Religion is a large subject. Some think it the most important matter for consideration (or the only one). Others believe that it wasteful to devote time to the study of what has proved to be an archaic and often destructive force in human society. I, personally, am not sure what I think. This series of essays is my attempt to clarify a little bit about the subject: what it is, how it affects people's lives, and ultimately whether it is true, and good, and useful, or not. This first essay will attempt a definition. Merriam-Webster.com has several definitions for religion: "the service and worship of God or the supernatural"; "a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices"; and "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith." These are general enough, especially the last, to refer to atheists, communists, nationalists, and extremists of all flavors, as well as the more traditionally devout.

But what really is religion? Some would say that our distant ancestors invented it as a way to explain the strange and mysterious world around them, and we are simply heirs to the diverse mass of mutually contradictory beliefs that have been invented, rejected, and revised by thousands of subsequent generations. (They then draw various conclusions about the usefulness of these beliefs, but that is for a future essay.)

Others say that religion is simply truth that cannot be perceived by ordinary senses. At some point in history, the Supreme Being (God, for convenience, though different religions hold many conflicting ideas about the name and nature and even the existence of this entity) chose to reveal the secrets of the universe and human destiny to one particular group of people, or a prophet, or some otherwise limited initial group. (Most religions of this sort, of course, believe that their religion is true for all people, but since a multitude of different beliefs exist elsewhere they must come up with reasons for why other people believe differently. That also will be discussed in more depth in a later essay.)

There are many variations on this theme: many groups claim that only their exact teachings please God, and everyone else, including ones with very similar beliefs (to outsiders, at least) is wrong. Others say that God revealed himself in different ways to different people, so that although the trappings of the religion of, say, a Hindu, a Catholic, and a Sunni Muslim might differ, at heart they are all about the same thing - though, here again, opinions differ on what that thing might be.

Then there are those who may espouse a human origin for religion and yet believe that it has captured something timeless, some great truth that is worthy of preserving in spite of the "obviously" mythical trappings that grew up around these teachings. Thou shalt not kill. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Similar injunctions and admonitions are found in most, though perhaps not all, religions.

The presence of a large number of qualifying statements in the above few paragraphs highlights one of the greatest difficulties in talking about, let alone understanding, religion: everyone has a different take on it. Everyone also has a different opinion on the validity of everyone else's opinion. And since many people believe quite strongly that they are speaking for and about the highest source of wisdom possibly, it is little wonder that tensions are high when religious differences are dealt with.

Why religion, which universally claims to be the source of the highest morality and most admirable human behaviour, produces suicide bombers who kill thousands in a single stroke, and groups which claim the will of God for why they kill or allow to be killed hundreds of thousands of other people - from starvation due to the politics of a national theocracy, or from denial of critical foods or medical treatments on religious grounds, or from holy wars with unbelievers, and many other reasons - and still more groups who break the spirit, and perhaps even will to live, of their followers with oppressive rules and regulations, all in the name of eternal truth and happiness - that is another question altogether.