Religion has a powerful role in shaping society, and this has provided us with both good and bad results, although they’re mostly good! To show you what we mean, here are 14 reasons why religion is good, along with 4 not-so-positive side effects!
Provides Comfort During Hard Times
In times of difficulty, when you’re prone to feelings of hopelessness, religion provides the comfort you need to make it through. It reminds you that there’s something bigger than what you’re going through, and religious practices like meditation help you relieve stress and pressure.
Gives Meaning to Life
Religion answers questions about why we’re on Earth and what happens to us after death. It helps us understand the end goal of our actions and daily activities and how kindness to humans, devotion to a cause, and worship of God are the ways we can live fulfilling lives.
Promotes Peace
Of course, not all religious adherents are known to be especially peaceful. Nonetheless, all religions preach forgiveness, and many provide a path toward resolving conflict through nonviolent means. USIP shares how religious leaders have been instrumental in dialogue during times of crisis, like in the short-lived peace agreement in Sudan in 1972.
Guides Our Morality
Religion helps us differentiate between good and bad, guiding us on how to maintain fair interactions with others. Of course, what’s good in one religion may be bad in another, but for the followers of each faith, religion simply tells us how to live our lives in pursuance of a greater purpose.
Provides a Sense of Belonging
Religious groups accept people with open arms, and this gives everyone the chance to have a community of their own. By belonging to a group, we understand that we aren’t alone in our struggles and that there is a system outside of family that we can fall back on for support.
Offers a Route to Personal Growth
Thanks to the introspection that comes with religious practices, we also better understand our personal strengths and weaknesses. We use religious principles to realize what we lack in character, and our desire to align with these principles provides a path toward personal development.
Helps With Cultural Preservation
Religion has also helped certain cultures safeguard their heritage, which we see play out more apparently with faiths like Islam, where Middle Eastern culture is intertwined with religious practices. In Christianity, cultural-historical narratives are preserved through the Bible; it’s just like a super interesting time capsule!
Encourages the Carriage of Justice
Many religions across the world are also known to preach against discrimination, and they let us understand that we’re all equal in our service to a supreme course. A united adherence to this is important in our society in the face of prevalent racism, ageism, and sexism.
Instills Self-Discipline
Constantly engaging in religious rites and strictly adhering to the teachings of the holy books is very hard work. However, ScienceDirect concludes that if we’re able to do these things, we attain a level of self-control that allows us to resist temptations and overcome our vices.
Promotes Philanthropy
Religion also helps us understand the importance of charity, and certain faiths, like Islam, even make it compulsory for their followers. It gives us a path towards helping the less privileged in society, imploring us to help the community through both wealth and service.
Gives Importance to Family
Since family determines the formation of character, religion sanctifies and elevates it as the most important bedrock of society. Religion helps us retain traditional family values and understand the sacredness of relationships between spouses, parents, and children, although it must be said that the kids of today are less aware of this!
Teaches Contentment
Materialism has taken over our modern society, but thankfully, religion instills the values of contentment and gratitude in us. It ensures that envy never takes center stage in our lives, and it reshapes our mindset to focus on the things we have and how we can attain happiness through them.
Empowers the Weak
Stories like Moses’s leave us with principles about how we can liberate ourselves by taking justice into our own hands. Religious teachings empower us against oppressors, teach us perseverance in the face of challenges, and let us believe that our circumstances can change for the better when we take appropriate action.
Is Associated With Good Health
Our last and most significant benefit from religion, where all the others conflate, is that it helps us attain optimal mental and physical well-being. As Forbes reports on Mayo Clinic research, religious involvement is linked to a longer life, better stress-management skills, and reduced anxiety, depression, and risks of suicide.
Promotes Dogmatism
Starting with the disadvantages of religion, we see how it promotes strict adherence to principles that have become archaic in our modern world. Many religious leaders discourage openmindedness, and arguing against teachings as a member, no matter how strong your argument is, passes you off as a critic of the religion.
Inherent Sexism
Despite teachings against discrimination, many religious principles are also designed to subjugate women. They tell women how to dress, limit their role in society to the home, and prevent women from attaining leadership positions. Some even go as far as having disparities in inheritance rights!
Suppression of Individual Rights
In its promotion of unity, religion also restricts our freedom to think for ourselves. It dictates moral values that may not align with what we as individuals believe in, and it has been a source of prosecution for people who choose to explore their free will. That doesn’t seem fair to us.
Serves as Justification for Wars
Finally, the atrocities of the Second World War and the terrorist bombings of today all stem from religion, unfortunately, amongst countless other examples of bloodshed. A story from The Guardian breaks down how the corruption of religious teachings by leaders, fuelled by dogmatism, is to blame for this.
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