Is Religion the Answer?

For about 3.5 millennia, organized religion has been practiced world
wide, starting off with Hinduism approximately 1500 years before the Common Era.
Devised as a way to bring out individuals spirituality and bind people together,
Hinduism prevailed in its mission. As years centuries passed, different religions:
Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all respectively
emerged individually with their own set of beliefs, some derived from other
religions, others by themselves. Since organized religion was born, the goal to
unify and spiritualize people in harmony has been a success. Religion, however,
has been taken too far. The Western religions have especially gone far in the
goals. The sole purpose of religion has been manipulated, disorganized by its own
followers, and even taken for granted. While the sole purpose and the meaning of
religion, is to retie the people together from tyranny and alienation, certain
religions fail to see that aspect. This is not to say that religions are not
beautiful, for they are all but ugly. Certain religions have flaws in their
systems which then reflect on our governments, groups, and societies. In turn,
this has led society to live in groups, as outcasts amongst other groups.
Governments have, for long, been a product of philosophical and
religious beliefs. Even a country, like the United States of America , that as a
freedom of speech and religion holds many religious beliefs in its laws. Brought
by religious pilgrims from England , seeking to escape the English rule, America
was brought up by many Christian faiths. Even some of our educational institutions
erected from a religious background. Harvard is such a school. Harvard started off
as private Puritan college to train Indians to become ministers for their tribes.
Though a beautiful religion, Christianity has corrupted our government, laws, and
the way people think in this country. In a country that allows us so many freedoms
such as speech, and choice of religion, it does not allow same sex couples to live
the same lives that straight couples have. Though not proven, this idea could
easily come from Christianity belief that homosexuality is immoral and adulterous
and unlawful under the eyes of God. If our Founding Fathers truthfully found our
government under the eyes of God, is the Christian faith, not then a narrative for
our laws? Is it not implying that we are a Christian based government? We have “In
God We Trust” printed and molded into our money. Our Pledge of Allegiance states
“One Nation Under God” towards the end of the sentence. Granted, the word “god”
can be universal, taking a look at the history of our country and the settler’s
religious backgrounds, many can agree that the mention of the word “god” most
likely the meaning is of the Christian God. It is the nature of this country,
whose primarily religion is, in fact, Christianity. Other countries, such as Iraq
, are ruled under the beliefs their majority religions. In Iraq ’s case, Saddam
Hussein ruled under a radical Islamic government, specifically under Sunni rule,
which is a very uniformed, and conservative. Countries that live under freedom of
religion live with more serenity, rather than tyranny. Our country may have been
founded on the bases of Christianity, but the philosophical views of our Founding
Fathers, set up a country of diversity freedom. This allows us to learn from one
another on a more personal level, which is a beauty that should not be taken for
granted.
Our government is not the only way that religion has been used as a narrative. The
way we live our lives has become somewhat relied on religions. The money we use,
the way we eat, where we eat, what we eat, when we eat certain foods, how we
celebrate, the way we display affection for someone, and most importantly, how we
speak and act around others. If a person is religious, all this can be their
personification of their binding to the religion. If around the wrong person, this
could be insulting. Talking about Buddhist meditation, which is an act that
Buddhists tend to do routinely, around a Christian is insulting to the Christian
for they may think it is a sin. In the movie “Big Fish”, Albert Finney’s character
says in one scene that it’s rude to talk about religion because you might insult
someone.
 A huge question we must ask is: Are religions perfect? Of course they
aren’t. If they were, there wouldn’t be Christianity; Buddhism, Taoism, and
Confucianism would be one faith. Islam would not be considered the perfection of
Christianity and Judaism. Along with those concepts, same sex marriage would not
be a troublesome issue. History has proven that religions have many imperfections,
hence the divisions into sects. A perfect religion would not have 12-100 different
sects, but one sect. Not only would they be one sect but if they were broken into
sects, as many are, they wouldn’t have the differences that are shown in modern
religions. To devote yourself to a sect and proclaim yourself as a member of that
sect and no other is to admit that you are aware of the flaws in your religion.
Many Christians will argue that Catholicism has stricter beliefs than Presbyterian
and argue that they are different. Yet they pray to the same God, the same Jesus,
and they stay away from the same Devil. Practitioners might think their religion
is supreme and that the only way to survive in the after life which is probably
why they feel the need to go out and recruit. Like the sects of Christianity,
don’t all the western religions practice the same religion? Don’t they all believe
in a god and a Messiah? The answer is rather sickening. It has been proven by
philosophers that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all believe the same prophets
existed. Those prophets are Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Abraham. If religion is
truly the binding of souls and the unity, then there should be a belief that the
western religions should be bound together, or at least create a religion that
binds the western religions together, seeing that many of their beliefs tend to be
similar to one another.
The beliefs religions of the world are not exactly what have led many
individuals to perceive them as evil or immoral, but how the practitioners portray
the religion and how individuals portray their disagreements with the beliefs.
Many practitioners feel they have the “God” given right to display their beliefs
and put down the beliefs of others if they are not the same. In a world of
diversity and much freedom, the freedom of religion does not feel like it’s there.
Along with this feeling comes recruitment. Recruiters, especially Christian, go
around to houses, stores, schools, and other public locations, trying to sell you
a religion that you might not feel comfortable with or just simply don’t want to
join. The annoyance is their persistence, as though they have nothing better to
do. Their sole mission is to almost force you into something you don’t want to
buy. Along with selling you their church or synagogue’s offerings, they tell you
that other religions are clearly the wrong path in life. Many victims will give in
and others have the courage to argue with these door-to-door recruiters. But what
are the intentions of these recruiters? Maybe it could be that they feel that
their turnout is low from convergences to other faiths or religions, or that they
honestly just want to introduce their religion as the supreme faith. Homosexuality
has led much controversy in the religious worlds as well. That has affected
government to deny same sex marriage to anyone who asks for it. While not trying
to pound on the Christians, unfortunately it is the perfect example for homosexual
cases. The bible states in Corinthians chapter six, that the wicked will not
inherit God’s kingdom, and that we should not be deceived by those try.
Homosexuals, among others are on the list. Yet, it is Jesus who said that everyone
is a child of God and accepted by Him. It was Jesus who said that if he could, he
would invite everyone to eat with him at his table. If Jesus said everyone except
homosexuals, he would have mentioned it. If Jesus accepts everyone as they are,
then why doesn’t the rest of Christianity do so? After all, homosexuals can be
religious. Homosexuals can be spiritual. Homosexuals love others as a heterosexual
would love another. Where is the in unity in that? Honestly I don’t see any.
For many, religion has been used as an excuse for crimes and blamed
for other wrong doings. America , as well as the rest of the world has found
religion as a scapegoat for many of problems going on in the world without even
taking into consideration for what the religion might think as a whole. Even
religious members have found their religion as a scapegoat to their actions.
Members of religious terrorist group such as Al al-Qaeda, use their religion,
Islam, and some of its values as an excuse to terrorize the United States and the
rest of the world. We all tend to put the blame on groups of people if only one of
its members creates a catastrophe. It has become a social norm to blame Muslims
for terrorism, that any other tragedy crime, such as the Amish shooting, is not
look on as a hate crime for religion. For reasons not mentioned, it is easy to
blame a whole religion for a crime if the criminals admit to belonging to the
faith. For that, it is common to see Muslims in the country shy away from the rest
of the country, even though they are not to blame for the terrorist attacks.
Religion is indeed a beautiful thing to have around. It gives us a
sense of security, hope, and self. It also gives us a sense of belonging
somewhere. That being said, if someone is comfortable with the ideals of their
spirituality, it should not be one’s place to assume negatively of another
religion, nor to enforce one’s own religion onto another. People are free thinkers
and they have the right to decide the faith that best suites them and the right to
not care what other people think of their faith.