Misuse of Religion
December 14th, 2006
"And an old priest said, Speak to us of Religion,
And he said:
Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection,
but a wonder and surprise ever springing in the
soul, even while the hands hew the stone of tend
the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his action,
or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying,
'This for God and this for myself; This for my soul,
and this other for my body?'"
--Kahlil Gibran
As our civilization reaches its peak, it's obvious that it was created to destroy itself. Our past is the biggest proof of this theory. Through the centuries, mankind has been trying to destroy itself. World War I and II were just the manifestation of this destruction. Everything after these wars has been devoted to producing the most efficient weapons for so called "protection". Why put an end to life? Why destroy the only thing we have? What happened to God's Ten Commandments? Religion was created to help mankind overcome its fears and negative aspects. But man wouldn't be man if he didn't alter his course. Individual believes were merged to organize religion, which has been moved away from individuals whom it belongs. Politicization of organize religion has caused "eternal" struggle for separation church of state. However, separation has never happened despite persuasions; Church influence has been hidden inside of political systems. Despite its peaceful nature, organize religion has been modified through the centuries, and it has become one of the most dangerous reasons for killing, destruction and quarreling about the separation church of state and church's role in politics.
Artifacts found in the trash heaps of ancient groups of people or tribes, supports the hypothesis that most if not all of these tribes had some form of religion. Why is this? Clearly, they had a need for one. Life was very threatening and they felt that some of these treats came from some superior beings, some of whom dwelt in the sky. They therefore tried to figure out how to placate these Gods by performing rituals. Whenever a threat eased or disappeared after performing a ritual, they assumed that it was due to the ritual. Whenever a threat did not ease or disappear after a ritual was performed, they tried to modify it.
Everyone has their own feelings when it comes to religion. Some people are big on worshiping God, while others could care less about believing in a God or not. Flannery ‘o Connor, who was a zealous Roman Catholic, wrote stories with the underlining mean that Catholics work harder for their beliefs than any other religions. She uses her writing to vent about Christians singly using God when their life gets difficult, instead of living by the Christian faith. A story she wrote called “A Good Man is Hard to Fine” gives the perfect example of her expressing her anger with people who claim to be religious along with people only using God as a crutch rather than live for him.
Religion is a symbolic representation of society. The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, “Why are people religious?” We express our participation in religious events through plays, acts of confession, religious dances, etc. To begin to understand why we have such term, let’s understand the common elements of religion. There are different types in which people believe in or follow and that is: animatism, animism, ancestral spirits, god and goddesses, and minor supernatural beings. Beyond these different elements, such one is to have religious leaders to follow.
Religion gives rise to and is born with the unreasonable and uninviting desire to make man at home in what seems to be very close to an uncaring world. With this being
Religion has existed since the dawn of civilization and over time has evolved into the religions we have today. Today the most prominent religions are monotheistic, having one omnipotent god, and despite having many differences they share basic tenets of respect and kindness. Religions, such as Judaism, give explanations for the unknown, provide hope, and bring about a sense of community.
Religion comes from religare, which means have a reunion. Aneel Baquer says that humans have a need to connect with others, the ability of myths and thoughts of religion is a desire that humans need to bond. In most civilizations, religion is the reason why civilizations are successful. Religion give, people a motive to survive or do what they do. Sometimes the religions actually make their civilization expand and even more successful. not only does religion give us a motive to survive. Still today, religion is one of the biggest factors in modern civilizations. In several religion motives are used for example, christianity. In christianity to meet with god, you must do good. Religion can change a persons personality by aiding from stress, to giving hope. Religion can also reduce the fear of death. In ancient civilizations, egyptians did not fear death. In their religion they believed that living on earth was the beginning of life. Once dead it sends you to the beginning of happiness or horrible. Religion can also expand. If you have a strong connection to your religion, some people spread the word of their religion to other people. It also teaches manners and the difference between the good, and the evil. Vikings were such a significant civilization than any other because of their religion. Religion for the vikings have given them motivation to expand territories, learn between the good and the bad, and not to fear death but to welcome death; reasons why are from being taught was from viking mythology, heroic people and their warlike god.
I'm not a tremendously religious person. I don't attend religious services, I don't say prayers before bedtime (or much of any other time), I don't read a section of my holy book on a regular schedule... you get the picture. The closest I'd come to claiming a personal faith is to call myself a sort of armchair Daoist.
Religion is an ever-growing idea that has no set date of origin. Throughout history religion has served as an answer to the questions that man could not resolve. The word religion is derived from the Latin word “religio” meaning restraint in collaboration with the Greek word “relegere” which means to repeat or to read again. Religion is currently defined as an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Throughout time, there has yet to be a culture that lacks a religion of some form, whether it is a branch of paganism, a mythological based religion or mono/polytheistic religion. Many religions have been forgotten due to the fact that they were ethnic religions and globalizing religions were fighting to be recognized, annihilating these ancient and ethnic religions. Some of these faiths include: Finnish Paganism, Atenism, Minoan Religion, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Vedism, Zoroastrianism, Asatru, and the Olmec Religion. Religion is an imperative part of our contemporary world but mod...
Throughout the ancient world, religions and ideologies have developed into forms and practices that influence the very essence of civilizations. Religions could pose as a form of foundation for the beliefs, ideas, social organizations, and economic structures of a certain group of people. They provided a means of justification and form of unity between people and they helped establish and infuse new ideas into a culture. Religions were used as source to explain the misconcepted beliefs in nature and science as well as natural phenomina and it was also used to provide a source of motivation, control, and stability in a civilization.
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.
Religious leaders ought to be the epitome of goodness and morality and are supposed to live lives worthy of emulation. Yet, in Voltaire’s Candide and Goethe’s Faust, the church is infested with hypocrisy what with religious leaders being hypocritical characters that are corrupt, greedy and immoral. These are seen in so many instances in both texts as will be discussed below.
Edward Burnett Tylor, who believed that religion will eventually die with science, did not consider the aspect of the power of religious pluralism. People can become more powerful as they are able to open their mind to religious pluralism, so shouldn’t the ultimate evolutionary stage of humans be ultimate religious openness instead of solely science? Although the courseware touches base on the causes of religious wars, it does not develop the reasons behind the violence or the essence of the human condition. The movie Gandhi revealed how religions must be interpreted in order for them to be effective for the entire human race, and not just those who deem themselves
Religion has the power to bind one to others as well as the aptitude to alienate people with conflicting beliefs. Throughout history, cultures have created several different belief systems, each with its own ideals, to satisfy the typical human curiosity and explain the unclarified events that occur in nature. Inspecting the role of religion from the earliest civilizations to the present, its tendency to divide rather than unify groups becomes apparent.
Religion helps establish mankind’s place in the order of the universe. As civilization began to be established through the domestication of animals, the irrigation and cultivation of agricultural crops, and life became more complex (moving from mainly a hunter/gather existence to one that could settle down and have more time to consider advanced ideas) people began to consider questions such as, where life comes from, is there a creator or creators who helped make the world, and what happens after we die. Religion helped answer some of these questions. It gave people purpose, meaning, and perspective. Religion helped establish nations in the case of religious theocratic governments. In many of the ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians, the Mayans, and even Mesopotamia, the priests and other religious leaders played prominent roles in help shaping the laws and government of these civilizations. As his...
Religion began as a way to explain unfathomable gaps in understanding how the world and the things within it worked. It became a fundamental part of many lives because it gave the population faith and understanding as to why things functioned the way they did. Unexplainable events were concluded as the will of a higher being, as it was the simplest rational. Nonetheless, time has shifted, and with different ages comes change. However important they were when our kind had no other explanation for the universe or way to be governed; religious beliefs have become undermined by our development and advancement in the understanding of our morals and needs to provide order and reason: law.
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.