What is the purpose of religions?

Question

Apart from making money.

First paragraph of gromitski is good. I like it

Everyone has their own thoughts on this subject. And for me personally to say that someone has the best answer degrading and strongly debated by all those other people who have spent time to answer this intreguing Question. I ask you cast you own vote for what you believe!

Answer 1

Create order by making people feel good. Without that order, some people who are weak minded go into chaos and anarchy.

Answer 2

Religion began as a made-up way to comfort ignorant people.

Boy: "Why is the sun turning black, mommy?!"
Mother: "Uh...uh...because...'god' is angry!"
Boy: "What's a 'god'?"

Thousands of years ago, people *were* ignorant about the world and the universe, and religion offered the comfort of an easy explanation. As people learned more, the "god" explanation lost its hold in certain areas and knowledge took over.

Atheists and some theists refer to it as a "god shaped hole", that "god" only exists where we're ignorant of the facts. The catholics, for example, accept the fact of a 5 billion year old Earth but still cling to the "god shaped hole" to explain how life came into being, rather than accepting the fact of abiogenesis.

For a while, the made up answer was satisfactory, but somewhere along the way, idiots starting claiming the made up answers were the REAL answers and could explain the universe, regardless of what the facts or their own eyes told them. Small wonder Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses" because one must be high to believe such hallucinations rather than deal with the facts.

To go back to your question:

The purpose of religion was to offer certainty where there was none. As time passed and knowledge expanded, religion depended on ignorance and the FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, doubt) to survive when its purpose ceased to exist.


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Answer 3

Humans need something to believe in, and to have a sense that there is something greater than themselves out there somewhere. They need direction, and control, or they degenerate into tribalism (or anarchy, ie every person does as he thinks fit, which should be good, but of course lots of different points of view leads to conflict). Religion should give a lead and an example, in how to live and treat others. That is its true purpose: to make us civilised.

Sounds good, and should be, but not every religious leader is balanced, and not every religion is the same. If you look in the Bible even, you can find a quote which, if you take it out of context, can be supposed to support almost any cranky idea.

Now, take an unstable people, an unstable country, etc. and if you have some charisma, you can probably achieve any trouble you fancy.

That's the dark side.

Answer 4

Are you meaning the functions they (probably, we can't really know) served as they evolved into codified practices? Or the functions they serve today? Those are two very different answers -- nearly all posted already completely ignore the first.

Religions probably had something to do with making sense of the world, and perhaps with attempts to influence it somehow. Fear was likely a part of it, but we really can't say how significant. Social order, which can be used for control but is definitely different, was incorporated along the way -- strong evidence that religion strengthened group cohesion and identity. It was science and an early form of psychology as well.

All of those aspects are still relevant today.

Answer 5

People say religion gives people peace of mind. All it does is scare me.
I think religion is a moral code developed to keep people in line.
Think about it. In Medieval times, the church had the power, and denied people the right to read. Why? People weren't allowed because they might actually discover that the church didn't have all the power, and that things could be explained by philosophy and science, not by the wrath of God.
The perversity of religion sickens me to no end. Religious figures and organized religion have been using "Divine right" as an excuse to control and manipulate the human race for centuries. Its time to cut the crap-cake already.

Answer 6

I’ll keep this discussion as neutral as possible. Why religion? The etymology of the word provides a clue; it comes from the Latin, meaning “to retie.” That is, religion incorporates the human being’s urge to reconnect to something higher than him/herself. Like every aspect of human life that’s not purely instinctual (hunger, sex drive, self-preservation, etc.), religion is culturally determined. There have been forms of religion that strike us as barbaric (e.g., Aztec human sacrifice), some that seem absurd (people “worshipping” aliens in UFOs), others that border on the philosophical. What they have in common is a quest for affirmation of the meaning of existence beyond the world (or plane of existence) we know. Obviously, the fear of death comes into play, and those faiths that have promised eternal life such as Christianity and Islam have attracted more adherents than a religion like Buddhism or even Judaism, which is rather ambivalent on the question. Because over the course of history there have been extremely intelligent people who have embraced religion and equally intelligent ones who rejected it, I think we must conclude that belief comes down to an individual’s choice based on factors that can never be proved logically or scientifically. Having said that, I would point out that it astonishes a lot of people that in the 21st century we can still kill others in the name of religion…

Answer 7

Religion is meant to control people. Fear of god will force people to obey the government.

Many people are just plain not smart enough to figure out that it is not very nice to go kill someone and take their possessions. Some are motivated not to carry out such acts by the laws. Others don’t even care about the law. There is a segment of the population that will not commit such crimes because they believe that God will get them if they do.

The only problem is those who are downright set in their ways. They insist that they are right, and will abusively jump down your thought if you don’t follow their religion.

Answer 8

The cynic would say "social control" (what better way to control the masses?), the religious person would say the purpose of religion is to spread faith and truth...

...I would say, "religion" doesn't necessarily mean "organised religion" (ie christianity, islam etc). Religion is a very personal thing. It can offer strength when strength is scarce, it can offer support when its most needed and it can be a friend when the rest of the world turns its back on you. Personal religion (even if your religion is Atheism - which is still a religion in my mind) is essential....organised religion, especially fundamentalism, possibly isn't.

But thats just my opinion.

Answer 9

To form a governing body of like believers, and institute a set code of conduct, and belief, in which to guide others in that belief, to the end in which all look for, through that belief.
Not to establish if there IS a God, but to establish a living code of ethics, so that the God of that religion may find souls in which to establish in HIS kingdom.
Everyone wants to be right, and have something to prove others wrong or misled.
Religions do a great service to that end.

Answer 10

Religions started first off as a way to explain natural happenings and how the world was created etc. It soon evolved into a state of giving thanks, rituals, and gods-spirits. When towns and communities erupted, it turned quickly into a way of holding order. The leaders used fear of divine power to help their kingdoms stay in line and function properly. Without order, they would be chaos.

Answer 11

To assuage man's uncertainty about the world around him and to explain the unexplainable. The world is an extremely frightening place. There are natural disasters, bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and we die.
I believe man conceived of religion as a way to explain these random and frightening occurrences.