doing religion and Links

Part IV,  prehistory   Part  V will go back a la StarWars to Hinduism which is not just one single religion at all, but provides models for religions of ancient times    Part VI will be about Buddhism.  Part VII will talk about the variety of  so-called New Age beliefs.

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