[flir]

I know I said I was cutting and running, but I think this is worth your time.

Check out our conversation in the light of functional (maximalist) and substantive (minimalist) definitions of religion: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-religion/

Eg "Famously, a functional approach can hold that even atheistic forms of capitalism, nationalism, and Marxism function as religions" vs "all three of these versions are “substantive” definitions of religion because they determine membership in the category in terms of the presence of a belief in a [supernatural, transcendent or superempirical] reality".