Mr. T. Campbell
Religions Effect on Society
For as long as humans have had the ability to reason, they have attributed the natural phenomenon of the world around them to deities, spirits, and supernatural forces. Religion has played a huge role in the development of societies and civilizations throughout history. It has been a guide for morals and principal. It has been a foundation of law for many cultures. The positive aspects of religion are recognized and cherished among its followers, however there are other effects, some well-known, and others ignored, that are not so positive. Just some examples of these effects are: wars, discrimination, control, the retardation of science, the denial of healthcare, and death. This argument seeks to research and describe some of the negative effects religion has had on mankind, and thus the world.
Certainly the most notable negative impact on society is religious wars. A religious war or holy war is a conflict primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. The account of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites in the Book of Joshua; the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries; the Christian Crusades, 11th to 13th centuries; Wars of Religion, 16th and 17th centuries. These are the classic examples, but a religious aspect has been a part of warfare as early as the battles of the Mesopotamian city-states in 700BC. Throughout recorded history, more wars have been waged in the name of religion than any other reason. In the last two centuries alone, we have seen several wars fought over religion in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America. Much of the middle ages were dominated by wars, such as: The Crusades, The Thirty Years War, and the French Wars of Religion. It is estimated that nine hundred million casualties have been caused by religious wars.
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, religious affiliation, or sex. Religious discrimination has been around as long as religion itself, and continues today in places all around the world. Directly after the terrorist attacks in 2001, religious discrimination complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission in the United States rose twenty percent. These complaints were mainly in the form of Muslims who felt they were being persecuted in the wake of the attacks. In Ireland during British rule the Catholic population was subjected to a great deal of discrimination. After the British relinquished control of the country the Catholics, who were the majority in the country, gained previously unavailable political control. The discriminatory roles reversed with Protestant Christians taking on a malignant position and for decades violence ensued between the two conflicting parties. Stepping out of the Western world, the Chinese have long been guilty of persecuting the Buddhists in Tibet as a means to control them. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia in particular, migrant workers who are not Muslim must refrain from displaying any sort of religious symbols or openly participating in any religious practices. Other methods also include excluding members of particular religious groups, particularly Hindus, from job offerings.
Some religious discrimination is not as conspicuous as the state sanctioned examples above. In the United States, many atheists view the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance to be discriminatory. The perception of discrimination by atheists is supported by many studies and polls that find that most Americans view atheists in a negative light. A poll conducted in 1999 by Gallup asked Americans if they would consider voting for a political candidate that belonged to each of eight different minority and religious groups. Of the eight groups, the poll found that atheists were the most misaligned and discriminated against, with 48% of respondents saying they would not vote for an atheist candidate.
Aside from the obviously negative effects of discrimination and war, religion can also hinder scientific progress in a society. The most obvious and notorious impact currently is its prohibitive influence on stem cell research. Stem cells are cells in an embryo that can become any cell in a human body or can be a self-repair cell for existing cells. The methods of extracting embryonic stem cells involves fertilizing an egg in a laboratory. This creates issues because the religious argue that a human life is being created and then killed for experiments. While time has yet to tell whether stem cell research will produce the results that it is expected to, the religiously based policies that hinder its research have just now been lifted by the new Obama administration; the United States is now far behind countries such as Korea and Iran.
Religion’s effects on the human body and mind are far reaching and difficult to study. The studies that have been done, however, tend to show a negative association of religion on physical and mental health. In a study published in 1960 of college students, researchers found that religious individuals were more likely to be anxious than non-believers, and that believers tended to complain more of working under tension and sleeping fitfully. Two studies done in the early nineties in London, England found worse health outcomes among patients who scored high on a spiritual beliefs scale at baseline. Studies have also found that in some more fundamentalist Christian denominations, the practice of spiritual “healing” led to its followers not seeking medical treatment for afflictions, resulting in worsening conditions and even death.
Gender status is another issue that has been influenced greatly by religion over the course of history. In general, religion has cast females as subordinate to males. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in particular highlight the lesser role of females in society over a traditional male dominance. In Islam it is widely accepted that in some instances men have the justification and authority to beat their wives. In some sects of Mormonism, the practice of polygamy still exists in which a man may marry more than one woman, resulting in one man being dominant over several females. This tradition also includes adult men taking female children as brides.
Religion has many effects on society. Some are positive, others negative, and some can even be both, or neither. It is difficult to ascertain whether or not religion as a whole has had an overall positive or negative effect on societies across the globe, and it is not within the scope of this argument to do so. This arguments’ purpose was solely to highlight some of the ill effects religion has had on the people of the world. Both followers and non-believers feel the effects of these religions every day. There are those who would say the world would be better off without religion, and others who would easily give their lives to preserve their traditions. It is not one’s place to say which is right, but merely to open the minds of those who had not considered the negative impact of religious belief.