Well taking away all icons and ideals...

a religon is a way to justify your own personal belifes and with those belifes challange the world to become somthing more, also theres a moral side to showing what you think is wright and wrong and why.

Its basicly the most simple attempt of sorting out good and evil and making some sort of order, like our governments do.

The problem being of coure that not every one agrees with eachother and larger more powerful religons force there ideals on others, in more recent times you can see the same thing in governments,

but since religons ultimaily are more powerful than governments they tend to stick around longer.

Meaning than religond is how me show most bascily what we belive in.

If you have problems relating government and religond just look at the crusides and rome, then comare it to Hitlers nazie war and the cold war

also i would like to add that unlike Government that religons still exist in Ancrhy governments cannot hence the "dark ages"