Religion : The Influence Of Religion In Society

Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without 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.

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

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.

Religion is one of the most difficult topics in life, not to mention the oldest. People look for the ultimate truth to religion, which in my opinion leads to misguidance and a slant of science. I think this helps true believers find their way to a faith; it certainly helped me. Science does get carried away at times; however, it is good that people are questioning stories from the bible because then we can see how corrupt the world is. Why can 't faith exist? Why does everything have to be black and white? The real truth is within yourself! Believing or not believing in something is solely your decision. Nonetheless, does the sociological study of religion undermine one 's religious faith, make it stronger, or does no harm?

The other common feature in many religions is the distinction of sacred places, time, events or people from ordinary ways of life (Steinicke and Volkhard 17). Muslims, for instance, have set up Fridays as their holy day of worshipping Allah. Every member of the Muslim faith are expected to present themselves to the Mosques on Fridays in order to thank God for almost everything that had been done to them. Friday, therefore, is not like any other day in Muslim’s calendar. The Buddhists have built temples where they worship on specified days or time (McKim 28). The temple is also furnished with idols representing Buddha in order to separate such a place from any other building. Christians consider churches as the most holy grounds for worshipping God. The place that has been selected for worshipping or meeting to discuss matters related to religion is usually separated from other places in order to show the importance. Such a distinction makes it easier for people to notice the difference and strengthen their faith or belief in the supernatural being (Walter 79). A day that has been set a set for worshipping shows a recognition that the belief is real and people should focus on strengthening their faith.

Religion is basically the way a culture behaves or thinks due to its own beliefs or traditions. Religion helps humanity come to a conclusion of why they are here and what is one’s purpose for being on earth.

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).

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.

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.

Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world with more than 2.4 billion people as shown by Gordon Conwell (2015) that adhere to the religion, the followers are known as Christians. They hold the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that came to be the saviour of mankind, who is seen as the Messiah in the prophecy which is spoken throughout the Old Testament. The theology of Christianity is conveyed in creeds ecumenically. These professions of faith state that Jesus suffered, died and was resurrected from the dead in three days in order to grant eternal life for the people who believed in him and trust in him for the cleansing of their sins. Some of the Christian creeds assert that the body of Jesus ascended into heaven where he sits with God on the right to his throne and that he will return to judge the living and dead and grant them eternal life to those that followed him. This is known as the gospel which means good news and this is shown in the first four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) of the New Testament.

Throughout history, there are examples of religion both supporting and undermining political authority and the social elites of the time. Some countries even go through a cycle of religion first supporting and then undermining authority. Religion can support the birth of the civilization, becoming the foundation of its social and sometimes legal codes. But, at the end of a civilization, or as the civilization becomes modernized, religion can cause corruption and a potential “social schism”. However, if one takes all examples into account, it shows that more often than not, religion is used as a tool by and for the elites of a civilization to hold more power and to corrupt society.

The evaluation of functions and dysfunctions depends upon one’s criteria of what is positive and negative. Therefore, there are often conflicting assessments of the relative positive or negative effects of religion. In a way, functionalism stresses social stability and underemphasizing conflict and change, functionalists often believe that societies are quite well-integrated systems (Roberts, 1990). Structural-functionalists have frequently assessed social functions as being most essential, while considering individual dysfunctions as necessary ills. Functionalists have also been concerned mainly in the factors influencing and influenced by belief.

Every Sunday in churches across America, kids hear this story of a special man in the Bible- Jesus. They hear the famous story of this miracle man who healed people and rose from the dead. Sounds like an important person, right? Well, besides the miraculous stories taught in Sunday school and his impact on today’s religion, Jesus actually had and still has a major influence on today’s society too. Jesus was an influential person because of his impacts on religion, culture, and history by his religious preachings and followers.