Religion is a large and complicated human phenomenon. Scholars have attempted to explain its role in societies throughout the world and across history. Their answers have varied, but most scholars agree that religions provide guidance for life, support people through difficult times and encourage good behavior. They also can be a source of community and a sense of tradition. Some researchers have even found that religious people tend to be healthier than those who do not practice a religion.
Most definitions of religion refer to human beings’ relationship with that which they hold sacred or holy. This may be a god or gods, spirits, the broader universe, or texts that are considered to have scripture status. In more theistic forms of religion, this relationship is with a deity; in more naturalistic or humanistic forms of religion, it is with the broader humanity or the natural world. Some definitions of religion refer only to beliefs, while others include practices and rituals as well. A third approach, called symbolic interactionist, sees the concept of religion as a process through which human beings construct meaningful life experiences and share them with others. These experiences can involve feelings of deep emotional intensity, trancelike states, and a feeling of oneness with those around them.
Many people who practice a religion do so because it helps them to cope with the problems of life, such as illness, death and loss, or adversity in general. In addition, most religions teach that doing good for others is a fundamental part of human nature and teaches people how to treat their fellow humans. For these reasons, religion has been an important force in many cultures throughout history. It has helped to shape knowledge and the arts, serve as an agent of social control, promote psychological and physical well-being, and inspire hostility and violence, sometimes motivated by religious differences.
In the last few decades there has been a shift in thinking about religion in the social sciences and humanities. This has been a result of scholars pulling back, so to speak, and examining the constructedness of objects previously taken for granted as unproblematically “there”.
The goal of this movement is to understand religion by focusing on the structures that produce it rather than on hidden mental states. This is a different approach than the “substantive” approach that has traditionally been used, which defines a religion by whether or not it involves belief in unique kinds of reality.
Some scholars have criticized the use of this functional definition, arguing that it obscures the social and historical context in which religion develops. However, there is no definitive answer to this debate since the definition of religion is a social construction, and as such it is possible for people who live in very different cultures to have similar functions imposed on their lives by the same set of beliefs and practices. This is a central point of the functionalist perspective that Emile Durkheim and his colleagues developed.