What is the function of religion?

After studying comparative religion and Cultural Anthropology my personal conclusion is that people created religions in order to keep their families and tribes alive and together in hard times.

This was the original purpose of religions: To keep their kids from jumping off a cliff the first time their tribe was attacked and Mom and Dad or uncles or grandparents were killed horrible ways or died.

It was a way to believe in something so you didn't just go crazy and jump off a cliff and die yourself.

This was the original reason people created religions.

However, after farming was introduced and people didn't wander around so much as hunter gatherers and food could be created in one place, more people could be born so children weren't getting lost and dying from predation from animals while hunting and gathering.

More advanced homes could be built to keep out the larger predators like Bears, alligators, Crocodiles etc. that might eat their loved ones and children.

So, farming changed everything in relation to religion.

Farming allowed Kings to take the place of  mobile tribal leaders. People could find each other more because they were stationary and growing food rather than wandering all the time.

The people that continued to wander all the time became less important to societies than they once were because in a way it was like they didn't exist because no one could easily find them because they were moving around all the time.

So, farming more than any other single thing changed the basic nature of religion because it allowed Kings to find people and to kill them if they didn't belong to the King's religion.

Then Kings would say something like: "All you men I have to be able to have all your wives before you do" which resulted in things like King Edward III of England being related to 80% of the people there in England as many Greats and Grandfather biologically at the very least to 80% of the people who live there now.

So, originally religions were about keeping tribes alive and keeping children from offing themselves or others in the same tribe.

But now, religions can be around for almost any reason because of all the permutations we have been through historically.

So now, religions can mean anything or nothing depending upon what people find useful in their lives
individually or collectively.