  This is my second attempt at this post. I spent a good hour and a half writing a nuanced, lucid, and frank post full of references to literature, scholarship, and Damien Youth songs. I finished, hit the "publish post" button, and sat back and watched as NOTHING HAPPENED. Attention internet: you have wasted yet another two hours of my time. Here goes attempt #2: I am currently reading six books. I'm in a kind of limbo, waiting for two or three to grab my attention and move to the forefront... One of the main contenders is Aldous Huxley's urlLink The Perennial Philosophy .
Huxley is of course quite well known for his "Brave New World", a book that I think is slightly overrated. Huxley apparently became very interested in religion towards the end of his career. The basic premise of the book is that all religions are fundamentally the same in their mystical aspects. This is an argument that is by no means new... the phrase "The Perennial Philosophy" was coined by Leibnitz and such academic luminaries as Fritjof Schuon and Huston Smith promote the idea. Since I have not finished the book, I will NOT do a review. I thought that some of the ideas that I've come across in it thus far would provoke some interesting discussion.
-My first thought has to do with the title. Can "religion", properly understood, be considered a "philosophy". Philosophy, in its classical form, can be defined simply as the intellectual pursuit to understand the nature of all things. "Things" is, to me, the key concept. Philosophy focuses with "the world" or "nature". Religion, at least as I understand it, most certainly does not.
This may or may not be a small matter, but I think it deserves some thought. Mr. Damien Youth, in his song "Mythical Light" has a man (portrayed in the song as a rather shallow "believer type") say in reference to Christianity: "I embrace this philosophy". My question is this: Is it a mistake to think about religion, to "deal with it", as one would a philosophy? -Huxley devotes a great deal of time to the discussion of the unity of the mystical experience. This experience, which consists of "ego death" and some sort of unitive experience (be it unity with God, the Void, Divine Light, or whatever)is attested to in Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, Hinduism, and even mystical Judaism. It is also referenced (maybe) in the above mentioned song.
The chorus runs in part: "My spirit... floating skinless in mythical/mystical light". Thought? Extrapolations? 
