Religion: Blessing or Plague?
Religions Courtesy of Wikipedia
Born and raised in a somewhat Catholic household, I am a byproduct of religion. By "somewhat" I mean that I was baptized, went through my First Communion and my Confirmation, and went to church every so often. But besides this, it seemed as though that religion was something that we did outside of our home and not necessarily something that defined us. Nonetheless, as I grew older, I began to form my own opinions, and while I went through my Confirmation class, I saw myself questioning a lot of things from my religion such as the fact that someone can live a sinful life only to be forgiven when they repent as they die. However, it would be wrong for me to say that the bible teachings that I went through did not affect me, in fact, some of my core principles are founded upon these teachings. And while this is a positive good that comes from religion, I am under the impression that some of the things wrong with the world also come from religion.
While religion can be a source of good, there are times where it can also be a source of conflict and ignorance. Most of this ignorance comes from the fact that "All religions have their accepted dogma, or articles of belief, that followers must accept without question [which] can lead to inflexibility and intolerance in the face of other beliefs." When people are inflexible and unable to see the perspective of others, there is a lack of understanding from this ignorance that then leads to conflict amongst people. And these articles of belief that must be followed can then lead to an inability for social progress and acceptance of other people who do not share the belief, or even worse if they disagree with it. Religion in this sense is yet another way to bring people apart when it should instead be bringing people together, and this is where I have the biggest of problems with religion. When there are people who claim to be religious and all-loving only to do morally questionable things is something that has always bothered me. In essence, people's hypocrisy is what bothers me. These are the people who are constantly going to church and put on a veil of religious good, but at home, they are alcoholics, wife-beaters, etc. And I don't want to paint with a broad brush here, obviously, the majority of people are not like this, the amount of people who are is still alarming and bothersome.
Furthermore, there have been many atrocities in the name of religion. And while "only 123 [wars] have been classified to involve a religious cause, accounting for less than 7 percent of all the wars" there have been other atrocities such as genocide against the Indigenous Americans, and the present conflict in the Middle East between Israel (a Jewish country) and Muslim countries that have taken the lives of many. Then there are extremists, who use violent means in order to grow their followership and push forward their interpretation of the religion.
As I mentioned in "The Attack on Discourse" there is no real communication between people of different ideas and there is instead a polarization amongst them. This also applies to how people look at those with a different religion. Instead of trying to understand and learn their religion, they would rather ostracize or avoid interaction with people of other religions which only adds to hostility and conflict amongst people. For me, religion is just another method of dividing people alongside race and ethnicity and just adds to the ever compounding reasons to stay within a bubble. And while religion can also be unifying to those who are within the religion, it does so at the expense of those who are not.
