Introduction to World Religions & Belief Systems

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

EFFECT OF RELIGIONS

GENEROSO C. ZARADOLLA
Teacher III
When religion is not influential in a society or has ceased to be, the
state inherits the entire burden of public morality, crime and
intolerance. It then must use punishment and police. Yet this is
unsuccessful as morality, integrity and self-respect not already
inherent in the individual, cannot be enforced with any great success.

- J. Milton Yunger
Tell us your own personal experience about religion. Does a
religion/sect you are affiliated with helped you to be a better person
or caused you to be a bad individual? Write your answer in a sheet of
paper and make it with not less than three hundred words.
Religion exists almost as long as does human kind. We used to
worship the strong and big animals, natural assurances like lightning
storm and fire. There was always some type of religion connected to
our kind. Many of us can`t even live normal lives without the religion.
To many people, it offers the only hope that they can get.

But why is the religion so important to so many people?

Why people need religion so much?

And does religion really have a positive effect on society?

And, if it does, what are they?

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe
that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus
and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the
translations have gone wrong.”

― John Lennon

“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.”

― Abraham Lincoln

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we
should never have found out that it has no meaning...”

― C.S. Lewis

“A truth that's told with bad intent Beats all the lies you can invent.”

― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

 Religion can be controversial, for sure, and there have been quite a
few negative events done in the name of religion.

 Religion’s first intention is typically to give a purpose to humans.

 When religion is not properly used it can also be a vehicle for evil and
can create negative effects on people and society.
The positive effects of religion:

1. The benefits of religion to mental health.

a. Protects against depressive symptoms.

b. Soothes anxiety.

c. Religion may also provide coping skills to deal with

stressors, or demands perceived as straining.

d. Religion gives people something to believe in, provides a

sense of structure and typically offers a group of people to
connect with over similar beliefs.
Here are some of religion’s main mental health benefits.
Community

i. Initiates social connections with other members

ii. Creates a sense of belonging to a group
iii. Offers trustworthy and safe social engagement
Ritual

iv. Helps people to cope with difficult life situations (i.e. a ceremony for the loss
of a loved one)
v. Provides structure, regularity and predictability
vi. Allows for time to rest as well as holidays and other special times of the year
Teachings

vii. Provides guidelines to live by (i.e. the importance of doing the right thing)
viii. Teaches compassion, forgiveness and gratitude
ix. Identifies life lessons, even from challenging situations
2. Raises self-esteem (if you live in the right place).

 may also make you feel better about yourself by making you feel part
of your larger culture. People who are religious have higher self-esteem
and better psychological adjustment than people who aren't.

3. The benefits of religion to physical health.

a. Lowers your blood pressure.

 according to a 2011 study out of Norway.

b. Helps you resist junk food.

 In a study published in January 2012 in the Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, researchers exposed
students to references of God in tests and games.
4. Effects of Religious Practice on Family Relationships.

 religious participation appears to foster an authoritative, warm, active,

and expressive style of parenting. Parents who attend religious
services are more likely to enjoy a better relationship with their
children and are more likely to be involved with their children’s
education.

a. Mother-Child Relations.
b. Father-Child Relations.
c. Family Ties
d. Domestic Violence
5. Effects of Religious Practice on Crime Rates.

6. Effects of Religious Practice on Society.

 promotes the well-being of individuals, families, and the community.

7. Effects of Religious Practice on education.

 Parents' religious practice also affects their children’s educational

outcomes. The greater the parents' religious involvement, the more
likely they will have higher educational expectations for their
children, and the more likely they will communicate with their
children about schooling.
The Negative effects of religion:

1. Religion is filling people with fear.

 Religion is one of the main reasons why people are afraid of living.

 To live means to be sensitive, to discover your potential and

achieve to higher states of being.

 Religion is based on the idea of sin: all people are born sinners,
impure souls, and if they don’t purify themselves, they will soon be
condemned to hell by God.
2. Religion is turning people against themselves.

 teaches that people are born sinners

 religion is teaching people to behave in the best ways possible — in

a few words, to be perfect, just like angels.

 This has many serious consequences.

 When you fail to do what God has ordered, you start hating
yourself. You begin to accept the idea that you are indeed a bad
person, corrupted, unworthy. And once you do so, your mind
becomes filled with hatred, bitterness and resentment — a true
hell on earth.
3. Religion is turning people against each other.

once you start hating yourself, you are bound to start hating others
too.

will not tolerate religious ideologies that are different from the one
you hold.
4. Religion is keeping people in ignorance.

 have grown up conditioned to believe what is right and wrong

according to a religious dogma, and you’ve been taught that to
doubt the religion you were born into means to go to hell, naturally
you become afraid of seeking knowledge. You stop searching to find
truth, and hence to educate yourself and grow as a human being.

 religion is confining people’s minds in the darkness of ignorance,

and those who are in search of the light of truth are being
condemned by religion.

 religion keeps people blinded by all sorts of beliefs that are not
based on any factual or experiential evidence, which does wonders
to stunt their intelligence.
To blindly follow a religious or any other ideology simply means to restrict
your perception, suppress your thoughts and emotions, and live in
hypocrisy — in other words, to live in pain and misery.
The following are some of the events related to religion

1. Magellan's Cross, on the Island of Cebu.

2. Ashoka, also known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the
Maurya Dynasty, who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c.
268 to 232 BCE.

3. Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred intermittently

over a period of over two centuries between the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD
under Nero and the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, in which the Roman
Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius legalised the Christian
religion.
4. Pope Francis Apologizes for Church’s Colonial Sins.

5. Unification of Saudi Arabia

 a military and political campaign in which the various tribes,

sheikhdoms, city-states, emirates, and kingdoms of most of the
Arabian Peninsula were conquered by the House of Saud, or Al
Saud. Unification started in 1902 and continued till 1932
Activity 1.1 What am I?

Identify if the statement/situation if it is positive effect of religion,

negative effect of religion or not related religiosity

1. The father is letting his son and daughter do anything they want
without any intervention and guidance.

2. Learning to resist junk food and any other food that are detrimental to
our health.

3. Feeling distress and depress after sinning believing that God would
punish him/her.
Assessment

Direction: Select the letter of the correct answer.

1. Which of the following is the reason for the positive effects of religion in mental
health?

a. Helps people to cope with difficult life situations

b. Helps you resist junk food
c. Helps you have healthy lifestyle
d. Lowers your blood pressure
2. Religion is intended for the following reasons, except.

a. Good of all people c. Means of acquiring material wealth

b. Help the needy d. Source of morality

3. Which of the following religiosity assists those affected by mental illness?

a. Affiliation c. Religious activity involvement

b. Church attendance d. Valuing religion
4. He/she articulated the indispensability of the freedom of religious practice in his/her
farewell address to the nation.

a. Abraham Lincoln c. Gloria Macapagal Aroyo

b. George Washington d. Ramon Magsaysay

5. Which of the following negative effects of religion is related to the perception of one’s self
as forever sinner and not able to please God?

a. Religion is filling people with fear

b. Religion is turning people against themselves
c. Religion is keeping people in ignorance
d. Religion is turning people against each other