Is belief in one God or several gods a requirement of religion?

Question

I have my own personal answer but I'm interested in hearing other people's answers.

Answer 1

No, since the definition of religion is
1) Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe."
2) A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
3) The life or condition of a person in a religious order.
4) A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
5) A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

So for any of these, you don't need a god.

Answer 2

This is a great question. I am a Unitarian Universalist. Some of our congregants, including my own son, claim to be atheist in their belief. We still embrace them as part of a faith based community. I would dispute the definition of faith often found here that faith means acceptance without proof, but that's another discussion.

My personal definition of religion is the systematic or organized attempt by people to make sense of a responsibility in the world larger than themselves. What part do we all have in contributing beyond just caring for our own daily needs? How do we continue to create a better world for ourselves and our descendants?

The seven principles of Unitarian Universalism are:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

You will notice that requiring belief in a deity is not among them although some of our members do believe in a god or goddess.

I myself believe in God, but you might not think so. My belief is based on group work theory: Given any group whose number of members is n, there are n + 1 personalities. That is to say the personalities of the individual people, plus the personality of the group, generated by the interaction of the individuals. Therefore, given the population of the world as a group n, the + 1 is God. Interestingly enough, this + 1 commonality can be found by looking for example at how many of the worlds religions and philosophies contain some version of the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

To get back to your question, I don't feel that belief in a god or gods or goddesses is a requirement of religion.

Answer 3

Well I think the Creator or God or the Source or whatever you wish to call it had a hand in creating all of us, so if you mean believing in something bigger than yourself is a requirement for a religion/philosophy then I guess yes.

I don't think it matters what name you use when you think of that, God fits most people, but in fact it came from some source more intelligent and creative than mere mortals.

Although I realize Bhuddism has no ' God' involved I still think of it as akin to religion. I often refer to myself as a lapsed lutheran with bhuddist tendencies.

Answer 4

Belief in one God or several gods a requirement of religion?

Not in Hinduism. Not necessarily. In Hinduism even Atheist are called Hindu only. You can reject everything said in scriptures and yet remain a Hindu. No problem.

Buddhism and Jainism also are rather atheist religions. They believe in soul, but are rather silent about concept of god.

Answer 5

I believe religion is more about a belief in some elements of the supernatural rather than strictly a belief in deities. Now deities do fall under that categorization of supernatural but so do other things so no deities are not a requirement of religion.

Answer 6

I am not sure about Other religions but in Islam, its a requirement. Islam says "There is no God but Allah".

Consider a business with more then one partners in it. One day they will have problems and then they will try to give problems to each other. If there were any partners to Allah, the world would have been destroyed from a long time.

Answer 7

I'll have to check with the registrar of Religion, but, just of the top of my head I'd say many people worship gods, without even knowing they are worshiping. I know a prostitute, who worships a sex god, and swears quite sincerely that she is an atheist. Bankers can easily idolize money. Fundamentalists often worship a book. Several million nazis worshiped der Furher, to their everlasting shame...

Dogma requires Deity, but God has no respect for man, nor his folly.

Answer 8

Belief in one supreme being is a requirement of a religion. Religions are followers of a specific worldview.
Those that don't have a belief in a supreme being, are not religious, and therefore, don't have a religion.

Answer 9

Many people think of Buddhism as a religion, but there is no god involved. Perhaps religion/philosophy are the same thing.

Answer 10

No.

Actually I'm not real sure what the basic requirements of a religion are, but I know Buddhist's are nontheistic and Buddhism is considered a religion.