Essay Sample: Religion and Rationality

📌Category: Religion
📌Words: 933
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 12 June 2022

The vast majority of the world identifies as religious. Religion has played a significant role in our society. For several people, religion gives them a sense of purpose and guidance. Although, only a small portion of the world identifies as non-religious.University of Michigan Institute for Social Research analyzed 49 countries,43 out of those 49 countries became less religious between 2007-2019. The main reason is that people no longer find religion necessary. This has become a trend as more people than ever identify as non-religious. A Pew Research Center survey disclosed that millennials are leaving religion and focusing more on spirituality. An increasing number of younger people more than ever before identify as atheist, agnostic, humanist, secular, and just non-religious in general. So it brings up a discussion “Is religion necessary?” Religion isn’t necessary for our society as it doesn’t give humans morality, causes division, and we should focus more on rationality.

People often correlate being religious as being morally righteous. Morals are a person’s viewpoint on whether something is right or wrong. Whereas some morals are arguably more objective such as murder or rape.Morals are often influenced by personal values,beliefs,culture,family,peers,and emotions.This implies that there isn’t just one way to rule what is morally right or wrong. Numerous times religious people’s morals are arbitrary. If something is only right or wrong based on what their religion says then it holds no substance. In contrast to non-religious people, morals are often based on secular morality. Secular morality is morality that is based on reasoning, logic, empathy, and institution instead of religion. There’s an experiment known as the “good Samaritan study” in which they tested people to see who would assist a collapsed man in an alley who pretended to be ill as people passed by. The experiment showed that religious and non-religious people assisted the individual at the same rate. This indicates that religious people aren’t more moral than non-religious people as they proclaim. If religious people were more morally righteous then there would’ve been an overwhelming difference showing that religious people assisted the hurt individual more. The University of Southern California (USC) analyzed that members of religion were more prejudiced towards minorities. Fifty-five independent studies found that Christians held more prejudiced views towards minorities such as black people. Whereas nonreligious people tended to be more accepting and non prejudice. Indicating overall that religion alone doesn’t give you morals.

People are often divided on a range of issues one of them being a religion. Although the main purpose of religion was to bring unity within a group of people, it happens to divide people from outside of the group. Which generally causes more harm than good. It causes people to not accept and judge others with different beliefs and practices than them. That eventually evolves into radical wrongdoings such as homophobia, misogyny, bigotry, pride, persecution, authoritarianism, and deceitfulness. Throughout history and even to the modern-day society we can see the impact of the harm caused by religion. One example being you can face persecution in many countries such as Iran for simply being a part of the LGBTQ+  (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community, because Iran’s Islamic Penal Code condemns homosexuality. According to the Open Society Justice Initiative, you can face the death penalty in seven countries for simply being gay. A large reason is influenced by religion. Assets Publishing Service states Christians in the Middle East face persecution and discrimination. Christian churches are often destroyed and aren’t allowed to teach Christianity to their children. You can even be arrested and imprisoned in your home. Christians used to compose 20% of the population in the Middle East but now the number has decreased to around 3-4%. Demonstrating that division caused by religion is real.

When religion was first created it was because humans didn’t know the ways of life and how it operated. They didn’t know how and why humans ceased to exist, why it rained, why the moon came out at night, or what makes a person “good”. Humans naturally need a sense of purpose and control over their lives. Now that humans have evolved in more ways than once. Religion isn’t as necessary because we have more answers to these questions. There is no scientific proof or evidence that a god or gods exist. So we should use rationality. Rationality is the ability to use reasoning and logic to opinions, beliefs, or practices. Such as a lot of teachings in religious books that were seen as morally okay back then are now seen as morally wrong. An example is how the Bible justifies slavery. Ephesians 6:5 states “Bondservants, obey your masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ”.This scripture implies that slaves/servants should obey their masters even with unfair treatment as they would Christ. Many people would argue that the Bible also says masters should respect their slaves as well. Using rationality tells us this is wrong regardless of what the scripture says. Most people in today’s society condemn owning slaves in general because it’s against their will and are often treated inhumanely. Humans should focus more on what we know is true for certain. Galileo Galilei was an astronomer in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He claimed that Earth wasn’t the center of the universe and the Earth rotated around the sun. Galileo spent the last few years of his life on house arrest by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church opposed his beliefs but later found he was right. Demonstrating that using the truth outstands faith and beliefs.

All things considered, these reasons and evidence help support why religion isn’t necessary. Religion isn’t necessary for our society because it doesn’t grant you morality, causes division amongst people, and people should focus more on rationality. Nonreligious people can have a moral compass and just because someone is religious doesn’t mean they do. The world upholds a lot of division which is often affected by religion. Rationality and religion can co-exist but often times rationality is disregarded. Humans should dictate what is best for them but know religion isn’t a necessity.

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