Religion is a way of life, but it can also be a source of morality and ethics, community and social cohesion, coping skills and aesthetic delight. It is the source and inspiration of most of the most beautiful art, architecture, music, dance, drama, poetry and philosophies ever created by human beings. It also forms the basis for many of the world’s most important institutions and it is often a source of awe and wonder, awe which is heightened by fear or even by horror.
Religious systems protect and transmit the means through which the most important goals imaginable can be attained. Some of these are proximate, which can be achieved within this lifetime (a wiser, more fruitful, more charitable and successful life), and others are ultimate, which have to do with the final condition of the individual person, of other persons, or of the universe itself.
While it is difficult to find a definition for religion which does not include some sort of belief in spiritual beings, there are a number of theories of what the term actually means. One approach, which was popularized by Emile Durkheim and has been influential in the twentieth century, is a functional definition of religion that drops any reference to beliefs and defines religion as whatever system of practices unites a group of people into a moral community. Other approaches take a more theoretical perspective and see religion as a complex set of ideas, values and ways of living.