“Religion is the oldest argument in history”(Brian Bethune). A philosopher by the name of Hitchens once said that. Religion has been debated for many years over which religion is the best or if we even need a religion. In a recent study of students and adults, people were asked a series of questions then asked their religious affiliation. The results are shocking. They found out that religious people were for the most part more likely to commit a crime and are less likely to do a good deed than a nonreligious person. What’s even more shocking is that students were asked their willingness to cheat on tests and then their religious affiliation. There was only one group with a majority that said they wouldn’t: atheists. So does society or a person need Religion to be morally good?
Religion has done many good things for society and people. Church gives people a reason to get out and socialize with other people in a safe environment. Some people even base their whole lives on faith. Some even use faith as an inspiration. 95% of the population of the Unites States believes in God and religion is widely being used as a solution for not doing drugs, not drinking, and not having pre-marital sex. So what about the research about the religious affiliation/crime correlation? One argument states that religion doesn’t decide a person’s motive to do a crime. Any social group, like a sports team, molds behavior. Another argument states the obedience to authority theory. This theory states that religious people are more likely to submit to authoritive figures and will not commit crimes that would anger the authoritive figure. They also state that faith is the core, but not the only source in moral values and good behavior. A lot of people also think law is based on religion, more specifically the Ten Commandments. This is not true. Three of the commandments are in law (murder, theft, and lying under oath) and those are morally wrong anyway. If we had a law based on the commandment of coveting, The United State’s free enterprise system would fail.
Religion is supposed to stop crime. United States had the highest percentage of religious people so we should have the lowest crime rate right? Well the U.S. is far off of that mark. They actually have the highest crime rate in the world, and most of those crimes are committed by religious persons. A reason for this could be that atheists, seeing there is no god or biblical teachings to follow, can make decisions based on moral modesty and be more open minded to differing viewpoints. Man by nature is moral and good. If we add religion, some may feel they need to follow that and not listen to any other viewpoint. Philosopher Bertrand Russell states in his book Why I’m Not a Christian, “The more intense religion has been of any period and the more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater ahs been the cruelty and the worse has been the stat of affairs”(Lisa Conyers). Many progresses made in humane feelings, criminal law, anti-war, better and more fair treatment of races and moral progress has been opposed by many organized churches of the world. Most religions promote war. War would be a lot harder to justify without the feeling of meaningfulness which religion gives to it. “Religious justification for war is an ancient and ubiquitous phenomenon”(Ed. John Woodward). What that quote means is that religion is the main cause of war. TI happens in all ages and everywhere in the world. In all history of the world, only 14 days has there been no written documentation of war or conflicts. The number one cause of war is religious ideology. “If history and personal experience teach us anything, it’s that there are many non-religious people who are good and plenty religious people who are not” (Mary E. Williams).
I don’t believe religion is necessary. I saw a bumper sticker one day that says “Morality existed before religion”. I agree strongly with that statement. If we didn’t have religion to follow, all rules would be based on the morality of human nature, which in its primal forms is purely good and promotes survival and society well being. There would fewer wars because really the only reason for war is religious and political ideology. Without religion, that would leave only one reason and we could stop political ideology. We can make better decisions based on human values if we didn’t have to put it through some “higher-being’s” eyes and what his supposed laws are. Although religion is not the only thing to blame for racism, wars, and other choices, it shares a larger portion of the reason and society would be better off without it.
Philosophy
Created on 12-7-07
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