Religion as a Social Institute

Abstract

It is proved that in religion through recognition and specific interpretation of another reality (which it is for the followers of a particular religion) – God, the Absolute, the Supreme Powers, reincarnation, etc. – the world appears as acceptable and social life – as justified.
So, religion is one the ways of social life ordering. It is justified that religion as a social institute is a complex of specific norms and values, in which the significance of certain patterns of behavior for both individual and social systems is embodied. So the requirements of that social institute are important and essential for the absolute majority of the representatives of the interaction of a particular social system.
Religious symbols belong to the macro level of social life, which means that the institute of religion «functions» on the societal level and is «responsible» for those values and rituals, with the help of which solidarity and agreement are maintained in the society.
As the functioning of the religion as well as the other social institutes is related to the values, norms, rituals, symbols, and so on, it has a cultural content.