The Role of Religion in Today’s Society Essay Example

the past to end slavery since they believed that slavery was not compatible with Christianity. In today’s society, slavery is always in form of oppression of the poor. However, these Christian morals have formed the basis of an ethical political life where leaders have included laws that ensure people have equal rights in many nations.

Religion has led to a lot of transformation in the society in that, many conflicts have been avoided through its teachings. In some countries, different political leaders come up with different political ideologies and this may result to civil wars. However, the message of forgiveness from religious ethics is what restores peace in such nations. Some of the world’s great acts of forgiveness have been motivated by a religious ethic and faith in the importance of forgiveness. For example, Martin Luther King in politics, used Christian language to preach a message of peace and forgiveness. Mahatma Gandhi is also another famous leader who through religious ethic and faith changed the perception of the society on politics and social inequality.

Religion is important in every society since it is a symbol of unity. Christianity and Islam have been accepted in almost every nation all over the world and this reveals that people have somehow share common religious beliefs. People who share common religious beliefs, have the responsibility of living in harmony among themselves. Christianity and Islam are the main religious beliefs, but religion has grown to include other beliefs like Hindu and monks as well as many Christian denominations. The growth in religion proves that people are in some way uniting with common religious ideologies. Unity is what has led to the creation

of the United Nations which is responsible in making the world a better place to live in. Unity drives away conflicts and wars in the society.

Religion delivers the message of hope among its subjects. For instance, people fear death since they never have the idea of what lies next upon dying. However, it is interesting that almost every religious belief preaches better life after death. In Christians, there is even the hope that God will create a new world (paradise) after the current world will get destroyed by the evil deeds of mankind. This message enlightens people to consider conserving and nurturing the environment. It is even written in the bible in the book of Genesis that man was given the responsibility to take care of earth. This proves that in the society, religion has the message of nurturing and restoration of not only the human race but also the universe.

On the contrary, religion can also be argued to have brought a lot of negative impacts in the society. In radical Islamic states like the United Arab Emirates, religion is considered to be everything and goes beyond even humanity. In such states people are deprived the freedom of liberalism. For instance in a radical Islamic state, any citizen who opposes the movement is punished harshly since radical Islamists believe that their religious doctrines are unquestionable and right for a moral society. In a radical Islamic state, political freedom is never exercised. An example is in an Islamic state like Iran, women are not allowed to vote during elections. Women are abused and despised in such Islamic states since the Islamic religion never refer women as

equals to men. . For instance, women in radical Islamic states are never allowed to give opinions about their government (Ball, 2014).

Some of the great philosophers emerged with theories and ideologies that tend to prove that religion has brought more harm in the society than good. Such scholars include Karl Marx and Sam Harris. Looking at Karl Marx view on religion, he believed that religion was a human product. Marx did not criticize religion as a set of beliefs but he claimed that religion reflected what the society looked like at that time. Marx argued that and I quote, “Man makes religion, religion doesn't make man. Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again” (McKinnon, 2005). By this he proposed that religion never reflected a man’s true consciousness but a false one.

Marx went ahead to claim that religion is the “opium of the people.” By this, he meant that, religion taught people how to accept their current life no matter how bad it was. He felt that the society and people were believing in some superstition beliefs. In this I also tend to agree that religion like an opiate created an illusion that taught people to be concerned with life after death rather than their immediate poverty and challenges they were suffering. Religion gave them consolation that better rewards and happiness were postponed to some afterlife. For example, a poor person will attend church to be consoled by Christian teachings like Jesus was poor too when he was in earth, but now is the ruler of the world since he gave up

all the worldly pleasures to seek God. Marx therefore saw religion was a false truth and hope that aims at comforting the poor (McKinnon, 2005). It is also true that religion is used by the ruling lasses o always give false hope and comfort to the poor in order for them to strengthen and keep their power.

Marxist view of religion in the society can be identified like for example Scandinavian countries have less religion interest and that is why they are prosperous economically. In other poor countries like Brazil, religion is considered important as it gives them economical comfort. In today’s political arenas, we can bear witness on how leaders lie and give false promises and hopes to their citizens in order to keep on ruling and quench their thirst for power. All in all, Marx agreed that religion served as a sanctuary from the harshness of everyday life and oppression by the powerful, and predicted that traditional religion would one day pass away (McKinnon, 2005).

On the other hand, Sam Harris is an American neuroscientist and scholar who has shared the same Marxist view but in a different way in the present world. In his article in the Los Angeles Times dating September 2006, he saw religion as a threat to human existence. He emphasized that the modern religion perception was in lie with what Karl Marx called “illusion”. In the paper he argued that liberalism had grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of the world. Specifically, he mentioned about what devout Muslims actually believed about the West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith. This in short is the

way the Jihad and radical Islamic movements had illusions about life after death. Islam bombers were ready to give their real life and kill many people just because their faith promises them good life and even 72 virgins for each of them! In his claim he stated that “A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad.” (Harris, 2006)

Harris was astonished that his words were mistaken in that other scholars opposed him saying that he was against religion. From my own opinion, Harris is not criticizing the set Islamic beliefs but the inhuman acts of terror that are justified by these beliefs. In reality, nobody has ever died and resurrected according to the Islamic beliefs yet they claim that after death one is going to be rewarded. It is ironical also since the very poor Islamic believers are the ones who are used as suicide bombers. After the terror act, their families are well rewarded by the Jihad which leaves the question, why should you be paid if what you are doing is divine.
Harris is indeed right in claiming that “Despite abundant evidence to the contrary, liberals continue to imagine that Muslim terrorism springs from economic despair, lack of education and American militarism” (Harris, 2006). He sees the Islamic religion support by the liberal world (scholars) as a benighted religious solidarity which is the greatest problem facing civilization in today’s world and yet it is ignored. In addition, the Islamic ideology is criticized by Harris for despising women and its intolerance toward sexual minorities. To prove that Harris

is a liberal who cannot be tied by religion, he is currently set to vote for Hillary Clinton who is set to become the first female American president in the next elections (Tayler, 2016). Harris does not see the reason why religion should claim that women are not equal to men. Just like Harris, I also see women as level with men and that religion is just supporting male chauvinism and the male ego.

In conclusion and in my opinion, religion in the past was in deed a vital tool in the foundation of a “perfect” society. Religion has allowed the society to establish good moral codes and reason of human existence. However, from the arguments I have evidently outlined in this essay, I tend to support that in the present and modern society religion is failing. As I indicated above, terror will continue to exist as long as liberals keep viewing the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom as religious beliefs. Religion in the modern world has justified many injustice acts and acts of oppression. Women are human beings just like men and can do everything they do. I always say that life occurs once and there is no room for making one live a sad life like women do. For the modern and future society to benefit from religion, some religious beliefs should be corrected and amended.

Work cited

• Ball T., Dagger R. & O’Neill D. I. (2014). Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal. 9th Ed. New Jersey. Pearson Education, Inc.
• McKinnon, AM. (2005). Reading ‘Opium of the People’: Expression, Protest and the Dialectics of Religion. Critical Sociology
• Sam Harris. Head-in-the-Sand Liberals” in the Los Angeles Times,
  

September 18, 2006
Jeffrey Tayler. Free Speech and Islam — In Defense of Sam Harris in the Quillette, April 21, 2016