Religion is the set of beliefs, practices and institutions a person or group follows in order to live by certain ethical standards and to act as watchdogs on behalf of society against systemic abuses. Many believe religion is important to the human experience and that without it people are lost. Others argue that religion is harmful and has no place in a modern society.
Despite the wide range of activities now said to qualify as “religion,” scholars have been unclear about the nature of this social taxon. As a result, different definitions have been proposed. The most common approach focuses on a group’s beliefs in spiritual beings and their influence over behavior. This view, however, ignores the fact that the vast majority of peoples do not believe in any spiritual beings and that there is no one religion or set of beliefs to which all would agree.
Another approach emphasizes the social aspects of religion, such as a sense of community and shared values. This view also overlooks the fact that the vast majority of religions are not socially organized and that most people do not participate in religious activities. Yet other scholars have criticized both the narrow interpretations and the broad ones of religion. For example, Edward Burnett Tylor argued that restricting the concept of religion to belief in God or a supreme being is not accurate and does not explain why these beliefs are so powerful in humans. The critics have pointed out that the use of religion to describe a social genus is a relatively recent development in Western history and that a better approach is to look at it as a family resemblance concept rather than an essentialist one.
Still other scholars, such as Talal Asad, have urged that a fuller understanding of religion requires shifting attention from hidden mental states to the institutional structures that produce them. This is a similar argument to the structure/agency debate that has long been raging in the social sciences and does not necessarily undermine the validity of the notion of religion as a social type.
In general, the debate over what should be included in a definition of religion will continue as long as there is no universal agreement about the nature of humankind. The fact that this issue cannot be resolved does not, however, mean that no progress can be made. Ultimately, the definition of religion should reflect a balance between the interests of all stakeholders. This will ensure that the concept of religion is useful for both scholars and practitioners, and that it can provide a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of religious practice in the world today. It is also an essential tool for the promotion of religious freedom and tolerance in a world that has a lot to learn from religion. Despite the continuing controversy over the definition of religion, there is no doubt that it is an important part of human life. It is a fundamental part of our evolutionary heritage and provides a rich source of information on how we can better understand ourselves, each other, and the universe in which we live.
