What is the difference, if any, between philosophy and religion?
That's a fair question, given that most of us don't understand what philosophy is. We tend to get formal or academic philosophy -- the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Nietzsche, etc -- mixed up with what I call "informal philosophy" or "street philosophy". But there's a huge difference between the two.
Formal or academic philosophy is based on reason. It's like a game with one rule, and one rule only: Whatever you claim or assert to be true must be demonstrable by reason. That is, it must be strictly logical.
On the other hand, in informal or street philosophy, you are free to claim or assert something for all sorts of "reasons", including simply that it makes you feel good to think it's true. But in formal or academic philosophy, your reasons must be logically demonstrable. That's the rule of the game. The only rule of the game.
So how does formal or academic philosophy compare to religion? Well, religious beliefs tend to be held for a variety of "reasons", including that they are traditional, or that they are derived from an authority, such as a prophet, or that they make one feel good to hold them. That is, religious beliefs are not always held because they are demonstrable to strict logical reasoning. And in that respect, they are more like street philosophy than they are like formal philosophy.
Another way religion is different than philosophy is that religion involves much, much more than philosophy. It involves practices like worship, ritual, feasts, festivals, meditation, and so forth. And it is usually wrapped up in a community of followers, among other things. In fact, it is highly arguable that community is more important to most religions than are beliefs. Philosophy has no such corresponding "infrastructure" as religion has. So the two are radically different in that respect.
Those are two ways that I can think of off the cuff in which religion and philosophy differ from each other.
