Religion is a social taxon that includes belief systems, rituals, and institutions. It is a contested concept, and scholars have sorted it in different ways. This article focuses on two philosophical issues that have arisen for this disputed concept, one issue that is specific to the taxon itself and another that will likely be raised for any abstract social category used to sort cultural types (such as “literature”, “democracy”, or even “culture”).

Religious beliefs may vary widely, but all religions presuppose a division of reality into two classes, real and ideal, usually designated by the terms sacred and profane. They also include a system of representations that express the nature of sacred things, the virtues and powers that are attributed to them, and their relations with each other and with profane things.

Many scholars have treated religion as a universal phenomenon that appears in all cultures. For example, Sigmund Freud argued that religion provides people with assurance in the face of insecurity. More recently, Nigel Barber -Barber has argued that religion is an adaptive strategy to reduce psychological stress and help people cope with threats or insecurity.

Other scholars have criticized this view, and some argue that the idea of religion as a universal phenomena is a Western invention. They point to studies showing that the earliest form of religion was animism, a belief in spirits. They also point to the fact that some practices and beliefs that are labeled as religions in modern times did not develop as religions at all, but rather as elements of a larger cultural system.