Nassim Taleb expounded on the meaning of the word ‘religion’ in his book Skin In The Game: For most Protestants, religion is belief with neither aesthetics, pomp nor law. Further East, for Buddhists, Shintoists and Hindus, religion is practical and spiritual philosophy, with a code of ethics (and for some, cosmogony). So when Hindus talk about the Hindu ‘religion’ they don’t mean the same thing to a Pakistani as it would to a Hindu, and certainly something different for a Persian.
