Religion is universally found because it has a vital function in maintaining the social system as whole.The main requirement that religion is deemed to fulfill has been the necessity of ideological and sentimental cohesion or solidarity.Men pick up the items like plant or animal and make this the symbol of both their society and of their religion.Their shared religious beliefs arises from society  and in turn it helps to hold the society together.The social function of shared religious beliefs and the rituals that go with them are so important that every society needs a religion or some belief system that serves the same function.In times of individual distress or group crisis the rituals and beliefs provide help and comfort.The rituals and beliefs also have some function.They maintain taboos and prohibitions and those who violate them are punished.The non followers of norms may even be required to undergo ritual punishment or purification.The origin of religious beliefs lies in the societies need for its solidarity and systematic continuation.

During the first phase of the development of sociology of religion, the interest was focused mainly to tracing the origin and evolution of religion. Explanations of two types can be identified: individualistic explanations and social explanations. Individualists explanations either emphasised the cognitive (intellectual) or the emotional aspects of religion. Both varieties of explanation of religion by anthropologists and sociologists were based on material related to primitive people around the world. Edward B. Tylor (1881) and Herbert Spencer (1882) can be called the intellectualists, because they opined that pre-modern man had to evolve religion in order to explain the phenomena of dreams, echoes and deaths. In their view, religion might vanish when its explanatory function is taken over by science.

Some scholars, notably Paul Radin (1938), emphasised the emotional aspects of religion. According to this school of thought (see details in'' Section 2.4 of Unit 2), relation is nothing but pre-modern perqon''s emotional response to overcome a frightening situation. Religion, in this case, helps one to overcome one''s feelings of powerlessness. Even Durkheim''s (1912) understanding of religion emphasises the emotional component of religion. He holds that rituals and beliefs about the sacred emerge from the emotional outburst of the hunting tribes, when they come together after separation.

In addition, Durkheim''s explanation of religion includes its social dimension and functional necessities. Durkheim says, "Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them". Durkheim identified tatemism as the elementary form of religion. The ''totem'' is a sacred object which is also the marker of a social group. This totem is exalted during the ''collective effervescense'' generated when individuals come together as a group. Rituals and beliefs not only emerge from the group, they also strengthen the solidarity of the group. Durkheim arpes that religion has survived from the immemorial, although in various forms; because it has performed specific hnctions for the society--the main function being ''integration'' of society. Some of these functionalist arguments have been affirmed, elaborated and reconstructed by many scholars including Radcliffe-Brawn (l952), Talcott Parsons (1954) and Milton Yinger (1957).