Positive And Negative Effects Of Religion In Society

Religion provides answers, evokes a sense of comfort in the unknown, and designs a moral code; however controversy now surrounds this subject regarding whether religion’s impact is more detrimental or beneficial to a society as a whole. Mark Twain’s narrator, Hank Morgan, travels back in time and attempts to accelerate the advancement of these people through the creation of technology and more importantly the destruction of the Church. Religion is a driving force in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, as both the benefits and consequences are analyzed in order to address religion 's impact on society.

     Another argument Freud makes is how religion is an attempt to fill in the gaps where civilization and the pursuit of life cannot make individuals happy. "The urge to rectify the shortcomings of civilization which made themselves painfully felt" is fulfilled by religion. (Freud,

Religions affect the lives of its followers greatly because if you're a Muslim you have to pray five times a day, if you're a Jew you can't have any other gods, and if you believe in Buddhism you have to follow the middle path to stop suffering. All these rules you have to follow can take away time from you and can make you give up stuff you have, even make you leave money behind.

societies usually desire the perfect reflection of them .As time passes and life changes so do religions ,however the bases of the religion remain. Each religion has different dominations, each to fit certain societies . some of the reasons why one may be religious could include social and psychological aspects. Religion could help cope with stress, give hope and peace of mind .It could give a sense of community , along with a support group , It also gives a worldview , purpose , and a system of ethics . Because religion fulfills human needs it has not extinct

Through out history religion has played a major role in history. For many people who settled in Northern New England came for religious freedom and the colonies were spread because of that. Believing in religion is often the spiritual thing that they lead their life with. Robert Putnam, in his book, American Grace; How Religion Divides and Unites Us claims that religion, when taken in high doses is toxic to civil life, this is true to an extent. Although many people can agree with his claim he isn’t completely right because religion can still be beneficial for people who truly believe in it. Its true religion has set back society a few steps with the prosecution of many innocent people and the deaths of thousands of people but, religion has also helped many people get through hardships they face.

According to Freud, civilization is against happiness because of the conflict between the state of nature and the state of society. Freud believed human nature was to be aggressive and sexual all the time (the id) and society is what controls us and makes us suppress these urges (superego). This conflict between our innate animalistic urges and society’s control, according to Freud, leads to discontentment and unhappiness. Although civilization leads to us mastering our id, Freud would argue that we are not ok with it and therefore are not happy.

“Religion is meant to teach us true spiritual human character. It is meant for self-transformation. It is meant to transform anxiety into peace, arrogance into humility, envy into compassion, to awaken the pure soul in man and his love for the Source, which is God.” (Radhanath Swami)

The discovery of the new world was a huge impact towards a massive majority of individuals in need, an impact in which many of them viewed the new land as a place of hope and prosperity. The main objective for why an individual migrated towards the so-called “Utopia” was because of religion. Many seek refuge from prosecution back home, but many also arrive to practice their own religion, the individual's desired freedom of religion. Throughout the establishments of the colonies, the strive for independence, and the construction of government laws; religion has always been a tremendous influence towards the people and the nation during these eras and much more. The individuals and the nation were either influence positively or negatively in three specific categories; politics, society, and economics. The effect of these three categories would subsequently have a huge impact towards everything in the whole nation causing a tremendous modification on any influences.

Religion is one of the most important components of culture which has been used in understanding the universe, natural phenomena, what to die for and how to dwell among other people. Religion can be considered as culture by itself because it provides the set of values, beliefs and guidelines for specific behavior (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2013, p.40). Religion helps to control the social behavior, maintains conflict, supports emotions and gives explanations to unexplainable.

In the book Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud writes about how civilization is a place of conflict when it comes to the need for conformity. Civilization is a place that does not function orderly despite having laws and regulations put in place. People often face the challenge in conforming to the restrictions in their daily lives when it comes to satisfying their needs. Sigmund Freud refers to religion as a method of conformity when people are conditioned to their beliefs. Men in a civilization have the objective to be happy, but often face unhappiness when they do not satisfy their instincts. In addition, Freud also believes that happiness is restricted by our constitution through the use of laws and regulations. Furthermore, the author also refers to sexuality as a component to building relationships in society. Moreover, Freud also draws a conclusion that our aggressive instincts lead us to guilt when we harm one another. Although Sigmund Freud makes an assessment on civilization being a place of conflict, humans lack the ability in changing their behaviors, the theory on satisfying our instincts do not bring happiness to a humans mind in our civilization.

There comes a time when old family traditions and old religious traditions come to some sort of end or gets to be less of a “big deal”. The norms of yesterday's society are fading quickly and are becoming more modern, thus having a more modern society. Religion has been around since the dawn of man and is suddenly starting to fade off into the distance. Religion has changed but is it for better or for worse?

In today's society, religion has had such an impact on the way we think, eat, act, see, believe and have been educated through the catholic schools and church in our everyday lives. Especially in the country we live in, Australia, which is known for our multicultural and diverseness. Research has shown that religion can have positive effects on both our physical and mental health, our self-esteem, anxiety, stress and can have good influences to protect against depression and the reduced risk of suicide, use of alcohol, drugs and or tobacco.

Observing the daily lifestyles of the individuals from different time periods show a great deal of how the religion changes the societal behavior of the followers of each religion. The religion’s form of worshipping a God is a reputable indicator of the era’s culture. While looking into The Iliad, we find that the culture of that time highlights warfare and worshipping multiple Gods. This polytheistic culture differs greatly from the culture of The Torah, which was the first established religion that believed in teaching a monotheistic education, believing in one God. Furthermore, one can see in The New Testament that they also worship one God in addition to following the teachings of Jesus. This creates a difference in cultures as this changes the way people worship their God/Gods. The transition into the first millennium brought many changes as new religions appeared and there became a diversity in beliefs. Through looking at The Homeric Era, The Hellenic Era, and The Roman Era, the differences within these time periods are shown through the transformation of each religion 's form of worship as a ritual.

Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.

It’s the twenty first century. Scientists have found evidence of water on Mars, they have successfully cloned human embryos, and everyday, they are getting closer to finding a cure for cancer. Still, in a world of groundbreaking facts and evidences, where the newest discovery leaves older ones out of commission, we fool ourselves into blindly putting faith on a series of chronicles conceived during the primitive age. Religion probably started out as a result of mankind trying to explain the physical world, but then became a tool to control and oppress, a reason for bloodshed and hate. While religion may have been of great help in