Why society needs religion

Religion is an important part of life for many people. Even people who are not all that religious by nature consider it to be important. The question is why do they feel this way? The reason is largely down to the belief that society needs religion. As a society we benefit from our collective religious beliefs. In fact there are many people who would argue that we could not function without religion.
The biggest reason that society needs religion is to regulate behavior. Most of the laws that we follow today have their basis in religious teachings. There is considerable debate as to whether or not religion is required to make us good people but what is beyond dispute is that the rules for what is acceptable for society are largely based on religion. Without religion we would almost certainly live in a different type of society, it can be debated whether it would be better or worse but it would certainly be different. Since a major change like that would be impractical it is important that we maintain religion.
The other big reason that society needs religion is that it teaches self sufficiency. Virtually all religions that teach that you are responsible for taking care of yourself. While they all support the idea of charity none of them teach that accepting charity should be desirable. This has helped to encourage the work ethic that is needed to make society successful. Therefore it is important that people continue to desire to do the work that is necessary.
Society is largely based on the idea of cooperation. This can be a bit of a tricky issue since as humans we are selfish by nature. There is an obvious problem here; we need to work together to be successful but for the most part we can benefit personally by being selfish. Religion has proven to be an effective way to get around this problem. Religion teaches that we should work together and help each other and it discourages the kind of selfish behavior that would make a functioning society impossible. Certainly there are selfish people who are willing to take advantage of others for their own benefit. However the fact that the people who do this are in the minority is largely down to religion.
One last reason that we need religion is that it gives us something to believe in. People need to believe that there is a reason for what they are doing and that there is a reason for life. Religion provides this for them. This is what gives people the desire to go out and work every day and to try to make the world a better place. They do it because they believe there is a meaning behind it all. This is largely down to religion.