“Broadly speaking, religion fulfills two main functions in human life. In the first place, it’s meant to foster religious experience, to enable the individual soul to commune with the divine. In the second place, it serves to cement the structure of society, upholding values and ideals that preserve the common good. The word religion derives from the Latin religare, meaning “to bind back” or “bind together.” Religion’s function is to bind individuals both to God and to one another.”
