"It's not religion, it's a way of life."

I often hear religious people claim they don't follow a religion, but a 'way of life'. They seem to use this to shed the negative connotation associated with the term 'religion' which in their minds makes their belief more justified.

But see, it's called religion because that's what it is - religion. Could we say doctors are practitioners of a 'way of life'? Sure. But we'd have a hard time understanding what way of life they follow if we didn't assign a word to describe that, which is why we called them 'doctors'. Otherwise, I might as well claim I'm not a member of the human race, I'm simply a member of a 'way of life'. Obama doesn't work for the government, he's just leading a 'way of life'. I don't believe in unconditional love, I just engage in a 'way of life'. They're all 'ways of life'. They all just have words associated with each to make them more identifiable; language is communication and lexemes are the constituents. We identify the definition of religion with the word 'religion'.

A way of life? Yes, it can be. It's still religion.