the purposes of those definitions, is mandatory. The diversity also points out the complexity of the word/concept. “Religion” is an attempt to bring under one broad umbrella an incredible diversity of religious ideas and practices. The third source of the difficulty of defining religion is positing transcendence itself. Most definitions of religion recognize, if not the reality of, then the belief in, an entity that is above and beyond the mundane world of everyday existence. Yet by definition such
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