Religions influence many aspects of people’s lives and the world they live in. They shape how people understand their place in the universe, they help them form and maintain families, they promote moral behavior and they contribute to the well-being of people. Religion also has a significant impact on politics and social conflict.
Despite the common notion of religion as a single belief system, it is actually a very broad and diverse category. It includes a number of different kinds of faiths that span the globe. These are all based on different principles and beliefs, but each one has some common features, such as prayer, worship, charity, ritual and belief in supernatural beings or a supreme being.
Some scholars take a functional approach to religion, focusing on the ways in which it influences or guides a person’s values, lifestyle and choices. Emile Durkheim, for example, argued that religion is not a specific set of beliefs but rather a social mechanism that creates solidarity among members of society. Other researchers, such as Paul Tillich, define religion as whatever dominant concern serves to organize a person’s values (whether or not that concern involves believing in unusual realities).
Many religions have a strong sense of community, and this is important for the health of individuals and society as a whole. They teach people how to be moral and they support and encourage community activism. Moreover, they can play a positive role in the prevention of crime and the spread of disease. In addition, they often provide a source of comfort and hope in difficult times.
Other research has found that religious people tend to be more tolerant of others and are less likely to engage in discriminatory behaviors. They are also more satisfied with their lives and report higher levels of happiness. Furthermore, they are more engaged with their families and communities and have better physical health than nonreligious people.
Religion is a powerful force in the lives of most people around the world and should be taken seriously by public policymakers, psychologists and educators. However, a secular approach to understanding religion can lead to serious misjudgments.
It is time to shift from stipulative definitions of religion to a polythetic approach. A polythetic approach is based on recognizing that there are multiple characteristics of religion, and that not all of them are necessary or even plausible for any particular religion to have. As such, the concept of religion can be defined by looking for patterns of co-occurrence of these various properties instead of insisting on a single, definitive set of criteria that all religions must meet. This approach can be likened to the way scientists sort strains of bacteria by their properties rather than requiring them all to have similar shapes or colors. The ice-skating definition of religion is an example of this kind of problematic stipulative definition.
