From: What is Religion? The Problem of Definition…

1. Belief in something sacred (for example, gods or other supernatural beings).
2. A distinction between sacred and profane objects.
3. Ritual acts focused on sacred objects.
4. A moral code believed to have a sacred or supernatural basis.
5. Characteristically religious feelings (awe, sense of mystery, sense of guilt, adoration), which tend to be aroused in the presence of sacred objects and during the practice of ritual.
6. Prayer and other forms of communication with the supernatural.
7. A world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein. This picture contains some specification of an over-all purpose or point of the world and an indication of how the individual fits into it.
8. A more or less total organization of one’s life based on the world view.
9. A social group bound together by the above.

I don’t really “buy” this, or at least, I think I could do a halfway decent job at coming up with a better definition or list of characteristics which make up a religion. This is the first one I’ve found though. It’s not awful, but neither does it excite me particularly.

Also, there’s this thing on here about substantive vs. functional definitions of religion. Based on this, I tend to lean more towards functional, although I think the way both of these are described is whacked. Neither seems adequate. More info from this same dude on functional definitions and examples of that.

Yeah, the more I read from this guy, the less I agree with him. But that’s not always bad, especially when you’re trying to grasp how other people think about a topic and are trying to figuring out what’s the best bridge to communicate by.