Originally Posted By: Faldage
Now, on the etymology of religion AHD4 tempers its mention of descent from the Latin ligare with the all important qualifier, 'perhaps'.


the supposed contention here (ex. OED online):
by Cicero connected with relegere to read over again (see RELECTION n.), so that the supposed original sense of ‘religion’ would have been ‘painstaking observance of rites’, but by later authors (especially by early Christian writers) with religare RELIGATE v., ‘religion’ being taken as ‘that which ties believers to God’. Each view finds supporters among modern scholars.