What is the general purpose of religion?

Question

Why do follow a specific religion instead of taking bits and pieces from each of them?

Answer 1

Larrydoyle is only partially right. Social control IS one of the things that political leaders TRY to do with religion, but the mob is stronger than the leader and if we don't approve of what our leaders do, we should overthrow them.
Religion as a whole is meant to accomodate the human need to recognize moments of sacredness in life. When a child is born, when a couple marries, when a loved person dies, we wish to recognize some sacredness in that moment. And so we have rituals for those times.
There are only a few other generic purposes for religion. One is that people often feel that they are not strong enough to always do the right things on their own, so they call upon the great spirit to help them. That's what faith is. If it helps people treat one another better, it's a good thing. If not, not.
One more: sometimes people recognize that their lives are based on a big set of happy coincidences and good fortune. There is often no single place we can point to and say "I am really grateful for THIS, because without THIS, I might not be alive." So having something we can call "God" gives us a place to send our general feelings of gratefulness to life.
We also know that life has gone before us and that with some luck, life on earth will continue after we (personally) are gone. The wise people among us recognize that love plays a big role in sustaining human life. Religion is often an attempt to acknowledge that life and love continue far past our individual lives.
All the proper uses of religion are good uses that promote things like love, commitment, self-improvement, hope, gratitude and so on. The bad uses of religion have been placed under the general heading of religion in a kind of parasitic way. Religion should never be about war, hate or ignorance, no matter what some "religious" people say.
I have tried to answer this question before, but I think that the way you have chosen to ask it has helped me to give a better answer than I ever have before and I thank you for asking it well.
Now that I review, I see that I left something important out of my answer. People follow a specific religion usually because of not seeing the overall goal and the overall good of religion. Many people think of religion only as a magic spell to cause them to live forever and as a magic spell, it has to be followed TO THE LETTER or it won't work. To these people, religion has no other value. Strict adherence to the letter of the religion keeps them from developing any real wisdom. I offer this as proof: all religions teach that greed is wrong. To sacrifice the entire rest of the world so that one may have eternal life is a very greedy act. So to cling to one's faith only for the purpose of living forever is an act of greed which shows that the deeper message of the religion has not been learned.
This is--to the best of my knowledge--the truth. May you find many blessings in your life, sincere seeker.

Answer 2

traditionally to legitimize Rulers and The State. The Catholic Church has accomplished a great variety of undesirable sh*t besides the incontrovertible fact that it gave us the template for the well known western bureaucratic state and became between the main suitable (if no longer decisive) utilising forces at the back of needless to say defined assets rights, secure by utilising regulation, for the two ladies and men human beings which allowed capitalism to no longer in hassle-free terms flourish yet to even exist. The Church became additionally waiting to unite human beings from distinctive places and backgrounds in a collective faith that further approximately the top of tribalism interior the West that has by no skill been carried out interior of something of the worldwide. As you could tell i'm no longer entering into any corporeal concerns as i'm specific you have already got your own evaluations on that (lol) and the certainty that nevertheless i'm a shown Catholic I in hassle-free terms flow to church on Christmas and Easter. i'm into history nevertheless and that is superb the outcomes the Catholic Church has had on the form of the West and the well known state to no longer point out our very subculture and concept of the 'family individuals unit'. As earlier suggested nevertheless they have accomplished a truck load of evil cr*p to, i'm no longer an apologist for them.

Answer 3

It is said that it controls the population as it did in the time of England with people like Bloody Mary, but it also gives people ease when it comes to the fear of death. With a religion that guarantees a life after death, the fear is watered down.

Answer 4

Religion is supposed to be the method you choose to worship God. Whether you feel comfortable kneeling as a Catholic and enjoying a Latin mass, or whether you prefer to prostrate yourself as the Muslims do (is prostrate the right word?), or jump up and down in joy as the Pentacostals do, it's up to you.

Answer 5

It's the world's oldest form of crowd control.

Answer 6

To deny the permenence and inevitability of death, to repress freedom and sexuality, to controll the masses.

Answer 7

control the masses, control the wealth and keep the wealthy where they are.