Religion And Its Impact On 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.

From the start of civilization, religion has played a crucial role in the development of most societies. The proof of its influence is evident in the way daily life was carried out. Religion had the power to affect everything from social status to common law, thus dominating a large portion of the culture. In ancient Egyptian, Islamic, and Indian society, religion had the capacity to establish how the average person would conduct their daily life.

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.

However, no matter how sociologists and scientists view religion, there are a lot of people who will still believe in their own religion and that there exists a power that science cannot explain. For example, in an Islamic country such as Indonesia, government is organized base on what is appropriate according to Islam. Even though, there are a lot of people questions the existence of supernatural power and hundreds of books publish that study the scientific view of religion, government and people in that country still believe in their religions. Students at school also study about science and sociological perspective toward religion and almost every student still believe in their religion and practice it in their societies. Moreover, in US where freedom of speech is allowed and knowledge can be shared quickly by internet, every person in US knows about scientific study of religion but Christianity is still emphasized in everyday life. People may only view sociological and scientific perspective of religion as one of the knowledge that need to be known but doesn’t have to be practiced. Overall, the sociological study in religions does not undermine nor strengthen one’s faith. Other factors such as people who use religion to abuse people or control over people that may have made a person to change their view toward religion.

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.

From the beginning of human race or Homo sapiens, they were run by curiosity. Human were started to live together but didn’t know what was right or wrong, used to do things whatever wanted like killing each other, mass adultery with inter and intra species, eating whatever wanted. So there were many questions, curious Homo sapiens all over the world didn’t know the answers. After 10,000 BC by the invention of agriculture human race started to live together and social structure started to form but there was the need of some rules and regulation and some form belief system which will be abide by all people. That’s where religion becomes the principles and the only carrier of righteousness a total

present as many others. Based on this and Emile Durkheim’s sociological findings religion focuses on uniting societies.

Throughout civilization, religions have come a long way in impacting modern society and civilization. One of the major Abrahamic religions, Islam, has made many advances and has contributed a variety of concepts, ideas and inventions to western civilization. Most of these contributions have gone unnoticed throughout the years, and have been credited by various people, when in reality Muslim scholars have formulated these concepts. Although some may believe that these contributions are irrelevant, the reality is that most of the everyday concepts humans use all around the world, have been derived from a primarily Islamic school of thought.

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.

Praying is an important aspect of all religions as well as Christianity. To observe this specific religious phenomenon, I went to the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer. I attended to see one of their prayers. What they were practicing was not an individual action. They were praying with other Christians not by themselves. Also they were praying out loud. The Priest was saying the prayer and the others were either repeating after him or saying “Amen” when he finished his prayer. After praying, most of the Christians light up candles at specific part of the church. A famous sociologist Emile Durkheim discusses about religion in the perspective of sociology in his book, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. He mentions in his book that society creates the religion to live with moral rules. Since I observe the atmosphere of that holy place, I came up with several questions. What are the forces to make them go to the Church and pray together? And how do they use the symbols to become a motivated person?

Religion is held sacred to everyone in the world. Every possible identification someone could label themselves is, in a way, a religion. Throughout history, it can be seen that it has affected many decisions. Religion has been the cause of wars, massacres, murders, expansion of land, and more. Every religion has some sort of rules that it goes by, even if those rules are that there are no rules, and they each have some sort of head (god or gods or none). For Catholics, Pope Francis is the oracle for God. Hence, Catholics look to Pope Francis for guidance in many areas of their lives. The Pope is seen making many speeches on many occasions. For each speech, he has a certain agenda. He seems to speak for major events or sectors in the world. Pope Francis adds his input of what God believes in to be right and just. However, do the Pope’s words have actual meaning, or is he just trying to make Catholic followers feel better? In many of his speeches, it can be seen that he doesn’t provide a true answer to many things other than to love one another and to wait for a better life in the afterlife. Even if he does give some input that could be seen as valid information for politics or economy, should Catholics trust his word to make their decisions when he is not an expert in anything but Catholicism? Pope Francis is an example to Karl Marx’s theory of religion. “It is the opium of the people” (insert citation for Criticism of Hegel’s Philosophy).

As the Baby Boomers slowly fade and the Founders, the generation of social media and risk takers born after 2000, grow into the modern world, numerous crowds are questioning religion in today’s prevailing society and if it should be taught in the home (Sanburn). In fact, the religious category of unaffiliated has risen from 16% in 2007 to 23% in 2014. However, this does not mean that the overall Christian religion is depleting as still seven of ten identify themselves as Christians. Parents play a vital role in their children’s lives, ultimately to create the foundation for later success in not only their learning but their beliefs. While it does not have to be denominational, parents should give their kids a sense of faith.

Religion and the influence it has on kingship has fascinated scholars in fields such as history and religious studies. Kingship has been influenced by the use of religion for the purpose of legitimizing power, keeping promises to its people, and finding reason for life. Religious influence on kingship seems to be an almost universal concept in human history. The acceptance of religion has changed many kings’ lives, for the better. All throughout history, religion has expressed the answer to our deepest questions that we ask. It has been dedicated to be centrally place in the lives of all civilizations and cultures. Religion had a great influence on how Ashoka, Clovis and Charlemagne ruled their people.