religion has a deeper (meaning) than we may realize
- it tangles itself into (death), (politics), (sex), and (pop culture)
- the reason why is because it is tied to the larger questions about the nature of humanity
- the reason (philosophy) doesn't have as much reach is because religion is a complete lifestyle requirement, while philosophy is merely (understanding) but doesn't focus as much on implementing the ideas as (habits)

religion is like (culture), and is defined heavily by who is talking about it
- there is plenty of (distorted image) over what even defines a religion, since the concept permits (civil liberties) at times, or may create (persecution) at other times

broadly, religion is placing something in the center of our existence
- in that sense, (addiction)/devotion is a part of religion
- however, most people would have an issue with the idea because they don't see how deeply we can ascribe (meaning) to just about anything

unlike addiction, though, religion is an entire framework for how to live life
- it derives from specific shared (beliefs), though the beliefs may be embodied in (actions)(votive religions)
- it is an embodied (culture) around those beliefs (orthodoxy), but also (rules) on how to live (orthopraxy)
- so, (habits) are another domain of religion

many (conflicts) erupt about religion because there is a lot at stake. This is simply because a few (philosophical) shifts in (language) around religious doctrine can redefine tremendous aspects of how to (act) and who has (power)

historically, religion has been a (community) experience, but only in the past ~500 years (since the Protestant Reformation) it has moved to the idea of being a personal experience

the (logical) parsing of (academics) has done strange things to religions:
- religion is grouped by its sacred (texts), liturgical practices, (theology), and other elements, even if multiple groups would NEVER get along together
- the very idea of "religion" is pigeonholed into ONLY (habits) and (beliefs) about (the unknown)
EFFECT: people are often oblivious to how much religion is really going on

one unique domain of religion is how we can summon spoken (language) from an unseen being (glossolalia) or perform remarkable actions with unseen power
- this is, naturally, a potential (risk) depending on the (moral) state of that being
- in many ways, though, it makes sense: (humanity) is a vessel with an outer (image), and our design has us effectively hollow enough to be filled by something else

religion serves the role of (purpose) for existence itself
- science gives us facts, but the facts don't gice us implicit purpose
- religion is the derived (stories) drawn from those facts