Sociology || Introduction to sociology

What is religion?  For most people, this is a simple question which hardly merits deep thought. Religions are commonly defined by a belief in God or gods and perhaps an after- life, but they also involve worship in religious buildings such as chapels, synagogues or mosques and doing 'religious things' such as praying and eating or not eating certain food- stuffs. However, for sociologists of religion trying to set limits to their field of study, reach- ing general agrcement on such a basic matter has proved extraordinarily difficult. Indeed, Aldridge (2007: 30) argues that 'Religion is a contested concept. We cannot expect to agree on a definition and then debate matters of substance, since matters of substance are built into any definition. There is not, and never will be, a universally agreed definition of religion. But why not?  One reason is that sociology contains a plurality of general theoretical perspectives, and these differ in how they construe the natu