Religion is a set of organized beliefs, practices, and systems that most often relate to the belief and worship of a controlling force, such as a personal god or another supernatural being.
Religion often involves cultural beliefs, worldviews, texts, prophecies, revelations, and morals that have spiritual meaning to members of the particular faith, and it can encompass a range of practices, including sermons, rituals, prayer, meditation, holy places, symbols, trances, and feasts.
While this is a basic definition, there are many different understandings of what religion is. Not all religions are centered on a belief in a god, gods, or supernatural forces.
The famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud described religion as a form of wish fulfillment. However, modern psychology recognizes that religion can play an important role in an individual's life and experiences and can even improve health and well-being. In fact, studies have shown that religion can help people develop healthy habits, regulate their behaviors, and understand their emotions—all factors that can affect your health.
There are many different types of religions, including the major world religious traditions that are widely known as well as much lesser-known belief systems of smaller populations. Some of these represent monotheism, or the belief in a single god, while others are examples of polytheism, or the belief in multiple gods.
Some of the types of religions include but are certainly not limited to:
- Baha'i
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Confucianism
- Hinduism
- Indigenous American religions
- Islam
- Jainism
- Judaism
- Rastafarianism
- Shinto
- Sikhism
- Taoism
- Traditional African religions
- Zoroastrianism
Related to religion, animism is the belief in divine non-human beings, while totemism involves the belief in a divine connection between humans and the natural world. On the other end of the religious spectrum is atheism, which involves a belief in no god or gods, and agnosticism, which holds that the existence of god or gods is unknown or unknowable.
The reasons why people believe in religion are not fully understood, but researchers have suggested a number of possible explanations.
Religion can serve a wide range of purposes. Religion can be a source of comfort and guidance. It can provide a basis for moral beliefs and behaviors. It can also provide a sense of community and connection to tradition. Some research even suggests that it may affect health.
The impact of religion on health and life expectancy has always been a tricky area of research. It seems (to some) that religious people—defined here as people who attend religious services regularly—seem to be healthier than those who don't attend.
This has led to a line of research looking into the impact of religion on health to determine what, if any, positive benefit religion could have on life expectancy.
