Functions of religion

I spotted this on Twitter this morning, retweeted by my friend Mike Hitchcock:

"Religion is man’s quest for assurance that he won’t be dead when he will be."

I like that.  From my funeral experience as well as from my study of religion, that seems to me to be the case, although not the whole case. The desire for reassurance that death is not the end is very strong, even in non-believers. Another factor, which also applies to magic, is the quest for control over nature, such as through praying for rain. Both of those primitive desires or needs are very understandable.

Another primitive desire behind religion is the quest to understand, for example "where did all this come from?" Religions are loaded with attempts to answer that kind of question. And why not? For some reason we desire, maybe even need, to know. The only caveat with such a reasonable attempt is the necessity of the ability to move on when the answers given prove to be inadequate.

Nowadays, and for a very long time, religion has at least two other functions. First it bestows political power on its leaders and underwrites the power of the secular rulers, who always seem to be in cahoots with some kind of religious belief. Second, it provides reassurance that what you are comfortable with will not change.

The first of these keeps people ignorant and subservient and must be challenged. The second tells them everything is alright when it isn't and so hinders human growth and responsibility. So that too needs to be confronted.