In case you are one of those people that wake up one morning and all of a sudden you start pondering on life’s big questions… read more.

If you would like to understand what on earth being religious means and could that be your cup of tea, you might first have to understand what religion is. Many people have pondered on the same question, way brighter than you and me, no doubt, and eventually, we were left with two definitions and ideas to consider:

First, it was Cicero‘s idea (1st century B.C.) that religion came from “relegare” (lat.), or “to read again, to carefully perform”. Thus, if you properly perform the rites in veneration of the Gods, you are … religious. Not a surprise, really.

The second definition came centuries later (to be precise AD 4th century) from an early Christian author, called Lactanius, who in fact became an advisor to the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine I. He derived “religio”(lat.) from “religare”(lat.) which means to “connect, to bind”. The idea behind that is that we are tied to God and bound to Him and from this bond has religion itself received its name. Moreover, “religo”(lat.) – to reconnect suggests also that the bond between people and God was cut and later re-established through the Christian religion.

Food for thought for the advanced:

  1. In a broader context, religion is the understanding of the world and man’s place in it. Today, it is believed that religious activities are intended to unite and bond people, but in the ancient world, they aimed to connect man to cosmos, space. Furthermore, the notion that man is part of the environment and he is, in fact, connected with it, was essential.
  2. After the emergence of critical thinking, man became something external to the environment. The idea that things can be influenced because you are connected to them is very important (to connect = to influence). However, with the advent of civilization, the kinship was destroyed – a rabbit is no longer “little brother”, like in the minds of the Native Americans but animals are now to serve the people.

The bond was broken.

Dwell on that.