My simplified definition of religion: belief in something in the absence of any independently-verifiable evidence.

I go with Mark Twain's idea that it is believing something you know is not so. A bit out of context here but it works.

Faithfools believe in some of the stupidist things.

I prefer to define religion and mythology separately. I realize it's not the common way to view spirituality, but it's the way I think about things.

For me, religion is my feeling of connection to the source of creation and all that supports my being, physically, and what I understand to be the practical means of our survival. I like to base this on the science for what we know so far. I might create metaphors in my mind for finding a greater understanding for what we don't yet know, but I know in my mind, it's just my brain trying to make sense of things. So, I kind of have my own spirituality which works for me, but its not an organized religion I'm sharing outwardly for society to follow along with blindly, without thinking, it is MY thinking.

The religions from past generations won't work in today's world, because there is too much that has been proven false by science. A religion HAS to jive with the science of the day. Past religions are now called mythologies.

To me, a mythology is a set of stories about our creation that are made up as an explanation which might be taken literally when first presented, but end up holding more metaphorical or cultural connection value than truth as time goes on. While perhaps they aren't true, they do hold metaphorical value in trying to make sense of the world around us and our place in it... until it doesn't.

For me, a mythos is like a pair of eyeglasses through which we view the world. An infant sees the world through naked eyes, perhaps selfish and self absorbed at first. Society puts a pair of magic glasses on him which puts him in a grand program where he has a role to play. As long as the prescription for those magic glasses is kept updated, everything goes along smoothly. If you try to put an old pair of glasses on the child, the distorted view won't jive with the real world and he will have troubles.

We've come to a time in our history where we have so many groups of people seeing the world through outdated prescriptions/mythos, when maybe we don't need a prescription/mythos at all, or if we do, it needs to be more accurate, more plausible in today's world.

If we are to combine religion, mythology, spirituality, cultural traditions and so on, maybe we just need to be a bit more easy breezy with it all and not get so stuck in adhering to one thing or another. Times are changing, and it takes a few generations to move a group think as much as necessary to get us all on the same page for a clear explanation of how we got here and what we should be doing, so far as we know. This means going forward, not backward toward something that no longer jives with the world around us.

Fealty to memes in the hope of gaining special favors. (Superstition)

I note your substitution of 'argument by authority' with 'proof by authority'. For religionists, I'm not sure either are really appropriate, and that it might be better with 'persuasion by authority' or 'conversion by authority' or along those lines.

It's a mindfuck, best described as the believer adhering to " Heads I Win, Tails you Lose"

Well put, I like the way you think.