Religion provides moral and ethical guidance that promotes social harmony and cohesion. It establishes systems of reward and punishment that influence human behavior and advance social order. However, religious doctrines have also been used to justify discrimination and oppression at times in history. Some religious practices and beliefs have impeded scientific progress or public health.
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Positive and Negative Effects of Religions. Group 2 (1)
Religion provides moral and ethical guidance that promotes social harmony and cohesion. It establishes systems of reward and punishment that influence human behavior and advance social order. However, religious doctrines have also been used to justify discrimination and oppression at times in history. Some religious practices and beliefs have impeded scientific progress or public health.
Religion provides moral and ethical guidance that promotes social harmony and cohesion. It establishes systems of reward and punishment that influence human behavior and advance social order. However, religious doctrines have also been used to justify discrimination and oppression at times in history. Some religious practices and beliefs have impeded scientific progress or public health.
Religion practices a set of rituals and ceremonious rites
of passage and intensification. It also regards religious leaders in high esteem. These characteristics help advance social harmony by assimilating and stabilizing cultures and nations. Religion provides divine authority to ethical and moral principles which also help promote unity among people. Common participation in rituals together with basic uniformity of beliefs help promote social cohesiveness. This is one of the most significant functions of religion. It provides a systematic model of the universe., which in effect determines organized human behavior. By providing moral values, one is able to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil. It also provides a system of reward and punishment that administers and standardizes people’s behavior in society. Some people believe that following rules of their religion is more important than government rules since most people give more importance to the reward and punishment in the afterlife. Since religion is a source of moral values, it provides social change. It can be very effective in lobbying and campaigning for certain social issues using its own moral teachings as the basis for argument. Religion has the potential to institute social change, especially in the issues concerning poverty, reproductive health, gender equality and religious discrimination. Religion was developed from man’s need to have a sense of origin and destination; to discover where they came from and where they are bound to go when they die. Religion provides answers for phenomena and questions that science or reason cannot explain. Myths about creation abound but more importantly, religion has provided assurances as to where spirits will go when they die, reducing people’s fear of death as something undesirable. Some religions have even made death a better alternative to living in uncertainty. People were inspired by the stories of different prophets from their own religious affiliations like that of Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. These people showed how ordinary people like them were given important missions in life, and how they struggled to carry out their respective missions. Their narratives (known to us because of religion) may give people a sense of meaning in life; that they are not place in this world without a purpose, that each has a mission to fulfill and it is up to them to fathom what their missions in life are. For some, religion provides people with personal identity as a part of a group with similar worldviews, beliefs, values, practices, and lifestyles. Belonging to a particular religion- whose members share the same beliefs, practices the same rituals and worship the same God- gives individuals a sense of being in the right place with the right people. It also provides them a sense of security because other people who belong to the same group tend to support and help each other in times of crisis. People can also rejoice with them in times of success. Some religions often favor men and as a result, perpetuate the notions of class or gender discrimination or oppression. Examples: Confucianism emphasizes the relation between the ruler and the subject, with the ruler exercising authority over the people. The traditional caste system in India would also reflect how religion shows political and social structures since it propagated the idea that people had to be subdivided into certain social classes with particular social roles and that the attainment of moksha (union of the universal and individual soul) would depend on how they performed their duties based on their designated class. Religion can be a source of discrimination or the prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. Some people do not tolerate religious ideologies different from the one they follow. Religious fanaticism can lead to feelings of hatred, which could lead to racism and eventually violence. Throughout history, religion has been used by colonizers to justify their forcible occupation of territories. There are also some religions which discriminate other religions by saying that theirs is the “right religion” and that only their followers will be saved in the afterlife. Wars have been fought in the name of religion. Numerous lives were sacrificed and lost and this phenomenon continues up to the present time. Examples: In Palestine, Jews are in conflict with the Muslims; In Kashmir, Muslims are against Hindus; In Sudan; Muslims vs. Christians and Animists Karl Marx said “Religion is the opium of the masses.” he believes that religion maintains social inequality by propagating a worldview that justifies oppression. People will not complain of being poor or being in the lower ranks because “The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for them.” Catholic Church claimed that the earth was flat and that it is the center of the solar system and so when Copernicus stated his theory that the sun is the center of the solar system, he was banned from the church and his book was banned for more than 200 years. Some religions have rituals that impede scientific success. Some are even unsanitary which may cause more danger to people. Example: During the cholera outbreak in the Philippines, the catholic province of having the dead body of the cholera victims be brought to church for a mass, was seen as one reason why the cholera epidemic continued to spread rapidly. Many questions the sustainability of religious doctrines to the needs of the present and future generations. Ancient religious beliefs and practices which have proven to be inhuman should be replaced with sensible ones. Example: Trepanning or boring holes in the skull, a surgical procedure performed on epileptics and the mentally ill, with the belief that through the hole, the evil spirit will leave the person.