What is religion?

The cut and dry answer used to be good enough: a set of beliefs that dictate actions. But, this was no longer good enough to satisfy my ponderful living, as I would poke holes at all the ideas I had accepted as a child. Cue that scripture from "The Mission" when I was a child I thought as a child... But, I put away childish things.

Someone gave the most awesome information if you are ready or looking for it:

When a woman gives birth the child is connected to it's mother by a cord that must be severed. It is tied off in two places then a the cut is made between the two. The fastened sections are called ligatures.

This binding off of the cord shares the same root as the main part of the word religion.

So a religion sort of conveniently becomes the means to define the way we are "tied off" to our diety or sense of being.

For me and others of my faith, our sense of being and diety are closely related, too. Being as our God is our spiritual father. So the way we are tied to him is the religion we profess. Mentioning thus always sort of puts me on a pedestal. I start to feel high and mighty as a daughter of God, and as one I ought never apologize for myself, but be on purpose. It makes me feel less like I need to or even ought to,accept things I know are not correct because I shrink from confrontation and seek to not ever stand out or offend positively or negatively, especially regarding same gender couples. It is just not acceptable and I see it as a fault of mine to try to ride the fence and say hate the sin, but love the sinner. Be accepting of others who believe differently, etc. I just honestly do not think God would be so lenient regarding any issue really, nor could he be.