Does religion have a place in today’s society?
Last Thursday (5th February, 2009), Tony Blair, the current Middle-East “peace envoy”, gave a speech in America regarding religion and it’s importance in society (The Independent).
Just the first paragraph of this article is enough to put most people off the thought of religion, believing in religion, and allowing religion to dictate social policy; and is it any wonder? Here we have a man, who is partly responsible for the invasion of Iraq. Who built a war campaign based on lies and immorality, and for what purpose?
Starting an unfair war resulting in the deaths of thousands of people doesn’t sound very Christian does it? What happened to peace? What about love?
And let’s not forget - where was the Middle East “peace envoy” when Israel was bombing the daylights out of Gaza?
Being a strong religious advocate myself, even I understand why people think secular policy making is the way forward, especially when you have religious fanatics like former President George W. Bush preaching one thing and practising something entirely different.
Everyone says ‘religion causes war’, or ‘religion is hypocritical’. And for the most part, based on their observations, they appear to be correct… but you know what? - let’s step back for a moment and study what’s actually going on.
In today’s society, it has become increasingly obvious that religion is the scapegoat for absolutely everything. Terrorism is caused by ‘Muslims’, ‘Jews’ are killing Palestinians, and so forth.
But that’s not the case at all, and the media is not helping in the slightest.
It has nothing to do with religion, but individuals… individuals that want something, and feel the need to abuse religion to get it.
Think back to the Crusades - those wars were not religious in the slightest. In fact, they were all about money and power, and the Church used religion to get soldiers, making them believe it was a holy war - what’s the difference between that and what’s happening in some countries today?
Religion in itself is a beautiful thing. Most of the laws we have today, most of morality we hold, comes from some religion or another; and if religion was created by man, it doesn’t make it any less beautiful. Whether God exists or not is actually irrelevant; but the way in which you behave, and interact with others IS important.
The problem occurs when people say they follow a particular religion and then openly flaunt their transgressions. As a practising Muslim, so many of my friends cannot believe that I do not drink alcohol, simply because every other ‘Muslim’ they know openly does. In people’s minds, that says: Oh, those Muslims? They don’t even follow what they believe… and it reflects poorly on religion as a whole.
But if you look at the actual teachings of the religion, there’s nothing in there about killing, or hating, or superiority. In fact, it’s the total opposite. From the Islamic point at least, we are taught to love and respect other religions, and to never belittle other religions. But who actually bothers to read the Quran? Billions of muslims in the world, and I bet only a handful have actually read the Quran in a language they understand. And I bet it’s the same with everyone else. Show me one religion that preaches hate of mankind… or killing. I don’t mean what preachers tell you, but what the actual literature says. You won’t find one… not a sensible one anyway.
So what’s the problem? Isn’t it obvious? People are ignorant, lazy and greedy - and that’s what it comes down to.
I mean, would you condemn the entire sport of football because hooligans attend football matches? Is it right to assume that just because hooligans can be found associated with football, that football has caused hooliganism?
People believe in their football team like people believe in religion. They belittle, taunt, and even act violently toward other people for having faith in a team that is different to their own. Is that the fault of football? Or maybe it’s just in man’s nature, as much as we want to think it’s not so.
There is a lot of truth in the saying “guns don’t kill people… rappers do”.
Don’t blame religion for the weakness of man. Religion is just a set of ideas… it’s people that exploit those ideas for personal gain.
Annis Isbell
Yes religion has a place in today's society. Religion should not be used by Jewish minions such as Bush/Cheney to get support from Christians for policies which they would not support if they were not cloaked in Christianty.
Jewish neocons ran Bush's White House and so we have our Christian children in the Middle East killing Muslims and being killed by them on behalf of an ethnic podunk Jew state which is the terrorist engine of the world.
Christians have been lied to and abused and tricked by truly viscious scoundrels. That should not result in the crushing of everything Christian in public life. That should not result in Christians being scapegoated and blamed for everything the vile evil Jewish neocons have done to us.
The fact is there is no place in society for Zionism and Judaism since they are in direct conflict with what is best for all non Jews and since they formulate a deadly policy for all Americans who are non Jewish and paint targets on all our backs. Lets get Jews out of government. Lets restore Christianity to its rightful place since it influenced the creation of the greatest country in the history of the world. The country that is now being destroyed in the name of Jewish interests, Jewish causes and Jewish hatred of Christians and Anglo Saxons.
Lets give Christianity its rightful place back and get rid of the religion of The Holocaust which is today enforced by every editor, educator and politician in the land. The Holocaust should never have replaced Christianity. We are reaping the consequences of such appalling replacement of the good with the evil.