The Social Importance Of Religion In Social Life

It will be established again and again throughout this paper that religion plays an inevitable role in our lives. It clearly plays an important role in every aspect of our lives, be it political, social or emotional. And the reinforcement of those principles happens through the means of rituals. And this essay talks precisely about that. It talks about Religion and the role it plays and the rituals that come along with it. Despite the role of religion in social life, the essay also touches upon the social aspect of religion in itself. We all know that the religious revelations are most phenomenal when experienced in solitude but the fact that it helps in forming the social structure and the social life around us puts light on the social aspect

It’s evident that religion plays an important part in everyone’s life and that it is one of the guiding principle on how behavioral patterns in a society are formed. Most people believe in one deity or another and almost half of the population of the world prays at least once a week. More than now, religion occupied a more important place in the life of the primitive man and it can easily be assessed by looking at the major events of life being celebrated through rituals guided by the sacred. Taking the rites of passage and the ceremonial of death as given examples. The subsistence of society relied on religion then and not much has changed. Modern man continues to believe in the sacred. But aren’t all major religious revelations experienced in solitude as has been said but if that is the case, can we call religion and rituals associated with it as individualistic in nature. Different individuals have different relationships with the sacred and those relationships with the deity are said to be defined and experienced in private space and hence looked at as a very personal matter. But despite that, religion and religious rituals affect the social structure of a society and the patterns of behavior that people exercise in that

A clan, or a moiety were actually formed on similar religious practices and rituals related to the sacred acts always happened in congregation uniting everyone in religious ceremonies. Durkheim defines religion as a collective system of beliefs and practices that relate to sacred things, which is to say, the things that set apart and divine beliefs and practices which unite all those who believe in them, into one single moral community called a Church (Durkheim 1915:44). The collective nature of religion in primitive societies was necessary to maintain morality among people and it was not just the society that needed religion to keep law and order in check, it was the religion that needed its pupils too. As we all know, A church is nothing without its