These words refer to a m ore or less codified set of ideas concerning the final causes of the universe. Religion is the most specific of these, suggesting an organized body of traditional doctrines that are reflected in a more or less complex set of institutions for fostering these doctrines: the Christian religion ; the Buddhist religion ; the Hindu religion . Within one of these large groupings, religion is sometimes used to refer to its denominations or sects, but this use is mostly eschewed in formal speech or writing: the Catholic religion ; the Protestant religion . Faith is often substituted for religion to put less emphasis on institutionalized tradition and more on devoted adherence: the Jewish faith ; the Christian faith . Because of these implications, this word is more often used of a subdivision in one of the larger categories: the Catholic faith ; the Eastern Orthodox faith .

Creed stresses an exactly delineated outline of dogma and doctrine and thus may refer to small or large divisions, even within a sect, where doctrinal differences are at issue: the several extant Mormon creeds ; the Moravian creed ; the Moravian creed . The word may be used outside the context of religion – in fact, for any codified statement of principles: a sportsman’s creed . Belief is the most vague of any of these words; it may refer to groupings, large or small: a belief in the tenets of Islam; the beliefs of Taoism; the Quaker belief . Its stress is on wholehearted assent to each item of doctrine: a belief in life after death; the Buddhist rejection of belief in a supreme being. Because the word is so vague, it may point away from any organized religion whatsoever to a purely personal conviction about final causes: her own highly idiosyncratic belief in an all-powerful but not all-beneficent God; a belief in atheism.