Religion is a complicated subject, where systems of beliefs are meant to guide actions, morals, and worldviews. Some indulge in the existence of supernatural beings (e.g. gods, spirits), but spiritual figureheads are not a necessity, nor do they have to be the main focus.

The main purpose of modern religion is to serve as an outlet to calm the masses and spiritually lift people up with hope when they're suffering in dark, desperate times (e.g. death, disaster, tragedy), while also offering an explanation of the world and providing a sense of belonging or way of life. Otherwise, humanity would most likely be dealing with existential crises, mass panic, unrest, and other unpleasant thoughts.

Historically, there have been long, philosophical discussions about the concept of God¹⁾ and the existence of God in the usual monotheistic religions. Generally speaking, there are about four to five positions on the subject matter, detailed below. You can easily extend this list if you want to be really specific or wish to include polytheistic religions, but let's start with the basic concepts first.

From here, we can start diving into the relationship between faith and reason, an argument that has existed long before the general public slowly gained the ability to read religious scriptures. You have the fideist approach of faith being above or independent from reason, then you find natural theology which attempts to bring logic and reason into faith.²⁾ This is why people say leap of faith, by the way.

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
– Karl Marx

The relationship between religion and politics is a controversial one, especially considering how religion has historically been weaponized by the state to keep the general public in order. For instance, you have cases where people would be tried in court if they didn't fall in line or said something that was considered heresy at the time, such as the Galileo affair over the belief in heliocentrism.

In a way, religion can ironically be a source of harm and suffering, influencing harmful political policies which hypothetically strengthen its base as said policies force people to use religion to cope. It also doesn't help that politicians will attach themselves to a religion, when they're actually just charlatans that pretend to be religious to earn some easy votes, so you would then have to ask: can this cycle end, and will it?

Many have proposed a separation of church and state (e.g. state atheism), which would allow religion to exit the superstructure and false consciousness. However, this must be done gradually as rushing could be counterintuitive, unless you intend to replace it with an idealist cult of personality. In the end, the ultimate conclusion is that the the masses drive history.

This section has a vague list of religions with some level of notability. Please note that some religions aren't necessarially religions in the traditional sense, being more nuanced as a philosophy or way of life, but I'm forced to categorize them as such since it's the category that most people are familiar with. Also, I am not that into religion either, so I do apologize for the incredibly narrow scope of this list.

• In the past, people would tie religion to morality and ethics, thus why people would freak out about Godlessness, but the concepts of secular morality and secular ethics have slowly risen over the years, which has allowed people to finally separate morality and ethics from the idea of religion.
  • Nowadays, people are much less religious, but this shouldn't come off as this huge surprise if you ever hung around the internet for an extended period of time.
  • What's up with religion and war anyways? How do you get all these theatrics about religious morals and religious ethics, then ignite several religious wars? How exactly do people justify this?
• During the colonial era, it's usually believed that the proselytization process would come around once the natives began to fold their local beliefs into said religion, incidentally letting it permeate.
• When you find yourself on the verge of death, it's often believed that your mind would attempt to reach out to either: your mother, a guardian figure, or some idea of God which brings us back here.
• I think I was introduced to the Epicurean paradox on the internet at a young age, and I'm honestly not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The internet in the 2000s were a weird time.

• The End