Bobby Williams

​Why Humans Cannot Be Responsible for Religion.

There are around 4,200 religions in our world today​ ​Many people live their entire lives

based off what these religions tell them. Religion causes a lot of peace but it also causes

violence. Religion can be used to justify any cruelty just by saying a person's actions are God’s

will​ ​Everyday around the world people are throwing their babies off of towers and killing each

other in the name of their god. Religion is used to cause violence because it is a especially good

recruiting tool for warriors.​ ​ The promise of eternal life would sound good to somebody who

could possibly die soon in the field of battle. More than 19 million people have been killed in

the name of Christianity alone and around 120 wars have been fought for​ ​religious reasons.

Religion leads to disagreements because human beings can’t accept it when other people

disagree with what they believe, when it contradicts with their life. This effect is called cultural

cognition and it is the belief that when a person is shown a fact that contradicts with their beliefs,

the person will actually make their beliefs stronger to compensate, no matter how nonsensical it

may seem. Humans have to be correct all the time; they are selfish by nature and want other

people to believe in what they do. ​Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century English philosopher said

that “Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire for power that only ceases in death”

implying that humans at their core are selfish and morally wrong​ ​. Religion is such a good tool

to use to recruit violence because religion paints a beautiful people of the afterlife and makes the

followers not afraid of death. When you are committing violent acts there is a good chance you

are going to die.S​ince humans are corrupt by nature there will always be people twisting

religions’ words to achieve their own goals.

Bobby Williams

Human depravity has been a constant for years and it won’t change very easily, this is

because humans at their core are selfish individuals. Humans can’t be trusted to be in charge of

religion because somebody will always twist the positive messages to suit their own needs and

desires​ ​ Early humans didn’t have the option to share food with anyone besides their families or

they would starve. Being a good sharer just wasn’t a choice they had, before modern society

humans hunted for their own food and just barely got by on what they needed to survive so, they

couldn't afford to give any away.​ It’s not just a hypothesis that humans are inherently selfish

either. In 2013 the University of Pennsylvania did a study called the prisoner's dilemma. In the

prisoner's dilemma there are two subjects. One of the subjects is given the choice to cooperate

with the other player but, both of the subjects are punished if you choose to work together. Or the

other option is to be selfish and escape punishment, for yourself but the subject who made the

choice to work together gets extra punishment. The University of Pennsylvania found that people

would be more selfish than helpful meaning that people choice to work independently and let the

second subject take the fall more often.​ ​ When one researcher, ​P​rof Plotkin, was asked about the

possibility of humans becoming less selfish he said: "It's a somewhat depressing evolutionary

outcome, but it makes intuitive sense (to cooperate)”-( ​Chapman, John. “Humans Are Naturally

Selfish, Study Finds.” ) ​ Expressing how even though humans are selfish at their core, we still

need to try to work together to survive as a species. Humans will work together but only to

selfishly avoid death.

Ironically most religious people are more selfish than atheists making them even more

likely to manipulate what religion says. For example, religious children are more selfish than

kids raised as atheists. At the University of Chicago Jean Dacey did a study about sharing
Bobby Williams

stickers and figured out that children who are raised in Christian households tended to be more

selfish with sharing than atheists. Jean Dacey stated that “religious kids had lower generosity,

suggesting that longer exposure to religion leads to being less cooperative”-(​Sherwood, Harriet.

”​)​ The researcher came to the conclusion that religion is the cause of selfishness due to moral

licensing. Moral licensing is the belief that if you do something good it is more acceptable to do

something bad because the events will balance each other out on a cosmic scale. In the context

of all religion, followers believe when they pray and give to charity, it is more acceptable to do

something considered morally wrong because they already did a good deed to compensate.

Religion unintentionally exploits this effect by giving their followers guidelines and stating that

God appreciates when they follow them. Another big reason why religious people are more

selfish is judgement. Religious people tend to judge one another based off their actions

frequently, the idea that humans get to judge each other comes from the bible. In the bible it

says "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." John 7:24.

Jesus was telling his followers to make moral judgements of others. Unfortunately being

judgemental is one of the biggest characteristics of a selfish person because when you dismiss

another person as morally flawed you look down on them and don’t take the time out of your day

to understand the person. Understanding people is what being selfless is all about.​ ​Some Non

religious people are judgemental as well but the same jean dacey study came to the conclusion

that:“Muslim children judged interpersonal harm as more mean than children from Christian

families, with non-religious children the least judgmental”-(Sherwood harriet). This quote is

saying that atheists are the least judgemental this is because Atheists, Anti theists and Agnostics

don’t believe in God's law and thus don’t judge other humans based off those guidelines Atheists
Bobby Williams

don’t believe in God so they don’t fear him and act selfishly to win his approval. The reason this

is relevant is because the argument can be made that followers of religion only conform to God's

rule not because it's the right thing to do, but rather they are afraid of being punished by God. In

the Bible Jesus says:”Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather,

be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell​.”​ In this statement Jesus is

commanding his followers to be more afraid of God then anybody else on earth. In fact fear of

the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the holy spirit given to a person at Confirmation implying

that being afraid of the Lord is a big aspect of the Christian lifestyle. Since religious people are

more selfish it’s no surprise that their selfishness will lead to religion being misused without a

visible end.

People use religion in order cause unnecessary violence. Most religions come with a set

of rules about how to live life . The rules tend to be very positive. However, often times

organizations twist the words of what the religion states to make their goals acceptable and

justified. Terrorism being fueled by religion makes the terrorists harder to stop. This is because

they doing what God wants them to even if that is not necessarily the case. The terrorists who are

doing these things aren't trying to achieve anything in the physical world they are trying to

achieve something in the afterlife. A very modern example of a religion being changed to fit

one's needs is the terrorist group ISIS. Members of ISIS follow a extreme version of the religion

Islam and commit terrorist attacks​. ​This group justifies their actions by claiming that they are

conducting a​ ​Jihad which is a holy war: “When the Quran mentions Jihad, it makes no allusion to

fighting either in the text or the context. “ -(Kircher, Allie. “Losing the Meaning of Jihad:

Terrorism and the US Media.” )​ ​It also has very specific rules which ISIS violates. ISIS claims
Bobby Williams

that the purpose of a Jihad is to remove people who Allah did not favor, but rather the original

meaning was intended for self defense only​ ​ This interpretation is supported by a line in the

Quran itself: ​"​fight in the cause of Allah those that fight you, but do not aggress because Allah

does not love the aggressor." However ISIS has ignored this fact and still claim that killing

people who do not follow Islam is what God wants them to do, despite their holy book saying the

opposite. In fact these terrorists have killed so many Christians in the Middle East​ ​it has been

labeled as a genocide:”​More than a year ago, institutions from the European Parliament to the

United States Congress recognized that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians and

religious minorities in the Middle East”-(Cecilia).​ If there was no religious aspect tied to these

acts less people would commit them. ISIS uses Islam as a recruiting tool and it works instead of

just selling these acts as a war out of revenge​ ​for the crusades, the people who commit these

terror attacks really do believe that they will go to jannah (heaven) and according to Mulla Ali

Qari​ an Islamic scholar: ”each person will have a minimum of 72 wives”-​(Manager.)​. Terrorists

believe they will get the best life in heaven forever, ​if they just blow themselves up. ISIS leaders

know that people will do anything to achieve their goals in heaven and robert tiersky a professor

of political science said:”(ISIS is) Convincing fighters that Paradise is real, that it’s a certainty

because they die as martyrs to jihad, is what made Islamic State’s military forces so fearsome, its

suicide bombers so ecstatic. ​” ​-(Ronald Tiersky). Confirming that people who follow ISIS want

to die to go to heaven​.​ ​What ISIS really wants to achieve is not as much as a spiritual conquest

as it is a territory one, ISIS is using religion as a excuse to get members. What ISIS is fighting

for is land they are trying to spread their land to control all of Iraq and Syria. They plan to call

this land it the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or I.S.I.S. for short(Nowthis World,0:26-0:45).
Bobby Williams

Getting land is a selfish goal and isn't for the good of God, it is abundantly clear that ISIS is

using religion to get people to join in their selfish territory war.

It is the fault of human nature that religion will continue to be misused. Getting rid of

religion is not the answer to this problem; religion does a lot of good things for our society. Even

if religion was to go away altogether​ ​humans beings will always find other things to manipulate

to achieve their goals such as the government and media. Government and media are both easy

to manipulate if you are a high ranking official. People trust their Government and Media much

like religion.Instead of removing religion​, ​our only hope is to become less selfish as a species. If

we can not learn to be unselfish human beings​ ​we are going to keep manipulating what religion

says to meet their​ ​our own goals​ ​ Human being need to stop judging each other for having

different beliefs and take the time to listen to each other. Humans can understand each other by

improving their communication and education. To get this ball rolling we need to increase the

amount that we discuss other religions in the everyday world, as well as in school. In this current

era discussing your religion in public is goes against social norms. That is a shame that violence

comes from ignorance people learn about other religions they will see the similarities and won’t

judge others as harshly​ ​ This is possible and it’s the only logical option to ending religious

violence. If we can not learn to be less selfish and understand each other religiously​ ​fueled

violence will continue indefinitely.

Bobby, you made some great additions and adjustments to your essay. Once again, I

really enjoyed it. Your depth of insight an inquiry is impressive.

Bobby Williams

You still have a lot of glaring grammatical errors and some format problems. Also, I

think you need to work on sentence structure and start to make things more concise at times.

Lastly, you’re still missing some evidence linking your ideas. For example, do you have

proof to backup your theory that ISIS is after land not the protection of Islam?

This is really good stuff, just make sure you’re proofreading and making everything as

clear and concise as you can. If you learn to spend more time and energy proofreading you’re

someone who can get high As on their work, whether in my class or an AP or honors.

Work cited:

Sherwood, Harriet. “Religious Children Are Meaner than Their Secular Counterparts,

Study Finds.” (​The Guardian​, Guardian News and Media, 6 Nov. 2015)

Manager. “How Many Wives Will A Person Have In Heaven (Jannah)?” (​Islamic

Websites Info in English 90+ Other Languages​, Islamic Web, 22 Jan. 2016)

Kircher, Allie. “Losing the Meaning of Jihad: Terrorism and the US Media.” ​Stimson

Center​, Stimson, 26 Dec. 2010,

Chapman, John. “Humans Are Naturally Selfish, Study Finds.” ​Express.co.uk​,

Express.co.uk, 24 Nov. 2014,

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/539611/Scientific-Study-finds-humans-selfish​.
Bobby Williams

The bible

The Quran

Tiersky, Ronald. “‘ISIS's Deadliest Weapon Is the Idea of Heaven.’” ​The Huffington Post​,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Sept. 2016,

www.huffingtonpost.com/ronald-tiersky/isiss-deadliest-weapon-is_b_12087084.html.

Test Tube Network. “What Is ISIS And What Do They Want In Iraq?” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 19

June 2014, ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOGLesXQ4Tc​.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/329376-middle-east-christians-suffer-g

enocide-while-the-world