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Affect of religion on society
Affect of religion on society
effects of religion on individuals
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did when I was growing up there. Today it is necessary to have a Police Officer in the village of Larsen Bay, Alaska because of domestic violence and alcohol/drug abuse.
There was the Russian Orthodox religion, but Priests only made a short visit approximately every six months to a year, that is if the weather and the Priest's schedule permitted. Whenever a Russian Orthodox Priest would visit, he would give all of his sermons in either Russian, or Slavonic. Very few if any of the villagers understood Russian or the Slavonic language. A few years before I left the village the Baptists moved in to cleanse our heathen souls. The Baptist presence in the village lasted for about 10 years after I left. There is a Russian Orthodox religious presence in the village today. The Russian Orthodox religion moved into the village, built a Church and this time give their sermons in English or at least through an interpreter.
I had a childhood that was without the pressures and influence of organized religion. When I left the village and went out into the world, my curiosity was aroused to the different supernatural god-beliefs of the world. I found that some people believed so strongly that they had the "only" one true religion that they would fight and die for that belief. Supernatural god-beliefs are just that - beliefs, a figment of imagination and a superstition. People that are indoctrinated from birth into supernatural god-beliefs know that they are right and that the others have it all wrong.
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Public School Pre-game Prayer
Halt prayer before games judge orders
This was on the front page of the Atlanta Constitution on September 25, 1986. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order banning prayers before football games at the Douglas County High School in Douglasville, GA. Doug Jager just returned to Douglasville, GA from his first trip to Larsen Bay, Alaska where he spent the summer. Emotions were intense and out of control for Christians who suddenly found that they lost one of their means of imposing their prayers onto the public. After the Atlanta Constitution's front-page story to halt prayers at public school football games, Georgia went crazy. The Jager household was besieged with some of the nastiest phone calls and open public abuse coming from Christians in the name of God. The abuse coming from Christians was very intense, and meant to terrorize and to intimidate.
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
Kline, Austin, “Defending ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance,” posted on the “About” website, March 30th, 2004,
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.
In 1958 five parents of the Long Island community brought suit to stop the prayers use in schools. Two parents were Jewish; one parent was a Unitarian, One a member of The Ethical Culture Society and One Self-Professed Atheist. At first the lawsuit failed. Justice Bernard S. Meyer found the prayer religious but not in violation. Instead, Justice Meyer ordered the schools to set up safe guards against “embarrassing and pressures” towards children who did not wish to participate. The New York Appellate Division upheld this decision along with the state’s Court of Appeals, by a vote of 5-2.
Chapter three of Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints inspired me to research today’s issues of school prayer. To understand how we got to where we are today, I first delved into our countries history of court cases pertaining to rulings on prayer in schools. Lastly, to update my audience on how our lives are being affected today, I directed my efforts toward finding current situations. By analyzing these situations, I gained knowledge for a better understanding of why society needs to be aware of these controversies. I don’t think there should be any form of organized prayer in today’s public schools.
Freud, Feuerbach, Marx and Nietzsche criticized the wrong motive for the religiosity of some people. Some people actually believe in God because of guilt, fear of punishment, because of the inability to solve their problems, because of
Minersville provides a very interesting backdrop to subsequent cases with graver overtones of censorship. The Minersville case was brought by the father of Lillian and William Gobitis, on their behalf, against the public schools of Minersville, Pennsylvania. The Gobitis children, Jehovah's Witnesses, were brought up to believe that scripture forbade saluting a flag. They refused to observe the Pledge of Allegiance and were expelled from the public school system, forcing their father to enroll them in private schools (23-25).
Rieff, Burt. "Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty: The School-Prayer Controversy in Alabama, 1962-1985." Alabama Review 3(2001):163. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
The “establishment” or “religion” clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Education Week, 2003, para. 2). It is from this clause that the idea of separation of church and state comes. It is also the basis for much of the debate regarding the practice of religion in public schools (Education Week, 2003). One of the big questions regarding the religion issue is where to draw the line between separation of church and state and religious freedom. The practice of religion in public schools can balance these two ends by allowing students to individually exercise their religious freedom, so long as they do not interfere with that of other students.
Prayer in public schools became an issue in 1960: Madalyn Murray O'Hair sued the Baltimore MD school system on behalf of her son William J Murray, because he was being forced to participate in prayer in schools. Ultimately, her actions and the actions of the American Atheist Organization resulted in the Supreme Court ruling of 1962. (Tragically, she disappeared in August of 1995. In January 2001, a full five and a half years after they were last seen, the bodies of the Murray-O’Hairs were finally found on a sprawling ranch near the little town of Camp Wood, Tex.)
Prayer In School A very controversial widespread issue today is the right to have prayer in public schools. The proposed amendment reads: “To secure the people’s right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience. The people’s rights to pray and to recognize their belief, heritage or traditions on public property, shall not be infringed. The government shall not require any person to join in the prayer or religious activity, initiate or designate school prayers, discriminate against any religion, or deny equal access to benefit on account of religion.
...nition, God is perfectly good, omniscient and omnipotent, then it should be reflective on religions and there should only be one. If god is omnipotent, then he is capable of generating a religion in which everyone can believe in universally and exclusively. If I have to accept the idea that the religions that exist are merely something created to satisfy our human perceptions then I prefer not to believe in a God at all. Religions should not be something in which we question its validity and the practice of it. Most, if not, all major religions have too many contradictions for my personal taste. Although my parents remain Catholics who believe that their religion is superior to the other religions, I respect their views. I on the other hand, select to rely on and trust the moral behaviors of people as a way to live by and be the most ethical person I can be.
The reason for student led prayers at sporting events is for a God they believe in to grant the safety of the players on the field and the fans going home. After all, Christians are in the majority. It’s a thirty second prayer that isn’t going to hurt a single person. (Gholson) At Celina High School, Celina, Texas, the students and administration completely ignored the ruling of the courts by continuing to have student led prayers before football games. The students wore orange and white shirts that read “We pray before we play!” And the town’s people constructed a large billboard that read, “We answer to a higher Judge than you!”(Kay, G) That is the kind of attitude that other towns need to overcome the government on a ruling that is to be honest, absolutely ridiculous. (Kay, J)
The Lord's Prayer Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Gaylor, Annie Laurie. The Case Against School Prayer. “Keep the Church and State Forever Separate.” Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 1995. ( www.ffrf.org/pray.html )