So what do you guys think is the purpose of religion? I think it is to provide an explanation for what happens after we die and to comfort us about death.
A theory of creation,life after death and the the preson/nature/other as the creator and BAM! you've got yourself a relgion.
It all began as an explanation for natural phenomena, including death, and the origin of all, from what I can tell. Slowly but surely, it changed to reflect the views of the time. Although the last few centuries, that's happening less and less, so it seems.
Ah, yes, it does provide a certain way you should live your life, although I don't think that was in the early Pagan beliefs.
Personally, I think the most important aspect of religion was, initially, to make oneself a deity. You look at ancient rulers and they used the idea that they were a God to substantiate the claim that they had a divine right to rule. You can observe that rule up until the past few hundred years, where monarchs still claimed that they had been chosen by God. Ofcourse, it evolved over time and now it is essentially a relic of ancient times but it has been used for similar purposes, aswell as evolving several defining points.
Religion is a broad, ambiguous term. There is no single purpose behind something as varied as religion.
It's Propley has something to do with the "law of the three stages" as described by Comte The theory that explain religion as described by the book are *as a governmental role (Or priesthood government) * the theory propounded by Post Comte’s Positivism. Religion, which dates from the earliest ages, can only have been a first attempt at an explanation of the extraordinary phenomena by which man in his ignorance was astonished and frightened. It is the beginning of the childish form of science. * Comte’s theory of law of the three stages, stage one is the theological stage, stage two is the metaphysical stage, and finally the positivity stage.