 An alien "religion" is a system of beliefs or rituals, an abstract and impersonal pattern of observables.A dialectic ensues, however.If one's own "religion" is attacked, by unbelievers who necessarily conceptualize it schematically, or all religion is, by the indifferent, one tends to leap to the defence of what is attacked, so that presently participants of a faith – especially those most involved in argument – are using the term in the same externalist and theoretical sense as their opponents.