Paper Summary:

This paper discusses some of the shared characteristics of every culture. It specifically aims to show that religion is just another expression of culture, which exists not to worship a great creator, but rather to bind societies together and give them a common goal and a reason to rally around the community. The paper also discusses the arguments against this view.

From the Paper:

"Theologians and the religiously devout across the globe would vehemently disagree with my position that religion is solely a tool of humans to bind them in a cohesive society, and they would obviously disagree with Durkheim's assessment of the four societal functions of religion. Religious people would, in general, point to the fact that widespread religious activities point to the fact that there is indeed a God, a God that created human beings to long to worship and thank him. This is faulty logic and not at all an appropriate argument to refute the idea that religion is an expression of society. The fact that a belief is held or a form of the same ritual is practiced worldwide is no more telling than any other anecdote. At one time, people believed that the gods were the power behind making the seasons change and the sun rise every day. Over time, science has shown that there are natural explanations as to why these things occur: the orbit of the Earth around the sun, the spinning of the Earth on its axis."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: the Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
• Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: The Free Press, 1954.
• Newberg, Andrew. Why God Won'T Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. New York: The Ballantine Group, 2001.
• "The Functionalist Perspective." Sociology At Hewett. 27 May 2002. The Hewett School. 19 Feb. 2007 <http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/religion/funct3.htm>.

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