Religion is an important aspect of life, it __ (1) __ a great many things. The odd part is that many people are not actually clear on what a religion is. There are several key aspects that make something a religion although the exact details can __ (2) __ . In reality there is no firm agreement on just what a religion is. Religion is a belief system that uses symbols to __ (3) __ people to explore their spirituality. Religions usually rely on narratives and symbols that are used to offer a meaning to life or to explain things like how the universe was created. In addition most religions have an __ (4) __ component that teaches people how they are expected to live. There is a lot of variation within this __ (5) __ can be seen by the number of religions that exist in the world. In fact there is no firm agreement about what __ (6) __ a religion and what does not. One aspect of religion that __ (7) __ in all cases is that it is a public process. Having a personal belief system does not make it a religion. By definition a religion is an organized activity that __ (8) __ other people. Most religions have a hierarchical system for example with priests and bishops and so on but this is not __ (9) __ . Most religions also have a specific place of worship and there are usually sermons, festivals and many other activities that are part of the process. None of this is strictly required; the only requirement is that the religion be a belief system that is held by a group of people who publicly share that religion. However in practice the vast __ (10) __ of religions have some aspect of these things.