What is the purpose of Religion? Do Humans NEED it?

[Meldread]

I am wondering if anyone can refer me to any books, essays, or links to anything speaking about the purpose of religion. I'm interested in opinions and thoughts (preferably ones that have been researched) on Humanity and Religion. Is there some type of NEED for religion?

I am curious as to whether or not Humans (or at least the majority of Humans) have a genetic need for some type of 'spiritual' or 'mystical' belief, similar to how genetics plays a role in our personalities. I am curious as to find out if it fills some type of subconscious 'need' in Humans.

Do Humans seek out religion to fill in a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves? Do Humans seek out religion to belong to a community? Do Humans seek out religion for the sake of religion itself? Why do Humans seek out religion?

I am curious as to the answer to my questions, as it seems odd to me that religion sprang up in many different parts of the world, in places where Humans never once came into contact with one another. The concept of God or Gods, or a soul or spirit, seems almost universal throughout all of Humanity and all of Human culture. Why? It just doesn't make sense that so many different cultures who didn't come into contact with one another for thousands and thousands of years to have developed belief systems, unless Humans have a unconscious need for such systems.

[PatrioticLeftie]

1. The purpose of religion...

While it may never be possible to claim this as a whole, it is safe to say that some people have a religion solely to apply significance to an otherwise seemingly pointless existance.

Some believe in Heaven because it is an unpleasant thought that any afterlife (or something like it) does not reward those who deserve it.

Religion may be the most debated subject, and it's late where I live, so I'm sorry I could write more.

[Radio_Lady]

7. I had a minor in World Religions. It has alway amazed me that

so many cultures had developed the general recognition of a God, Gods, or God forces. The journey of life almost forces humans to think about what it all means: Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? (when we die...)

The embroidery of thoughtful people everywhere is seen in the religious discourses we have developed over centuries.

It seems to me that it not so much as a human need -- but a human want. We want to put some logic (even illogic, in many instances) to what is happening to us. The invention of religion seems to fill that want for so many people. If only there were a kindly Father (or Mother, in some instances!), to whom we could attribute superhuman abilities and with whom we could communicate on a personal level. And someone who put this whole thing -- the universe -- together and made it happen.

So, out of human want, grew stories. Many peoples have used inanimate objects for their beliefs. Look at that high mountain. There must be spirits on top of it. That rock over there has a spirit in it. Or maybe the river. Or a bear, falcon, or a wolf. The stories become more involved in the later ages. Maybe God talked to a man through a burning bush, or gave him commandments to follow. God might have walk among men by impregnating a virgin. Yes, it is a want that we share with millions of others. To give some semblance of meaning to what, on the surface, appears to be meaningless. Most of us get less than 100 years to make any kind of a mark here. One hundred years -- ?? In biological time, that's less than the period at the end of this sentence.

Anyway, good luck in your quest for meaning. I undertook it in the 1960s when I was in college.

[Radio_Lady]

2. Here the transcript of one PBS show -- it covers some aspects of what you

are seeking.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/nineconv/morallaw.html

[tularetom]

3. A quote I once heard

"Religion is what keeps the poor from killing the rich". I think the human need for religion stems from a belief in or hope for an afterlife, because non-existence is a difficult concept for most people to get their mind around. However, I think governments have realized and recognized this need and through history have used religion to keep the yahoos in line.

[cloud_chaser1]

4. I think people need religion or something like it.

The simple fear of dying makes the need obvious. But being told there is an afterlife (heaven) and that you will continue living in peace joy and comfort forever more is extremely comforting to many people. And there is an ego that tells us we are too important and if there is a God, he will never allow us to die.
Now thats faith. Organized religion is totally different. That has become a power play, that preys on the fears of people. There's a devil out there and a hell and demons and all sorts of nasty things waiting to get you but if you follow what I say, believe as I do and pay your dues (real actual money) I and my church will protect you from those demons. Do we need that?

:evilgrin:

[Erika]

10. The Bakkers, Mr. Swaggert, and the rest of them wish

$ paid to them. These people actually give $ to the likes of Falwell and Robertson in hopes of buying themselves a place in heaven. OK. W is also their savior. He'll redistribute our taxes away from the needy to the rich in the blink of an eye and say it is for the sake of our society.

Rushbo will also accept their money. He lives in a plush Florida home, has addiction problems, and can't have a successful adult relationship. The far right wingers SO identify with him. The lepers of American society and bushbots.

[Zhade]

45. Some people, not all.

As an atheist, I clearly don't need it - but I'm happy to allow others their beliefs, as long as it doesn't infringe on my life in any way.

[DontTreadOnMe]

... and since we are dumb...

yes, humans do need religion. How else do we explain the unknown?
God made us all to be just like him.

and now cue up some FZ...

Whoever we are
Wherever we're from
We shoulda noticed by now
Our behavior is dumb
And if our chances
Expect to improve
It's gonna take a lot more
Than tryin' to remove
The other race
Or the other whatever
From the face
Of the planet altogether

They call it the earth
Which is a dumb kinda name
But they named it right
'cause we behave the same...
We are dumb all over
Dumb all over,
Yes we are
Dumb all over,
Near �'n far
Dumb all over,
Black �'n white
People, we is not wrapped tight

Nerds on the left
Nerds on the right
Religous fanatics
On the air every night
Sayin' the bible
Tells the story
Makes the details
Sound real gory
'bout what to do
If the geeks over there
Don�t believe in the book
We got over here

You can't run a race
Without no feet
'n pretty soon
There won't be no street
For dummies to jog on
Or doggies to dog on
Religous fanatics
Can make it be all gone
I mean it won't blow up
'n disappear
It'll just look ugly
For a thousand years

You can't run a country
By a book of religion
Not by a heap
Or a lump or a smidgeon
Of foolish rules
Of ancient date
Designed to make
You all feel great
While you fold, spindle
And mutilate
Those unbelievers
From a neighboring state

To arms! to arms!
Hooray! that's great
Two legs ain't bad
Unless there's a crate
They ship the parts
To mama in
For souvenirs: two ears (get down!)
Not his, not hers, (but what the hey? )
The good book says:
("it gotta be that way!")
But their book says:
"revenge the crusades...
With whips 'n chains
'n hand grenades..."
Two arms? two arms?
Have another and another
Our God says:
"there ain't no other!"
Our God says
"it's all okay!"
Our God says
"this is the way!"

It says in the book:
"burn 'n destroy...
'n repent, 'n redeem
'n revenge, 'n deploy
'n rumble thee forth
To the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side
'cause they don't go for what's in the book
'n that makes �em bad
So verily we must choppeth them up
And stompeth them down
Or rent a nice french bomb
To poof them out of existance
While leaving their real estate just where we need it
To use again
For temples in which to praise our god
("cause he can really take care of business!")

And when his humble tv servant
With humble white hair
And humble glasses
And a nice brown suit
And maybe a blond wife who takes phone calls
Tells us our God says
It's okay to do this stuff
Then we gotta do it,
'cause if we don't do it,
We ain't gwine up to hebbin!
(depending on which book you're using at the
Time...can't use theirs... it don't work
...it's all lies...gotta use mine...)
Ain't that right?
That's what they say
Every night...
Every day...
Hey, we can't really be dumb
If we're just following god's orders
Hey, let's get serious...
God knows what he's doin�
He wrote this book here
An' the book says:
He made us all to be just like him,"
So...
If we're dumb...
Then God is dumb...
(an' maybe even a little ugly on the side)

[rawtribe]

5. The God Part of the Brain.....

http://www.godpart.com/

[Erika]

6. Religion is the crutch people need to insure their eternal life

It's that simple. They will worship and endorse whomever who ties himself into that belief. That's how W won the religious right. Kick those poor people in the face, but our leader is on the side of Christ.

The demented sickos.

[Meldread]

12. No, it isn't that simple.

It is a complex issue, and it isn't that simple. Not *EVERY* religion includes eternal life. I'm not talking about a specific religion here, but ALL religions - every religious belief.

When I look at the picture as a whole I do believe that it fills a social need for Humans, yes a social need.

Religions typically have the following in common: A leader of some sort (Priest type) and group worship or fellowship. I believe, fundamentally at it's core that's what religion does for people, Humans are hard wired to have pack like behavior, just like wolves and dogs. Religion gives people that higher purpose, to strive to better the pack (that's something else Religion does: it encourages people to work toward certain goals), and it sets a person or a group of persons at the top who direct those goals (pack leader).

I really think that the undercurrents of religion are hardwired into the Human psyche. I believe it fulfills some type of social need in the Human species, otherwise why would it be so prevalent and still be going on so many years later?

[Skittles]

8. I think most humans simply cannot accept reality

they need to believe in something even if it is nonsense

[Erika]

11. I believe that some cannot accept death as a finality

so they move on to all their concepts which release them from facing responsibility for their actions. They just say Christ died for our sins. So eat it. Dick Cheney is probably #1 on that arrogant list.

[Skittles]

17. yes

I don't believe and I find the "life is pointless without religion" schtick just ridiculous

[The Magistrate]

9. A Couple Of Small Points, Sir

As humans do seem to share a common and fairly restricted ancestry, argument from claims of independent origin must be made with great care. Often what may seem to be systems independently arising could with better profit be viewed as elaborations in differing directions from the common heritage of the founding stem. Though it is dizzying to think of it, there must be a sort of handing on from succeeding generations tracing back at least to the origin of effective symbolic communication, running like a skien through all human societies, however far-flung and disparate they may now be.

The earliest purpose of religion was the influencing of natural events: the promotion of fertility, of abundance in local foods, of health among the people. This made religion an essential element of governance, as the claim to be able to control or at least to influence such matters was both the surest path to, and most sturdy prop for, authority and influence over others. Since these claims were invariably baseless, there was necessarily introduced an element of practiced deceit and special pleadings to cast the blame for failures off the self-proclaimed influencers of natural events onto some other cause than their own lack of real ability to actually exercise such influence, and a further diligence against quite natural questions arising from such failures that might, if pressed, overthrow the entire mental construct.

[Meldread]

14. A small point yes, but in the end becomes somewhat irrelevant.

The question I should pose is: What would happen if we took young children who have not been exposed in anyway to religion or the outside world, isolated them, allowed them to grow up uneducated and as primitive as possible... Would they develop a set of primitive religious beliefs? I believe the answer to that would be yes, they most likely would. The question that should be posed is: Why? What role is it filling in Human life?

Someone somewhere had to come up with the concept of religion. Someone had to have that first original idea. The idea that the same ORIGINAL idea of religion somehow managed to survive throughout all of Human history, only evolving and changing with the culture doesn't seem likely. It is more likely that many different groups came up with religious beliefs many different times.

Ritual has to serve a part in it, I believe. As well as pack mentality. I believe there is something in the Human social wiring that directs Humans to become religious. What is it? How can it be controlled? How can it be utilized? How does it work? Why is it necessary, or is it even necessary at all?

[The Magistrate]

20. That Experiment, Sir

Could never be performed, and so your conviction of how it might turn out cannot really be used to advance your argument.

Given the original purpose of what we now call religion, namely the attempt to influence natural events refered to above, and which is mostly called shamanism nowadays, the idea that there is an original root connection tracing back to the earliest humanity is not at all far-fetched or insignifigant. There is a great deal of similarity between shamanistic and magical practices throughout the globe and through recorded times. The influencing of natural events was the principal business of religion until quite recently, and there are many who still claim that is within its power. That claim formed the basis of mighty and massive government structures ranging from the Pharoahs of Egypt to the Son of Heaven in old China, where it persisted as an organizing principle of a society governing a fifth of the world's population into the early years of the last century.

Religion does not seem to me to hold any particular independent function in human society. It is simply one tool in the armory for cementing group identity, and distinguishing members of one group from another. But that is the purpose of just about all human social arrangements. The various private senses moderns are accustomed to thinking the purpose of religion are merely froth on that wave. It is analagous to music, in this sense: rythm promotes unison in activity and feeling, and assists memory; thus all societies have chanteys, and tunes backing lyrics containing memory, and are prone to gather in large groups to participate in the experience of melding through the shared sounds; this need was satisfied adequarely enough for social purposes long before Messers. Bach and Beethoven, and enjoyable as they are, they are not necessary to it, nor are they the basis of the urge.

[Meldread]

22. I am not saying that...

I am not saying that religion is the basis for the urge in and of itself, but rather like music it fills a human need. I believe (without evidence - so it is more or less a theory) that if we can find out WHY Humans turn to religion and what all religions (universally, across all of time) fill then we can replicate it somehow minus the religious aspects.

Is it ritual that Humans need? Is it pack mentality? What are the psychological buttons. There HAVE to be psychological buttons that religion satisfies, or else Humans would not continue to turn to it - they would look for something else to fill the need.

I don't believe the ultimate need that religion satisfies is mystical or "explaining things" or "controlling others". No, those answers do not fit into the puzzle. Explaining things and controlling others does not mesh with Buddhism where Buddha taught his followers to doubt and question everything, even his own words. Not all religious beliefs have mystical aspects.

There is something in religion that is universal (especially in religions that are successful and widespread), that seems to fill a psychological need in Humans. I want to know what that is, how it works, and why it is needed.

[More Than A Feeling]

27. I think there are many things that try to fill the religious need

It could be your favorite sports team, or your job, or your political party, or your family/ country. But your sports team will lose, you may get fired or retire, your political party will lose or support things you don't, and family and country do not last forever.

You think religion causes problems? Just imagine making any of the things listed above the ultimate purpose of people's lives.

Perhaps the answer is really that humans need to believe in something that won't let them down or disappear. If I may be allowed to editorialize, I think that attempting to fill the need with something not religious is futile for the reason I outlined above.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

44. I don't think anyone came up with the concept of religion

just as no one "invented" gathering twigs. The elements were there and it just evolved.

[Erika]

15. Yeah, the founding fathers were slave owners

and lecherous men, as Sally (Jefferson) Hemmings has proven. Now how about their love of the the Ten Commandments and the Christian beliefs?

Our founding fathers had no moral base, they had a capitalist base, which they interpreted to their economic advantage. We need to wake up to what our moral base was. Screw the native inhabitants, ban them, kill them, and sterilize them. In the meantime, enjoy the profits of Black slavery.

That is what America was built on. How very sad.

[and-justice-for-all]

13. Religion is.....

a learned behavior. Something thats handed down, like being born into a Catholic family or being born Jewish..etc.

Religion is a comfort buffer since we have no clue what happens after you pass. Its a gamble, you can worship Jesus till your last breath only to learn that after that wonderful trip down that tunnel of light, there is nothing. I dont believe in Heaven and Hell, I think we all walk the same line after we pass regardless of deeds we have done in our life.

Religion is why there are Wars, evil people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. If there was NO religion, but some other form of religion that ALL of the world followed this world would be a much better place. We are not focused, no one is concerned for the world as a whole, could you imagine a world were we all work together for the same goals??? Since there are so many different religions that and one inparticular that wants to rule the world (christianity) it seems there will be a continues struggle between the peoples of the world.

I know if I was President, I would be doing things that would UNITE not only the peoples of the United States but all the people of the world. I would also create a resoultion to not give any funding to religious organizations and make sure that Government agancies did there Jobs as well as have there appropriate funding. Religious Cults have no place in policy making and foriegn affairs. Its caused nothing but hate and war, instead of working for peace these religious sects have only aided in serpateing the peoples and attempt to set the clock back 50 years. It must be nice to live in Europe, I have half a mind to move to England, Germany or Spain (Same sex coupleship is recognized)just so I can marry the person I have been with for 11 years and not be treated like a subhuman. Here in the US, the religious freaks want to have withchunts on gay people because we want to have equal rights and those lunatics seem to think that if we do marry its somehow going to affect them personnaly.

I believe the world would be a better place if there was NO religion, the things that been done in gods name is enought to make me wanna vomit.

[Erika]

16. You sound like what Christ envisioned for the world

The right wingers would like you burnt to a crisp for being a socialist.

[NMMNG]

34. Very well said!

And a hearty welcome to DU .

[Zhade]

46. It's not religion that causes such horrific things.

It's the willingness to believe things (some of them quite absurd and impossible by scientific laws) for which there is absolutely zero evidence (virgin births, worldwide floods, sentient elephants, whatever) that allows for these terrible things to occur.

We need more rational, and less magical, thinking.

[soothsayer]

18. I think Plato used human's need for religion as a proof that god

exists.

[Meldread]

19. Human need cannot equal the existence of a God(s).

The question of how to prove that statement wrong is to find out why Humans seem to have a psychological need for religion, and then find a way to satisfy that need WITHOUT religion.

[PassingFair]

24. The "need" is there because ignorance has been inculcated

for centuries.
When you raise children the look for rational answers, and to live with REAL acceptance, the "need" for religion no longer exists.
"Where will I go when I die, Mommy?"
"I don't know honey, where where you before you were born?"

Not scary, just NOT KNOWABLE.

No need to believe in supernatural worlds with no evidence whatsoever.

[Meldread]

25. You, and many others are missing the point.

EDIT: Sorry, if this sounds hostile. It is not meant to sound hostile and is not really directed at you. It is a result of being tired and slightly frustrated at people not "getting" what I am trying to ask, which is most likely a result of my being tired.
---

:eyes:

It isn't about the supernatural. It isn't about mysticism, magic, or anything even REMOTELY like that. It is about the under laying CONCEPTS of religion itself, what NEEDS does it FILL in Humans? It obviously fills some type of psychological need otherwise Humans would not turn to religion and religion would have dried up and died out long ago.

However, religion is still around today in our modern world and there are still more religious people out there than non-religious people, despite the record numbers of educated people - WHY? It is obvious, if one takes a step back, drops their bias on the matter, and looks at it that religions are filling some type of human need, which is most likely social, and the questions are: WHAT NEED is it filling, why is it filling it, and can something else (non-religious) fill that need?

[PassingFair]

33. You are missing MY point, too!

I don't think there IS a need. Just tradition.
Centuries of tradition.
We are evolving, but slowly.

[az chela]

21. Read "The 12th Planet" by Zachariah Sitchin.

He has a series of books taken from decifered sumerian texts that tell about the Annunaki who came here and genetically engineered us and taught us that they were the GODS and we were here to worship and serve them

[PassingFair]

23. The VERY best book I've ever read on this subject is:

"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes

Whhoosh! What a beautiful book.
It will open new doors of understanding for you.
First couple of chapters are a little grueling, but then, hold on for a roller coaster of rational epiphanies.

[More Than A Feeling]

26. Self delete because I like the answer I gave up-thread better.

[applegrove]

28. The ability to have faith is genetic. Some people are good at it - others

not so much.

[hunter]

29. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
by Daniel C. Dennett

There's a long and interesting review of it by George Johnhson in the January Scientific American.

If nowhere else, the dead live on in our brain cells, not just as memories but as programs-- computerlike models compiled over the years capturing how the dearly departed behaved when they were alive. These simulations can be remarkably faithful...

My own point of view is that religion and science are both functions of the human mind. The same human impulse that leads a person to claim science has any sort of reality beyond the human mind is the same impulse that makes religion real to another person.

In the same ways that science is not static, religion is not static. At the end of the day a scientific or religious metaphor survives within your mind, or it does not survive. You pass it on to others, or you don't. "Love your neighbor" is no different than Newton's equation "f=ma" in the sense that both happen entirely inside your head. The application of these metaphors is entirely up to you, and it is entirely yours to judge the success or failure of these applications.

Contrary to what any religious literalist will claim, the authors of the Bible and many other religious texts know very well they are speaking in metaphors. They recognize the human mind is too small to encompass the true nature of the Universe so they create metaphors to describe some specific aspect of it. Exactly the same is true of science.

What makes science different from religion is the precision of it's definitions. But it is this same precision that leaves most common aspects of the human experience undefined. It is in these undefined places we practice our religions and our ethics, and for lack of a better word, our spirituality.

[beam me up scottie]

30. Some humans think they need it.

The rest of us know we don't.

Belief in the supernatural is not instinctive.

[Zhade]

31. Doubtful. *I* don't need it, and I'm hardly special or unique.

I think it might be more a case of people wanting, rather than needing, it.

YMMV.

[CarbonDate]

32. I find it to be a useful sociological tool.

Social engineering, and such. To varying degrees, religion is used to guide society toward a certain behavior. The need is two-fold:

1) Allegory is useful in explaining things to people that they might not otherwise comprehend.

2) Many people do not have an advanced enough ethical system to understand why they shouldn't do certain things beyond a simple reward/punishment basis.

[lvx35]

35. Clearest explanation comes from Dawkins

A renowned athiest, but he oddly made an argument for faith with the introduction of the idea of memetics, or the behavior of ideas like genes. This would explain the ubitiquitous nature of religion as being something that just worked, something that was selected...If you look at the way catholic doctrine makes people breed, you'll see why its succesful! ;)

[Strong Atheist]

36. IMO, yes, most humans NEED it. See my five essays

in the A.A. group.

[saltpoint]

37. Could some need it and not others? Couldn't some need it more than

others, or different -- even way different -- from others?

Isn't Yo Yo Ma playing a cello concerto a religious act? It doesn't have to be connected with a legal deity, does it? Can't it be the unmitigated space of a seacoast, or the remote privacy of a forest glen, or the third movement of the Chopin B-Minor sonata?

Just one take.

[Odin2005]

38. It fills a psycological need.

People fear death, belief in an afterlife is basically a way to give Death the finger. Also, religiousness has a tendency to become more expressed in a socierty during times of hardship and societal breakdown. For example, it is often assumed that Christianity helped with the fall of the Roman Empire; I disagree, I think the decline of Roman power, starting in the chaotic period between 180AD and 300AD, caused people to look to religion as an escape to thier misfortunes, causing the rise in the popularity of salvation cults like Christianity and Mithraism, which were much more "personal" religions then Graeco-Roman paganism.

[Ron Green]

39. Just as in the individual there is a Superego (to borrow from Freud),

in society there is a Church: something to play the parent (both nurturing and critical), to tell us what we SHOULD do. Our social psychological need is met this way, just as our social need for id is met by the market, giving us all the stuff we want, even if it's not good for us.

Getting rid of religion would be just as impossible as getting rid of the marketplace. My hope is that we can encourage religion to be more spiritual, more scholarly, more tolerant and loving, just as we would want a marketplace that's more fair and empowering.

[CJCRANE]

40. Imagine you're a caveman

and you see a lighting bolt. You're going to try and figure out what it is. That's religion. It started from there and got more complicated. It's quite hard to get out of due to various forms of emotional blackmail contained in the memes which make you scared to leave the religion and also give you comfort in remaining in the religion.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

41. Yes

Some of us need it. Because we believe it. And to act as it it didn't exist would be dishonest.

[saltpoint]

42. Religious constructs, at the very least, accomplish an important

thing for humans by opening up more windows to widen the view.

I don't mean the Pat Robertson/hellfire fundies. I mean the honest searcher, whether a member of an established tradition or just a solo journeyperson on the path to personal awareness.

Not arguing for or against anything in that vast range, only saying that the religious construct is a useful one for expanding one's experience.

[Evoman]

43. From William Black; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects
with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names
and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers,
mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their
enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of each
city & country, placing it under its mental deity;
Till a system was formed, which some took
advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to
realize or abstract the mental deities from their
objects: thus began Priesthood;
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods
had order'd such things.

Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.