Kliebenstein 1 Tara Kliebenstein Stephen Topf English 114B March 17, 2014 Rough Draft Imagine America filled

with a population of people who have injected themselves with a cure to stop them from aging for eternity. Would this change society for the better or for the worse? In The Postmortal by Drew Magary, an injection to cure aging has been accidentally discovered. Many people thought this discovery would be the solution for death, but instead it increased the possible outcomes for the ways of dying. Humans were now susceptible to die from illness, murder, or chronic disease instead of peacefully dying in their sleep from old age. Many ethical dilemmas occurred due to the invention of the cure. One of the main dilemmas that are present throughout the entire novel is the dispute between different religious beliefs, similar to our society today. While many people with no religion were in favor of the cure, the remaining Christians opposed the idea of increasing life expectancy if it was out of Gods control. These two opposing groups created a revolution between one another. This revolution leads to the death of many innocent people using tactics such as bombings, murders, and pure torture. The pro-death and pro-cure protestors clearly prove that our religious beliefs evidently have a heavy impact on our actions we presume daily. Collectively, religion is a quarreling topic in the European society, and the dispute between different religions leads to terrorism being forced upon innocent people not only in The Postmortal, but in America as well.

Kliebenstein 2 The disputes between different religions seems to be a harsh statement, but it is incredibly true. Throughout the world our population varies amongst different types of religion. According to Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents, a pie chart shows that 84% of Americans claim some sort of religion including, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism, as to where the other 16% claims no religion whatsoever. America has become so diversed with different ethnicities of people as it has become just as diverse with the different sorts of Religions. Although this is a positive attribute, it can be considered negative to those who represent a different form of religion. The problem Americans have is that many of us claim to be entirely religious by setting morals to follow in our daily lives, yet we contradict ourselves when it comes to the different beliefs of other people. When people begin to debate or have different perspectives on certain ideas, it can lead to arguments, protests, and the worst, violence. An example of our world leading up to violence due to different views on religion is the 911 attack on the twin towers. On Spetember 11, 2001 the patriotism of America exceeded to an all time high. Four planes had been hi-jacked by terrorists in mid-flight. Two of those planes crashed into the World Trade Center causing the twin towers to go up in flames and eventually, collapse completely to the ground. As a result, nearly 3000 people were killed in the 911 outrage. In the web article Did Religion Cause 911? by Brad Hirshfield, he states, It's painful to say, especially for a person of faith, but it is we who need to say it most. And, at the risk of being even more provocative, it is Muslims who need to say it the most among those who are religious. (Hirschfield paragraph 1). Hirschfield states this because Muslim terrorists due to different views on the way we ran our government, and religion attacked America. The problem we face currently, is blaming all Muslims for the attack of the World Trade Center. Although

Kliebenstein 3 the men who hi-jakced the planes were Muslim, that does not mean all Muslims are held accountable for the deaths of these people. Those men were under the control of Saddam Hussein who led his country through violence. We cannot hold all Muslims accountable for the attacks of the twin towers. More importantly, we cannot look to violence when we dont agree with one anothers views. In The Postmortal by Drew Magary, he makes religion a huge issue in the novel by creating the two opposing groups, pro-death and pro-cure. The pro-death group consisted of many religious people, and others opposing the idea of the cure. These people felt as if it was immoral to increase life expectancy through a series of three injections. The pro-cure group evidently is the opposing side that believes the cure is not immoral and proceeds with receiving the injections. The idea of the cure created major conflict amongst one another and presumably led to violence, or in other words, terrorism. In the very beginning of the novel, the pope makes a public announcement about the cure, codifying it as a sin and promising to excommunicate permanently from the Roman Catholic Church anyone found to have received it, including priests (Magary 12). I found this quote interesting, because even though receiving the cure is against the Christian religious beliefs, the bible states that God accepts everyone regardless of what sins we may commit. In Romans 5:8 the bible states, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. This quote means that even though our Lord knew that we would sin after he sacrificed his life for us to live, he still sacrificed himself anyway. In other words Christ is accepting the fact that we are not perfect but will still love us all for who we are. This contradicts what the pope says, because rather than trying to help people of the Roman Catholic Church who proceed to get the cure, the pope states

Kliebenstein 4 that they will no longer be accepted and vanished from the Roman Catholic Church for good. He also states, from this point forward, the Vatican officially condemns the taking of the cure as a sin and an excommunicable, unforgiveable offence (Magary 13). This statement also contradicts the faith of Christianity, because another verse of the bible, 1 John 1:9 says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. In other words, there is no such thing as an unforgivable offense and the Pope uses his speech as a verbal threat to make people refrain from getting the cure. Following the popes speech, a terrorist attack took place in a doctors apartment building that was providing people with the injection for the cure. Many people have opposing ideas about the cure and religion influences these ideas heavily. Not only does Magary prove that the different beliefs about religion lead up to terrorism, but our media portrays this idea as well. Henry S. Wilson, Director for the Global Theologies, writes the article Terrorism and Religion, and he states that religion ultimately leads up to violence. In his introduction of the article, he proclaims Religions teach about ultimate claims on believers lives and provide a core vision for it, which invariably colors its followers, sociopolitical aspirations, engagements, and behaviors (Wilson paragraph 2). Wilson is stating that people who claim religion live by their religious beliefs daily and those beliefs highly influence what we do and how we act in our lives. Our religion is something that inspires us to affiliate ourselves with different groups of people and acquire certain behaviors. How does this lead up to violence? Wilson also states, Whether the future of humanity will be shaped by the clash of civilizations, the clash of ignorance, the clash of religions and ethnicities, or confrontations between the West and the rest, is hard to predict (Wilson paragraph 2). He is simply stating

Kliebenstein 5 that because of all the different ideas and beliefs people are influenced by, it is almost close to impossible for Americans or countries to peacefully unite. Sadly to say, Wilson means that as long as different social groups are of existence, mainly religion, it is nearly impossible for violence to not become an issue amongst people with different beliefs. After reading this article by Wilson, I now have a better understanding of how religion affects the lives of many people. Personally, I am a Christian. Although, I do not go to church every Sunday and I do commit certain sins, I live my everyday life through a Christian faith. After reading The Postmortal, I realized how greatly religion is a social issue. We face many social conflicts in the world that seemed more obvious to me such as ethnicity and social class. Over many centuries, race has been the number one issue in America. The different color of peoples skin led to many revolts and outbreaks, and eventually terrorist attacks. After reading this novel, it is easy to compare the social issue of race to the social issue of religion due to the many different forms of religions being practiced currently. Religion has become such an impacted social issue because there are so many different beliefs. For example, the beliefs of Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim, etc., are all different types of religions being practiced in our American society. These religions vary incredibly in their daily behaviors, practices and, routines. For instance, meditation is a key form of practice for the Buddhist religion, as to where the Muslim culture practices a ritual called fasting (to abstain from all foods during certain hours of the day.) Although these rituals are harmless to people outside of ones religious beliefs, people are not too accepting of these practices because it is not something that they are used too. Another reason religion is such a social issue is because it is a sensitive topic for discussion. Many people, including myself, are afraid to mention religion in fear of offending someone of different

Kliebenstein 6 or no religion. Unfortunately when people in America do not agree upon certain aspects regarding religion, it can lead to arguments, and eventually violence. In order to end the violence due to different religious beliefs we have to be respectful of the different rituals being practiced around us. For as long as we live there will always be different religions and as we go further in life, we may discover new religions. We have to be able to understand the different types of religions in order to respect where others spiritual beliefs are coming from. Although we do not have to accept the different forms of religions, we have to be able to respect and understand them to end the violence. Overall, the idea of different religious beliefs leading to terrorism is very accurate. It is evident that religion has become a major social aspect in The Postmortal as well as the different articles that I have discussed. We have faced several incidents in America where different religions have conflicted leading up to the act of terrorism, such as the 911 attack. Many people lost their lives to this act of violence, similar to the novel. I was never entirely aware of how major of a social aspect religion truly is to our society. After reading the novel, I agree with Magary that religion has a incredible influence on our actions. It has opened my eyes to become more accepting of the different beliefs and cultures being practiced in America.

Works Cited "Adherents.com." Major Religions Ranked by Size. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

Hirschfield, Brad. "Did Religion Cause 9/11?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

"Terrorism and Religions." Terrorism and Religions. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.