Religion

In today's age of science and modern marvels there are many people who ask, "Why do we still need religion?". Science has shown a clear path towards answering all kinds of questions that once were the domain of magic and religion. Does that not prove that religion is merely the domain of ignorance and fools who wish to believe in fairy tales purely based on what they refer to as "Faith"? This has long been one of the chief arguments made by atheists against religion. However their bewilderment towards why educated people still believe in religions has rather non-mysterious answers.

Religion fulfils psychological and sociological needs. It provides what is essentially a security blanket and a sense of certainty in an uncertain world. When an individual has absolute faith in something, for that person it is, for all practical purposes, true. Human beings in just about every culture studied have a tendency to latch on to an ideology or religion as Truth. The difficulty in dislodging a person's "faith" has to do with how often a person's religion is tied deeply into their culture, family, and heritage. Religion is an important means through which many people form an identity within their society. However of greater importance to understanding why religion is important to people is understanding that religion provides a powerful mechanism for anxiety relief.

However even though religion, race swaddles us like comfortable blankets from the moment of birth and attempts to define who we are it is high time this is the age old way in which society sets us up for scrutinization. Religion, in particular, places us into a box with windows that obstruct views of all the other boxes into which everyone around is also placed. The outcome is prejudice, misunderstanding and hatred thanks to those obstructed views. Few bother to crawl out of or even question their assigned boxes to gain any real perspective on awareness and true spirituality. When viewed from an outer orbit, religion divides, and misleads.

People often treat religious teachings as a conformation bias. They ignore ideas that go against their religious beliefs and extenuate facts that conform to their beliefs. For example The Bible tells about something called prophecies. That is when God speaks through a person to tell something that is going to happen, as a warning or a tip. In this way one could say that new knowledge is created. However, prophecies must correspond to the Bible. How do the religions justify their beliefs? Christianity is to the greatest part justified on trust, but also on prophecies actually happening. 700 BC a prophet named Ezekiel proclaimed that Jerusalem were going to burn if the people didn't better. 586 BC, it burnt down to the ground. This belief has often been exploited by popes in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thus today manis perverting the meaning of religion.


True religion is not about the dogmas of the religion but is about the teachings and how they tell you to live your life. For example, just about every religion in the world, including many you have never heard of, have some form of the Golden Rule as central to their teachings. Like in Hinduism “karma” is the central theory which states that a man’s destiny in his present and afterlife is shaped by his actions.

Having religion as an important part of our lives does not mean that we will necessarily live positive lives. Throughout history, religions have been the cause of incredible suffering in the world. With all of the positive influence of religion that we can cite, we cannot honestly ignore the terrible damage it has inflicted or the terrible damage it is inflicting today. Religion leads to National and regional biases.

Thus religion has a different meaning for everyone. For some it is a path to God, for some a safeguard and for some a resource to be exploited. The true essence of religion is to encourage a way of life that is righteous. Religion creates divisions but also builds communities; it depends on your perspective. Following one’s religion should be out of free will and not enforcement to keep its true essence alive.