Religions are difficult to define, as in attempts to do so, many struggles to separate the concepts of religion, as a social and cultural construct, and the sense of faith. Faith is a sense of internal trust and conviction to something or someone that a beholder perceives as being beyond themselves. It is a personal and internal feeling that one develops under their own circumstances and, although affected by social context, remains unique to each induvial.
Religion, however, is an environment in which faith is developed and acted out. It provides internal faith with an external framework, allowing a believer to obtain knowledge about relevant origins and teachings. Religion informs faith with appropriate rituals, symbols, and imagery and provides institutionalization and hierarchy. In a way, it provides an external and measurable component to a fundamentally internal and subjective sensation that could not have been studied otherwise.