Religion is a group of beliefs, practices, and a social organization that consists of a shared system of thoughts, feelings, and actions. It usually involves a sense of devotion to a sacred object or something that is believed to be supernatural.

Early religions developed from human attempts to control parts of the environment that are beyond our ability to control, such as weather, pregnancy and birth, or hunting success. Religions also try to provide answers to questions that science cannot answer, such as the meaning of life and what happens after death.

Many people believe that they have a religious experience, and a large number of people around the world participate in some form of religion. Some research suggests that religion may have an effect on health and life expectancy, but this is a controversial area of study.

The concept of religion was originally used to describe a specific type of social practice, one that involved scrupulous devotion. It later came to refer to a more complex form of social practice that is not just about religious beliefs and commitments but about a broad range of aspects of a person’s life and behavior.

As a result, the concept has become quite convoluted. There is a polytheistic version of the term, one that refers to the recognition of more than one god; a cosmic version of the term, which is more general and encompasses beliefs about a universe or a spirit world; and functional definitions that change the scope of the concept altogether.