Religion provides a valuable source of spiritual meaning for those who might feel lost psychologically without a larger purpose to their lives. Religion contributes a comprehensive moral framework for human social interactions that generates a motivation for ethical conduct in the human community. One of the most profound benefits of religion is the extent to which it allows some people to negotiate emotionally trying circumstances, especially in relation to the loss of loved ones. Irrespective of whether or not religious beliefs about the afterlife and the continuous existence of the human soul after physical death are true, they undoubtedly help countless people cope with emotional loss.

Religious traditions enable the efficient passage of social culture from one generation to the next and serve to connect the current generation to those in the past in a...

At the more superficial level, religious institutions in modern societies are often the center of social services, charitable efforts in the community, and help make the most productive and beneficial use of the desire of individual community members to contribute to the welfare of others.
In that regard, one of the most striking indications of the universal value of religion in the human community is precisely its pervasiveness throughout the world, even among the most diverse cultures.

References

Armstrong, K. (1993). A History of God. London, UK: Heinemann.

Marantz-Henig, R. "Darwin's God." New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2007.

Pinker, S. "The Moral Instinct." New York Times Magazine, January 13, 2008.