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Religion In Ender's Game

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Justin Bresson
May 11, 2017
Overholt
Contemporary Literature Paper
Effects of Strong Religion and Nationalism In Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, the reader is faced with a futuristic world that at first glance appears to be distant not just in time, but also in the state of society. However, upon further examination, this alien world is in fact disturbingly reminiscent of our present day society and international relations. Similar to now, we witness a world where there is a downturn in religion, nations are turning to fierce nationalism, and the international community is held together by a few tenuous alliances. Both religion and nationalism have the power to accomplish great things by uniting a people in the strongest way possible; however, …show more content…

In the book, similar to now, we see that America has become increasingly nationalistic and that, less similar to now, the international community only continues to cooperate when there is a common threat to the world and then that cooperation is promptly tossed out when the common threat of the Buggers is eliminated. However, one trend that is very similar to now is the decrease of the importance of religion in our daily lives. For example, in the novel, Ender’s parents practice their religion sporadically at best, which is not helped by the fact that they live in a situation where the state actively discourages the practice of religion through its policies, such as limiting families to only having two children (Card p. 23). From 2007 to 2014, the percentage of people who identified as being unaffiliated with a religion in the United States increased by 6.7 points (Wormald). This a drastic decrease in the amount of persons practicing a religion and this is in the United States, where religion was intimately tied with the creation of our country and its ideals. If the numbers can change so drastically here then it is imminently clear that the popularity of religion is declining in the West overall. Like nationalism there are positive aspects to religion, in fact many would contend those of religion far outweigh that …show more content…

No, tomorrow we won’t be sending children into space to be abused, maimed, or even killed all for the sake of a common good. But, if nothing is done now today will be remembered as the day we began sliding into the this valley of the shadow of death. For this reason we must fight the growth of blind nationalism in our country and promote a unified humanity through international discourse, lest the shadows be closer than we wish to think. We must remember that, while it may feel good in the moment to eschew the chains of our ancestors, we must be wary and ensure that in our rush for individuality we do not simply change the ideal to which we are

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