While originally religion was a metod of explaining the world in general, in today's culture the world is pretty well explained by science and only a few areas of inquiry about the external world remain beyond the reach of science. It is here, in the distant past, in metaphysics, in miracles, that religion still dwells. Why, then, is it so prevalent today? What function does it still perform? I think the answer is that the function of religion today is mostly an emotional one. As humans we are limited by our natures in our understanding of the world, and as emotion is central to our humanity it was natural that we developed a highly emotional view of the world. In our original religious understanding of the world, natural forces became persons with emotions and intentions(polytheistic gods) and then the mysterious workings of a single person with emotions and intentions(monotheistic god). Then science came along and depersonified nature. Suddenly nature becomes this heartless force that subjects people to all sorts of emotions without reason. People aren't comfortable in this situation. So much of human life is about the way we feel, and any understanding of reality that ignores the emotional aspect of our lives is unsatisfactory. Religion provides us with an explanation and prescription of our emotional motivations in emotional terms; that is to say, religious reasoning is emotional in nature.
The people I know who are most religious are very emotional and most of the very emotional people I know are very religious. Maybe we need to find a new religion, one that takes into account the emotional pressures of modern life and gives our emotional selves a sense of purpose and direction.
