Religion can be vigorously disputed and quite often turns
into heated debates, not only can taking on this debate be discouraging for
people, but quite often can be very repulsive. Because the topic is very
touchy, there have become countless definitions of what the Ideology of
religion is. From what I have seen, most definitions have hints of bias within
them. From the definitions I have seen, most are not concise. We need to agree
on a definition that encumbers moral code, human affairs, meaning, god or gods,
existence and other key elements of religion. I think people are afraid to tackle
this subject because of its political background and other touchy subjects such
as war, ridicule and harsh criticism. People are often cynical by religion
because of the hatred and violence committed in its name and can often be
attributed by the conflicts and offenses that have occurred as a result of
religion. Over countless wars and violence since the dawn of religion, religion
and its teachings seemed to have lost a fair portion of their credibility. Just
about every war has stemmed from religion in one way or another. In no way am I
hinting that religion should be abolished, like Richard Dawkins, but I think a
more concise definition that includes a broader array of elements that all
religions share would break some of the religious tensions we see today. I am
not saying this is possible, but religion is a necessity for our daily lives
and it fundamentally affects everyone. The existence of religion is existential
in our lives and preserves ethics and personal meaning, which is fundamental in
life. Thursday, October 6, 2011
The Credibility of Religion
Religion can be vigorously disputed and quite often turns
into heated debates, not only can taking on this debate be discouraging for
people, but quite often can be very repulsive. Because the topic is very
touchy, there have become countless definitions of what the Ideology of
religion is. From what I have seen, most definitions have hints of bias within
them. From the definitions I have seen, most are not concise. We need to agree
on a definition that encumbers moral code, human affairs, meaning, god or gods,
existence and other key elements of religion. I think people are afraid to tackle
this subject because of its political background and other touchy subjects such
as war, ridicule and harsh criticism. People are often cynical by religion
because of the hatred and violence committed in its name and can often be
attributed by the conflicts and offenses that have occurred as a result of
religion. Over countless wars and violence since the dawn of religion, religion
and its teachings seemed to have lost a fair portion of their credibility. Just
about every war has stemmed from religion in one way or another. In no way am I
hinting that religion should be abolished, like Richard Dawkins, but I think a
more concise definition that includes a broader array of elements that all
religions share would break some of the religious tensions we see today. I am
not saying this is possible, but religion is a necessity for our daily lives
and it fundamentally affects everyone. The existence of religion is existential
in our lives and preserves ethics and personal meaning, which is fundamental in
life. 
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I definitely agree that religions have lost their credibility because of all the war and violence that surrounds religion today and has surrounded religion in the past. I would say that one of the most off putting aspects of religion, to me at least, is that there is no one religion that doesn't put down or hate on another religion. But maybe the effort should not be to find a better, broader definition of religion, but instead change the hateful nature that many religions have against others.
ReplyDeleteSince you're talking about definitions of religion I'd like to see you cite one and talk about how it works or doesn't work. Is the problem really about a lack of a good definition? And I'm not quite sure most wars have stemmed from religion..
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