Religion: more essential (and existential) nutrient than opiate for the masses

Religions play a unique role in shaping modern humans’ lives. Yet, evidence shows that religion has both positive (e.g., decreased anxiety) and negative (e.g., increased parochialism) psychological consequences. In this chapter, we address the contradictions in the literature and advance our understanding of religion from a multilevel perspective integrating evolutionary, existential psychology, and sociology. We argue that religion generates a blend of strong moral values that are interiorized by individuals to address their concerns about their own mortality. Though this mechanism efficiently buffers existential concerns of meaning, control, and significance by giving people clear-cut moral guidance, internalization of moral codes link religious beliefs with one’s identity, rendering them more immune to change. By creating moralized identities, religious communities also homogenize their adherents’ behaviors and increase their parochiality. We conclude these effects explain why religions have a unique clustering effect on communities, stronger than any other form of secular meaning system.