Why Do We Have Religion, And Is It Beneficial? Ever since my birth I have constantly been surrounded by people of strong religious background, and there was never a time until recently that I actually began to question my own beliefs. I am baptized, and I’m not going to lie about the fact that I firmly believe that looking up to a higher power that would protect me in everyday struggles helped me a great deal in a couple of instances. However, starting a couple of years ago my blind faith began to quickly fade away as I looked into the core of all religions, coming to the point where now I’m completely done with believing anything without solid evidence behind it. Now it’s becoming more and more clear that religion is much like an early scientific
…show more content…
Some of the more modern examples would probably be Queen Elizabeth I of Britain, or Louis XIV of France, who realized the impact and importance of religion to their people, and decided to use it to their own advantage by presenting reforms and policies, and forcing their citizens to blindly accept them simply because “it is [insert a deity’s name] will to do this”. ( Spielvogel 364 ) The most evident example of such manipulation through religion would be the corruption, and the oppressive rule of the early Catholic Church. Before 1400’s Europe was even dubbed Christendom simply because the Catholic Church completely took over most of the European governments, and was the key player in making any political decisions. Just because of the fact that a vast majority of Europeans were Christians at the time, any “wise” ruler would go to the Pope for advice on any particular issue in order to not break any of the commandments or intricate rules of Christian religion, allowing the Pope to give advice which would in turn benefit the Church itself, rather than anyone else. ( Palmer 153 …show more content…
And as history has shown many times before: not a lot of people appreciate being forced to do things. Considering recorded history it has been estimated that somewhere around 195,035,000 people have been killed directly in the name of various religions, and that is not counting any indirect correlations, but rather straight up religious wars, crusades, terrorizing, blunder, hate murders, or internal religious disputes. ( "How Many People Have Been Killed In The Name Of Religion?" ) It is important to note that many of these wars and conflicts were also just manipulation acts. For example, Koran (Islamic equivalent of the Bible) specifically states that Muslim believers must wage war upon those who do not believe in the true religion (the religion being Islam), and this passage has been used on multiple occasions to manipulate islamic population into murder and genocide of various other religions. It even went as far as resorting to civil Jihads (holy wars), where different denominations of Islam would engage in outright slaughter of their own people. ( "Eight Atrocities Committed In The Name Of Religion"
Some of the more modern examples would probably be Queen Elizabeth I of Britain, or Louis XIV of France, who realized the impact and importance of religion to their people, and decided to use it to their own advantage by presenting reforms and policies, and forcing their citizens to blindly accept them simply because “it is [insert a deity’s name] will to do this”. ( Spielvogel 364 ) The most evident example of such manipulation through religion would be the corruption, and the oppressive rule of the early Catholic Church. Before 1400’s Europe was even dubbed Christendom simply because the Catholic Church completely took over most of the European governments, and was the key player in making any political decisions. Just because of the fact that a vast majority of Europeans were Christians at the time, any “wise” ruler would go to the Pope for advice on any particular issue in order to not break any of the commandments or intricate rules of Christian religion, allowing the Pope to give advice which would in turn benefit the Church itself, rather than anyone else. ( Palmer 153 …show more content…
And as history has shown many times before: not a lot of people appreciate being forced to do things. Considering recorded history it has been estimated that somewhere around 195,035,000 people have been killed directly in the name of various religions, and that is not counting any indirect correlations, but rather straight up religious wars, crusades, terrorizing, blunder, hate murders, or internal religious disputes. ( "How Many People Have Been Killed In The Name Of Religion?" ) It is important to note that many of these wars and conflicts were also just manipulation acts. For example, Koran (Islamic equivalent of the Bible) specifically states that Muslim believers must wage war upon those who do not believe in the true religion (the religion being Islam), and this passage has been used on multiple occasions to manipulate islamic population into murder and genocide of various other religions. It even went as far as resorting to civil Jihads (holy wars), where different denominations of Islam would engage in outright slaughter of their own people. ( "Eight Atrocities Committed In The Name Of Religion"