Religion is, in the simplest possible terms, man’s recognition of dependence on and hope of Divine help. It is, moreover, his persuasion that he can bring himself into friendly, beneficent communion with the Deity or deities on whom he feels this dependence. It is thus a feeling of necessity, and, as such, it inevitably entails the exercise of faith.

Anthropologists (scientists who study human societies) have various theories about the origin of religion. One theory is that it developed as a response to the realization that death was imminent, and that people sought out a way to avoid or to go on beyond it. Another is that it is a form of group identity, and that it functions to cement and enforce norms around things like kinship and mating.

The contested nature of the concept of religion makes some scholars question whether it is appropriate to use it as a social taxon to sort out cultural types. They have argued that the wide semantic range of practices now said to fall under this label raises questions about the usefulness of this practice as a method of sorting cultures, as well as about the underlying assumptions that lead to its usage. This, in turn, has led to a reflexive turn in the social sciences and humanities, where scholars pull back and look at how the terms we use can shift according to our own ideological biases. These issues are similar to those that are raised when other abstract concepts are used as categories, such as “literature”, “democracy”, and the notion of culture itself.