definition of religion.
By religion I mean the codification of the interaction with an absolute that remains empirically unknown, but is nevertheless empirically assumed. It is an absolute because our perception of things is conditioned by it in ways that are beyond our control. An empirically unknown absolute because it totally eludes all physical and tangible parameters. Unknown, but whose reality we presuppose because of the coherence with which our experience is conditioned. As a result, there is a need to develop a relationship and to interact with the source of this conditioning. This relationship is codified through a series of cultural mechanisms that are conditioned over time by vast social groups. (Buccellati, When on High, 1.1)