what is religion?

depends upon whom you ask

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” ...Albert Einstein

Religion is came from the words legion. And each legion contained between 3000 and 6000 soldiers. Or you say Legions. A large group of people. That's why we called the soldiers of Jesus. And when the people are few. The called it a sect.

Religions is actually a system of symbols that impose a long lasting effect on the followers of that religion.

There are many scholarly definitions of rligion

Understanding the Post's question:
It is saying, that before we discuss all these matters in this section about religion, really, what is religion?

Therefore, religion is nothing other than any human system of do's and don'ts that people accept about an entity that no one can question. It is about humans creating a god, to worship, because of the unexplained need within every person to know the highest power that created everything and has rule over them.
All religions are a false representation of the true God, creator.
Because people do not want to accept truth, therefore, they make up a new lie. Remember, that when there are several of anything, all may be wrong, but all may not be true.

As simple as it could be, a red color can only be red. However, someone may say it is green, or black, or pink.
It cannot be red, and green, black, and pink.
It cannot also be red or green, or black or pink.
It is only red. If all scientists meet and decide that the red should be called pink, than they have to also redefine the pink, for 2 colors cannot be equally called.

God exists, and religion ought to have been recognizing Him and only Him as the One God. Yet this is not happening. So is god a cow, a snake, the sun, a lion, or the invisible according to this religion or the other? For sure the true god is not all of them. God also cannot be a choice that a human makes. This would be the same as if you want to drive on the right side of the street, and believe that it is the same as if you want to drive on the left side. They are just sides, it is your individual choice! it is just illogical.

The true God must be the all powerful self made self existent entity. For if anyone else made him, than that other one would be the most high God. So who is this One entity that is the most powerful, that was not made, but rather always existed? This should be the question, for anything else is RELIGION.
A rock cannot be God, because a rock is even more inferior than an animal. All animals die, and all humans die. So God must be higher than any human.

What makes us think that God, the only one creator would not reveal Himself, while we know that any great person any time in history, or the present, would be known, and to whom respect is due?

In fact, He did reveal Himself, and without reading any book of religion, scholarly or not, He can be known.
Every religion is different from any other, else they would not be called differently. All religions may be wrong, but all may not be true.
To know the unknown, a human must consider the known.
Do you imagine therefore that the heavens, made by God, declare the glory of God, and the firmament declares His handy work? Equally, the human body with its complications, also point to Him. Even within every person a sensor that God has placed that has a constant urge to know Him, and that can make a distinction between Him and anything else even if it looks like Him. The problem is there are many logical voices we hear, that makes us decide that all religions are the same. So why bother? We should bother, because unless a person finds the One God creator, we would not know the purpose for which He made us, let alone destiny, and how to get there. But as long as He is the entity that always existed, He is also the entity that will always exist, and as long as God exists, any effort to find Him is better than giving up. He said that everyone that seek Him shall find Him. So all what is necessary, is to seek Him, from our hearts, that is without having to listen to religious systems, or being devout to any system above the task of actually finding the truth. Everything that could be used must point to Him, and not to a system, and everything that point to Him must agree that it is Him.

Religion is a belief structure founded on a holistic perspective of your world; concluding that high morals are necessary, and selflessness is most fundamental.

people saying Hindu,muslim,Christian, sikh are religion but its not TRUE ..these are our remarks that who we are but according to m there are only two religion in this whole World ..First is to worship The God if u have faith in him and second is "duty " yes duty . .Even a small bird and animals perform IT. A soldier fight for his country its his religion(duty ) ..parents birth their kids and look after them so all these duties are religion .Worship to God and duty are religion in real sence .

nothing at all to do with soldiering!

The Latin term religiō, origin of the modern lexeme religion (via Old French/Middle Latin[2]) is of ultimately obscure etymology. It is recorded beginning in the 1st century BC, i.e. in Classical Latin at the beginning of the Roman Empire, notably by Cicero, in the sense of "scrupulous or strict observance of the traditional cultus".
Etymology

The classical explanation of the word, traced to Cicero himself, derives it from re- (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligo "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re- (again) + ligare or "to reconnect," which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius.[3][4]



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio