What functions does religion serve?
Anthropologists have long studied religion, and have realized that religion can serve many functions in society. First, it can provide comfort and psychological security. It accomplishes this by providing explanations for events that may be out of people’s control, and sometimes religion offers to exert control over these forces or events. Second, religion can also increase anxiety by forcing them to participate in rituals which are formal, invariant, and earnest acts. However, by forcing many people to participate in these events together, sometimes during a rite of passage, these rituals can promote a shared sense of community and fellowship. Third, religion can establish and maintain social control through a series of moral and ethical beliefs along with real and imagined rewards and punishments. Finally, religion can have ecological functions by cementing adaptive environmental practices into group beliefs.
