Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How religion influences government
Tradition vs modern culture
Religion influence on society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How religion influences government
Today we have many different cultures, societies, and religions spread around the world. Most of these cultures and religion originated in the past, ancient world to us. The religions and cultures were spread through different ways by each country or religion, some used teachings and education, while others used violence and enforcement of religion. Religion in cultures and society is made important, of its effects of teaching morals, values, spirituality, and a guided path of life. At times these different believes can conflict each other, thus creating and causing secularism, intolerance, and discrimination towards other religions and cultures.
Ever since humans formed different societies and countries, conflicts of power and control have centered our politics, but then as the influence of religion grew on individuals many countries gave religious sectors power and influence over the government. This was due to religion's capture of a person's emotional character and the quest to find and follow God's way of life. As the size of population and countries grew, more information was exchanged between different societies and countries. People exchanged values, morals, norms and other factors of living. Throughout history, religions have collided and caused conflicts on disputes over beliefs, norms, and taboos. These conflicts caused intolerance of other religions and culture, thus also leading for people to persecute each other over the belief of being the right religion. Each religion has believed to be the righteous, and the one true religion of god. These believes still have a long lasting effect in our modern day lives. Throughout the world there have been many wars, many were created due to intolerance and secularism of rel...
... middle of paper ...
...onflict of religion might never end. Each religion is different from the other in many ways, rules and believes conflict each other in many different areas. Even though if the politics and religion were kept separated, less collision between different religions might occur. Religion if used in a healthy way can help individuals and the closed sect itself, however these values, morals and believes are vastly misunderstood and vaguely interpreted, causing religion to defeat itself each time.
Works Cited
Ellens, J. Harold. The Destructive Power of Religion. Violence in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Volume 2. Connecticut, 2004
Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the mind of God. The global rise of religious violence. University of California Press. 2000
Stern, Jessica. Terror in the name of God. Why Religious militants kill. Harper Collins Publishers Inc. 2003
In his essay, Rodriguez believes that the diplomatic affairs we see on the evening news are merely being disguised as a religious war. The fight over oil or land when in reality it is the fight between whose side God is on, the attacks under the control of Al Qaeda when perhaps it’s the greed for power or world domination. According to Richard, these religious wars are allowing terrorism to become prevalent; often times within the same culture (147).
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
Culture is made up of three main components: ethics, aesthetics, and religion (Lincoln 52). The lines of culture become skewed as it often blends in with political and religious views. In Western Europe during the time of the Reformation, the Church was the central ruler of the society. This meant that religion was not only a cultural view, but also a political one. As time moved on, the Church became less important, but today’s standards still connect religion to culture. This becomes an issue as individuals who are noticeably outside the culture in forms or religion are often judged and looked down upon (Lincoln 56). Due to this outcast it can cause anger to certain religions and culture which can often lead to these acts of violence. With the hate between cultures, religion becomes the justifiable mean on which violence can occur. Many individuals can state that God wants them to make their own religion superior, and one way they can draw attention to their religion is terrorism and other forms of violence. Due to this connection to culture, religion can not be separated into it’s own personal category, as it is forever affected by the changes and culture of the community (Lincoln 57). As time and culture progress, the religion of the community will either change with it, or fight the changes which will often cause conflict. This can be seen in the results of the practice of Jihad, the Reformation and
Religion has many effects in any society. It can either destroy it by proving customs wrong or it can guide it like it guides converts to believe in the religion. Religion creates two different societies and while it guides one to become stronger it will destroy another at the same time. Religion guides societies and destroys them.
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Religion, “part of the human experience that has to do with a god or gods, a higher power, or the ultimate values of life” (Cason & Tillman 6-7), is one of the most controversial and interesting subjects for humanity. It has been around for as long as anyone can recall and they have difference and similarities in their founders, beliefs, and history. Religion has served to give some sort of a meaning to life and everything around it. In modern society, some religions have grown and expanded significantly. These larger religions have been classified as world religions. In addition, these world religions have been split into two categories known as Eastern and Western religion.
Nelson, Jack. Is religion killing us?violence in the Bible and the Quran / Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.. 2003 Print.
Robinson, B.A. (2002, October 14). Islam: Is it a religion of violence or of peace.
In both given articles, “The Roots of Muslim Rage” by Bernard Lewis, and “The Roots of Muslim Rage Revisited” by Nicolaas J.E. van der Zee, argue about the enhancement of the Muslim fundamentalism with different perspectives; however, I believe that Lewis’ view may be quiet misleading to the actual perception. Lewis indicates that Muslim fundamentalism is conceived through the Muslim community’s oppression and dissatisfaction with the West’s political involvement, as well as “Islam is a source of aggression” . In defiance of Lewis’ opinion, the word ‘Islam’ comes from the word peace as well as the will of submission to God. The notion of aggression and violence that Lewis conceptualizes to be the headline of Islam does not have any supporting
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
Religion can be viewed from many different perspectives. People throughout the world hold different religious values. One person’s religious value will not match the religious values of another person. Globalization as a whole has affected the way we view the different religions and our feelings towards them; it has moved towards a more symbolic representation of ideologies. Many have come to believe that the west is more superior to others. Martha Crenshaw argues that globalization is a key driver of terrorism because there is a comparison between countries having less access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power.
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...
For thousands of years, religion has exerted a great influence over economic and political life. Even today religion is called upon to support rulers, contacts and other legal procedures.
Wood, Connor. “Religious terrorism: an evolutionary explanation.” Patheos.com. Patheos, 3 Apr 2012. Web. 15 Oct 2013.
In the world we are in today, every continent, city, and smallest village has some sort of belief set. Religious belief frequently has the most impact over societies with religion’s ability to mold social laws, boundaries, and sometimes hold entire sway over government systems. However, because religion is left to interpretation of its audiences, religion itself can only be as peaceful or as violent as its followers make it. When religious beliefs are paired with religious intolerance, and people willing to act on that intolerance, religious beliefs can take a turn towards violence, death, and destruction. Religious intolerance is being unwilling to tolerate another 's religious beliefs or practices