Religions are early and, for millennia, successful protective systems tied to the potentialities of the brain and body and to the necessity of survival. As such, they give people the confidence and security to explore many facets of human possibility, and in particular to do what the Greeks called somatic exploration (the ‘exploration’ of the ‘private sea’ of the mind and soul).

Some of these are proximate, relating to how one might live better or more fruitfully within this life; others are ultimate, extending beyond this world and even out into the cosmos itself. This is a rich source of ideas and inspiration, resulting in religious art and architecture, agriculture, music, dance, drama, poetry, as well as cosmological and other scientific explorations that issued from them (though, to be fair, not all scientists think of themselves as part of the religious tradition).

A third function that religions often serve is to help people learn how to behave morally in society. These teachings may be explicit, as in the Ten Commandments of Judeo-Christianity, or implicit, such as the values and ethics proclaimed by Hinduism. The ways in which this translation into life is made possible are enormously varied, as are the specific facets of religions that qualify for the category, ranging from those with a clearly defined and coherent structure and hierarchy – such as Roman Catholicism with its pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, rabbis, monks and nuns – to those with almost no overall structure at all.