POSITIVE & NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION

Positive Effects of Religion Negative Effects of Religion

 Promotes Social Harmony  Affirm Social Hierarchy

 Provides Moral Values  Causes Discrimination
 Provides Social Change  Triggers Conflicts and Fights
 Explains the Unknown  Serves as an Economic Tool for Controlling
 Gives Positive Goal in Life the Masses
 Gives People a Sense of Belonging  Impedes Scientific Success and
Developmental
 Obstructs the Use of Reason

Dating back to the emergence of ancient societies, religion has already played an
important role in the lives of our ancestors. In Mesopotamia, for example, the Sumerians organized
their settlement into temple communities, wherein the temple was found at the center of their
communities and the veneration of their gods and goddesses govern their daily lives. They
believed that the lands which they tilled were owned by the deity that is why they offered part of
their harvest to their priest, who was also their leader and who was seen as people’s intermediary
to their beings. In the absence of an organized religion, their concept of morality was based on the
belief that right actions earn the approval of the gods and goddesses and wrong actions may cause
punishment. Hence, the importance of ritual practices to appease the supernatural beings that they
considered as having control over their lives.

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION

There is no doubt that religion has an important role in society. In fact, it has become so
closely intertwined with other institutions such as political and economic systems that religious
beliefs sometimes became the basis of political legitimacy. This is very reason why the principle of
separation of state and religion was established in many countries.
However, religion has served purposes beneficial to society in general. In one way or
another, it inspires values that cultivate peace, compassion and kindness. Religion upholds
traditions of shaping human’s spirituality and embracing the goodness in each individual.

Religion Promotes Social Harmony

Religion believes in supernatural beings and powers. It practices a set of rituals and
ceremonies rites of passage and rites of intensification. It also regards religious leaders such as
priests, priestesses and shamans in high esteem. These characteristics help advance social
harmony by assimilating and stabilizing cultures and nations. Religion provides divine authority to
ethical and moral principles which also help promote unity among people.

Religion Provides Moral Values

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 Perhaps one of the most significant functions of religion is that it encourages moral values.
It provides a systematic model of the universe, which in effect determines organized human
behavior. By providing moral values, one is able to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil. It
also provides a system of reward and punishment that administers and standardizes people’s
behavior in society. Some people believe that it is sometimes more effective than the laws
implemented by the state, since most people give more importance to the reward and punishment
in the afterlife.

Religion Provides Social Change

Since religion is a source of moral values, religion provides social change. It can be very
effective in lobbying and campaigning for certain social issues using its own moral teachings as the
basis of argument.

Religion Reduces Fear of the Unknown

Religion was developed from man’s need to have a sense of origin and destination; to
discover where they came from and where they are bound to go to when they die. Religion
provides answers for phenomena and questions that science or reason cannot explain. Myths
about the origin of people abound with stories of groups of people being created by gods and
goddesses, perpetuating the notion that people came from supreme beings and will eventually go
back to them in the afterlife. More importantly, religion has provided assurances as to where spirits
will go when people die, reducing people’s fear of death as something undesirable.

Religion Gives Positive Goals in Life

People were inspired by the stories of different prophets from their own religious
affiliations, like that of Moses, Siddharta Gautama, and Muhammad. These people showed how
ordinary people like them were given important missions in life, and how they struggled to carry out
their respective missions.

Religion Gives People a Sense of Belonging

Just as family, ethnicity, or nationality give people a sense of belonging, so does religion.
For some, religion provides people with personal identity as part of a group with similar worldviews,
beliefs, values, practices, and lifestyles. It provides communities with prospects to recognize and
offer vital action and service to provide the needs of the larger community. Belonging to a particular
religion – whose members share the same beliefs, practice the same rituals, and worship the same
god- gives individuals a sense of being in the right place with the right people. It also provides them
with a sense of security because other people who belong to the same religions group will tend to
support and help each other in times of crisis. A religious group or community can provide counsel,
help the sick and underprivileged, and give other services on a more personal level than the
government. Members of a religious community can have the assurance that they can rely on other
people’s help in times of need. They can also expect to have other people rejoice with them in
times of success. Religion can provide a sense of personal identity and belonging.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION

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 Religion has often been named as the culprit behind divisiveness and conflicts among
people. There is also a belief that religion can be dangerous to society when used to advance the
interests of group of people at the expense of other people especially those with different religious
beliefs. Religious fundamentalism or the demand for a strict adherence to orthodox theological
doctrines is often considered as the reason behind most religious conflicts. Some of the negative
effects of religion which we will discuss in this lesson are: affirmation of social hierarchy; reason
why people fight each other; promotion of discrimination; obstruction of scientific success and
development; and hindrance to the use of reason.

Religion Affirms Social Hierarchy

Some religions affirm social hierarchy often favoring men and as a result, perpetuate the
notions of class or gender discrimination and oppression. Another example of religion reflecting the
hierarchy of political structures would be the Confucian emphasis on the relations between the
ruler and the subject, with the former exercising authority over the latter.

Religion Causes Discrimination

There are some who say that religion, after turning people against themselves, turn people
against each other. This happens when people do not tolerate religious ideologies different from
the one they follow. Religious fanaticism can lead to feelings of hatred, which could lead to racism,
and eventually violence. Throughout history, religion has been used by colonizers to justify their
forcible occupation of territories. In a way, religion has made this world a more complicated place
to live in.

Religion Triggers Conflicts and Fights

Religion also has some aspects which make it susceptible to be a source of conflict and
war. History witnessed numerous lives sacrificed and lost in the name of religion. Wars have been
fought in the name of religion, and this phenomenon continues up to the present time. In Palestine,
the Jews are in conflict with the Muslims; in Kashmir, it is the Muslims against Hindus; in Sudan, it
is the Muslims opposite Christians and animists; in Sri Lanka, it is the Sinhalese Buddhists against
the Tamil Hindus; in Indonesia, it is Muslims contra Timorese Christians. These are only some of
so many wars being fought in the name of religion, which means that so many resources are being
wasted and millions of lives are being lost.

Religion as an Economic Tool for Exploiting the Masses

According to the German philosopher Karl Marx, “religion is the opium of the masses.” This
in relation to his critical approach to religion in which be proposed that the bourgeoisie keeps the
proletariat in control through religion. According to Marx, it maintains social inequality by
propagating a worldview that justifies oppression. He believed that religion can be effectively used
by ruling class to maintain a social order that is more that is more favorable to them.
Religion Impedes Scientific Success and Development

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 Throughout history, religion has proven to impede scientific development. For example, it
has often been said that the Catholic Church used to teach that the world is flat and warned people
against going to faraway places if they do not wish to fall off the edge of the earth. Another
example would be the claim that the earth is the center of the solar system, also known as the
Ptolemaic theory. Aristarchus, and later on, Nicolas Copernicus, proved that the sun is the center
of the solar system and all other planets move around it, hence advancing the heliocentric model.

Religion Obstructs the Use of Reason

Many question the suitability of religious doctrines to the needs of the present and future
generations. In order to put these dogma or practices, religion should, therefore, evolve and learn
to adapt to the ever changing world. Ancient religious beliefs and practices which have proven to
be inhuman should be replaced with sensible ones. Take the case of the trepanning or the ancient
practice of boring holes in the human skull, a surgical procedure performed on epileptics and the
mentally ill, with the belief that through the whole the evil spirit will leave the person. During those
days they regard it as an attempt at exorcism, but at present the procedure is just unthinkable.

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