Ideology and religion

I came across an interesting set of responses to the question "What are the main differences between religion and ideology?"

Some of responses included:

• "…religions focus on answering the world-view including afterlife and other things that are not in the materialistic world, whereas most ideologies focus on providing a world-view about the materialistic world."
• "…ideology may mean any kind of action-oriented theory or any attempt to approach politics in the light of a system of ideas…[Religion] is also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death."
• "Ideologies are active belief-systems. They need not be religious."

There were more responses, but they seemed to revolve around one general theme: the difference between ideology and religion is where we direct our faith. Both are based on assumptions we accept.

We know examples of religions, what are some examples of ideologies? Most -isms tend to be ideologies. One writer shared this statement that "There is good scientific evidence that political reasoning is based on innate, non-rational principles."

Why do we need to understand this? Those wishing to have an impact on this world must make a study of what motivates the people they seek to persuade. Not everyone will be convinced with a rational decision-making approach. Instead, those wishing to have an impact must account for the non-rational motivations that drive attitudes and decisions.