In it's infancy, humanity relied on religion and it played a crucial role in the shaping of society. The organizing of people in front of one leader helped guide the unruly masses to collaborate and coexist. However, humanity no longer needs its hand held to get through the dark times. At some point we must take responsibility for our actions, both at a personal level and as a society. Religion has become the justification for countless murders, decades of war, and a plethora of other despicable deeds. In the United States of America, it's used as a way to generate untold amounts of unregulated money, spread ignorance, and encourage intolerance. Although it has helped to shape civilization as we know it today, religion is having a negative effect on society in the modern world and should discouraged by people everywhere.
One image can be found throughout history regardless of location, the sun. It can be seen by every human being on the planet at least once per day. It is understandable that ancient humans revered the sun as every day it would bring salvation from the elements of darkness. Over time the different cultures around the world personified the sun, giving it all the qualities of God. The ancient Egyptians anthropomorphized the sun as Horus. Horus was born on December 25th of a virgin named Mary and his birth was marked by an eastern star and three kings. He was a teacher by the age of twelve, had a ministry of his own at the age of thirty, and traveled around with twelve disciples. Horus also performed miracles, was crucified, and even resurrected after three days. All of this, was set three thousand years before the birth Christ. Horus is not unique, in fact, throughout history the same series of myth...
... middle of paper ...
...gain global unity or world peace with any institution that would spread ignorance, promote violence, and justifies intolerance. While not every church can be roped into the corrupt category, the form of control they have over a free thinking mind is still detrimental for all of us. We must not try to force people into doing away with religion. The repercussions of trying to make church illegal or criminalizing it would ultimately do more harm than good. Instead we should be encouraging people to think for themselves and hope that after a few generations religious factions will die on their own. It is only then, when the last corrupt religious institution has faded, that humanity can move forward and grasp a civil global society. Although religion helped to get us where we are to day, it is only through reason and understand will humanity reach its adolescence.
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
The work of art from the Egyptian period is a statue representing the god of war, the sun, and rulers, Horus. It was created in the time frame from three hundred sixty to three hundred forty-two B.C. It is titled The Horus Statue of Nectanebo II because the god Horus is seen protecting one of the kings, also known as pharaohs, of Egypt, Nectanebo II. Another similar work of art, a large statue titled the Human-headed winged lion, came from the Assyrian period. It was found in Mesopotamia which is now Nimrud, Iraq. It was created from eight hundred eighty-three to eight hundred fifty-nine B.C. Similarly, it was created for the king Ashurnasirpal II and was placed in the gateway of his palace. A common point between each piece of art is that the artists that created them are unknown.
Throughout the course of history, man has looked to religion for answers. Curiosity as to how we got here and why we are have driven people to seek out answers to these somewhat unanswerable questions. Over the past few thousand years, several varying religions have been established, some more prominent than others. Many of them share a similar story of a divine creator who has always been and will always be. In the case of Christianity, whether true or not, it has proven to be beneficial to society as a whole. The Bible set the standard for the moral compass that humans live their lives by to this day. The key fundamental problem with religion, although not the fault of religion, is that man has often used it as a gateway to power and prominence. In the case of the 18th century Gallican church, the French were abusing their religious powers, thus creating vast inequality throughout France, which eventually led to a rebellion against the church, and the eventual destruction of the church within France.
Imagine that you’ve been suffering through a time of immense hardship and you are economically disadvantaged. You haven’t eaten in days, you’re home is about to be foreclosed, and you are hopeless about finding employment. You take what little food you have left, scrounge together whatever possessions of yours that have value, and for good measure throw in your first-born son. Taking all of these items, you then light them on fire and utterly destroy them. If this happened today, no doubt would a person be arrested and deemed a risk to himself and others. But for centuries, people carried out these sacrificial rituals, wasting precious resources and time & energy, in hopes that things would get better. Religion is immensely costly both in terms of resources and time. We know that the most evolutionary fit creatures do not waste their energy on pointless tasks and that everything done in life is because the reward is bigger than the risk. So we ask ourselves, what is the reward of following religion given its immense expenditure. How has religion survived for so long and what does it offer to those who follow it? Furthermore, how did religion come to being and what purpose did it serve in the early days of its inception? When human beings first invented agriculture and settled down, the foundations of society began shaping. Tribes grew and became more permanent, people interacted with each other in more sophisticated ways, and civilization formed. Through this communal “puberty”, culture was born and memes (ideas, behaviors, and styles that spread from person to person) came to being. If we look at religion through an inverse perspective, one that says human society and culture developed religion as opposed to religion dictating so...
Religion has always played a major role in the development of human society. This is the main reason why it has so often been used for unjust purposes. The concept of war is in complete opposition to what Islam and Christianity teach their followers. Still, by different means, religion was and is often brought into play to cater for the interests of powerful people.
Religion is known to be a set of values, beliefs, and the understanding of life. Every religion has its own different set of beliefs and values. This essay will show how much religion has decreased, why people do not practice religion, and how secularism and the media have played a role in the decline of religion.
I believe organized religion may look good on paper but when humans get involved then manipulation is used to satisfy their religious leaders’ lust for greed and power which contradicts the very beliefs the religion was founded on. Many religious founders seemed to practice what they preached, however, once they die, the leadership that follows seems to travel the road of corruption in order to maintain or gain additional power (Armstrong, 2002). Historically, wars have been fought, assignations committed, persecution of other religions, land conquered, and even beliefs changed over time to fit the needs and wants of the current leader over the common good of that same leader’s own people (Esposito, 2011). These corruptions are not isolated to solely the Old Testament era; even current religious leaders abuse power. I can recall the headlines I have read in Yahoo News over the years about Christian televangelists who have stolen money from church donations or committed adultery, to Catholic priests sexually assa...
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
“The appearance of Helios [the Greek variant of the Roman Sol Invictus] aroused a stormy scholarly debate that intensified when the ancient synagogue at Hammath Tiberias was excavated . . . this is the earliest example of a depiction of the sun god, and it appeared in one of the most important Jewish centers during the Talmudic period.”
Some religions even go to the extent of persecuting people who have different beliefs. Scientist have argued that religion was created to give humanity rules and to help turn these early human savages into proper, domesticated people. If someone were to break these rules, they would be meat with an “unimaginable punishment.” “Religion is like a drug to some. And they need a 2000 year old hero to save them – from themselves that is!”
For thousands of years, religion has exerted a great influence over economic and political life. Even today religion is called upon to support rulers, contacts and other legal procedures.
Religion is the main source of morals and values today. I feel like many people today are not following the word of God. I think that religion is overlooked, and not taught enough. For example, colleges, high schools, and many other places are not even allowed to pray, teach or preach the word of the bible. I feel like that is a problem in the United States today. It has had the effect of more violence, problems in families, and the non- education of the younger generation. I feel that though religion is choice, it should be introduced, because many don't even get the opportunity to learn about it.
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...
Religion has screwed us up for a long time and we'd be better off without it. By "us" I mean Americans living in the 21st century. Without religions we would have fewer labels separating us from each other and we wouldn't hate Jews or Catholics or Muslims. If we didn't have religions, we wouldn't have to convert anyone or "save" anyone. If we didn't have religions, people could no longer get caught up in the fine lines of religious rightousness or be trapped in a double-standard morality. And most importantly, we would be truly free of religious engendered guilt that never quite goes away.
So what is religion? Religion is more than an institution of rituals and beliefs, its more than just going to church on Sunday, its more than just praying 5 times day facing mecca. Religion is a powerful tool for governments. Religion creates a sense of unity that unites all peoples with-in that religion, but also can have the opposite effect. It can cause wars between two opposite religions. Religion is also an inhibitor according to Karl Marx. It stunts progression of many social classes or slows the progression of rights for women. Even though all of these peoples were Atheists, they all could still see the huge impact religion has had on our society, and how it has made us the people as whole we are today.