Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.

In this definition, Wright reduces “religion” to two linked acts: assent to realities that cannot be directly verified (“existences unseen”) and the social/ritual response those beliefs generate (“homage rendered”). The phrasing is deliberately cool and analytic, treating religion less as revealed truth than as a human posture toward mystery—an orientation to what lies beyond ordinary knowledge (“causes unknown”). Read in light of Wright’s reputation as a radical freethinker and critic of clerical authority, the line functions as a demystifying move: it reframes religion as a psychological and cultural phenomenon rather than a privileged source of knowledge. It also hints at an Enlightenment skepticism about claims that exceed evidence.