What Is Religion, After All?

Why do people come to have religion? Is it because they believe in a god, or because they need to steady themselves in the face of inescapable death?

Religion is commonly understood as accepting a belief shared by a god or by many people. At the end of that belief usually lies a promise about what comes after death. Facing the undeniable reality of death that no one can escape, people seek comfort not alone but together with others who share the same belief — and over time, that takes the shape of a community with its own rituals and structure. This is the picture most people have in mind when they think of “religion.”

But The True Bible speaks of religion very differently.

“Religion is a tool that embodies truth.” — IFL 2:5

Truth is that which does not change, and what does not change cannot die — it can only exist on the foundation of 영생.

“Therefore, a religion that dies is not a religion. For people not to die but to enjoy 영생, only then does it become a religion.” — IFL 2:9-10

Here an important distinction emerges. The 영생 spoken of here is not a story about “where you go after you die.”

“Precisely because there is that cause, because there is a cause to die, one dies. Therefore, everyone, you must remove the cause of death… You must remove the cause of death and always live creating the cause for 영생, right? Isn’t that so?” — LOF 8:32-35

It is not about believing in or hoping for what comes after death — it is about removing the very cause that brings death, and being reborn, from the start, as a being that does not die. That is the 영생 The True Bible speaks of, and embodying it is exactly what religion is.