Religion And Society Essay

Religion, a word shrouded with mystery, confusion and complexity. For some it is the answer to everything, a path to guidance and hope. For others it is the reason for all evil or just a manmade phenomenon for people who refuse to understand that everything happens for a scientific reason. Whatever the case is, it is a topic that is quite controversial and much debated among scientists, cultural theorist and conspiracy theorists. Religion plays a major role in functioning and forming social and psychological behavior of a society. It is connected more towards the emotional side of a person and everyone has their own perspective about it. Therefore religion has become an important part of human identity. The reason perhaps religion is attacked so much is because of certain religious people who misuse religion and violate the rules and regulations of religion for personnel gains. Some even force religion onto others so that when the other one accepts his or her religion they can be praised in society. Saadat Hasan Manto, Munshi Premchand and Rabindranath Tagore with their short stories give an insight to certain kinds of people and psychological and social impact religion has on the society. In A Man of God, Manto writes about how a person with a religious persona has an authority over the society. The story talks about a Maulvi who visits the house of Chaudhry Maujoo, a recently divorcee. He regrets that he divorced his wife and he instantly feels ashamed of doing that. Looking at the condition of Maujoo the maulvi takes advantage of the situation for personal gains. Manto sets the stage in a village where usually religion is misunderstood and not many people have the proper knowledge of it. Similarly Maujoo is not a religious ma... ... middle of paper ... ...e. “Then I’ll get down immediately, right here. I can’t take a mathor into the car -- haridom I might have understood, but a mathor!” A similar discrimination can be seen in other religions as well. In Pakistani society the biggest discrimination can be seen in the form of the treatment of religious minorities. In some households people tend not to eat food sent from a Christian or a Hindu family and in some extreme cases not even from a Shia family. In conclusion, whether religion does lead to conservatism and violence or people who use religion for personal gains solely depends on how they are taught religion. There are people who are very religious yet they are very modern, such as Sheikh Hamza Yousuf, Dalai Lama or Pope Francis. It all depends on the human psychology and with proper knowledge on the subject, religion can surely exist with science and modernism.