they are both inspirations by the mind to, ideally better humanity rather than relishing in that which keeps us on the level of any other lawless mammal, they're so close because both are manifestations of people's thoughts.

maybe presentation?

philosophy is studied with a supportable history of others who've had similiar thoughts, presenting those ideals in an academic way...religion is something individually idealized, based on the unsupportable thoughts of others who've had experiences and chose to relay those to others, sometimes in less academic ways.

on a religious level, i've always needed to believe in something else, my understandings are through those avenues that i've learned from, i approach religion as from belief, not necessarily rational or scientifically proven thoughts, i ponder the who and why rather than what and where, and why for me religion is a religion, not a philosophy, but i do think a lot about religion and enjoy discussing it with others.