Religion a tool of oppression Essay

Religion is an eventful aspect of liveliness it influences a high proportion of hu opus beingy things. The odd disassemble is that many deal are not in truth clear on what a pietism is. at that place are several key aspects that take a leak something a religion although the exact details can vary. In reliableity there is no firm stipulation on just what a religion is. Religion is defined by the online dictionary asa set of beliefs concerning the ca do, nature, and purpose of the universe, especiall(a)y when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, unremarkably involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human personal matters, The body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs.Religion is a belief constitution that uses symbols to allow people to explore their spirituality. Religions usually rely on narratives and symbols that are apply to offer a meaning to life or to explain th ings like who or how the universe was created. In addition approximately religions work an ethical component that teaches people how they are expected to live.There is a lot of variation within this as can be seen by the number of religions that exist in the world. In fact there is no firm agreement well-nigh what constitutes a religion and what does not. One aspect of religion that applies in all cases is that it is a public process. Having a personal belief system does not organise it a religion. By definition a religion is an organized activity that involves other people.Most religions have a ranked system for example with priests and bishops and so on but this is not required. Most religions also have a specific place of worship and there are usually sermons, festivals and many other activities that are part of the process. None of this is strictly required the only requirement is that the religion be a belief system that is held by a group of people who publicly share that religion. However in practice the long majority of religions have some aspect of these things. A lot of religions have been established in drastically different ways with the differences mostly universe cultural.The largest difference in most cases is that some religions put the enormousness on belief whiles others put the emphasis on practice. Basically this means that in some cases the most important thing is that you believe the doctrines of the religion while in other cases it is more important what you do than that you actually believe what is being taught. Its a known fact that religion is used to emphasize the importance of peace and harmony between individuals for example some of the laws made by the government is influenced by Christianitys 10 Commandment. All Religions teach parents how to train or discipline their children, how to overcome certain obstacles and also what to and what not to do, religion does these things by promising a reward and punishments in the afterlife, paradise for the clean-handed followers and condemnationfor the people which disobeyDiscussionHowever, religion is criticised of being a tool of oppression, a sociologist, Karl Marx gorgeously stated that Religion is the opiate of the people that statement clearly shows that hes thought that religion was a lie by the ruling business leaders for example, the kings presidents etc., to keep their subjects submissive and obedient, and to give them anticipate for the next life so they would not revolt in this life.Also, another Marxists sociologist, Louis Althusser, brought onwards the idea that religion serves the society by being the ideological state apparatuses, this basically means that the higher(prenominal) syndicate rule over the working class by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs. This means that the higher class just brought forth religion as a way to control the massed that all their hard work will be rewarded in the next life or will be punished if they try to rebel the higher classs control over them.The medieval theology presented the culture of the time a image called the divine right of kings this therefore basically means that whatever the king said were directly from deity and should be treated as the decisions of God. This was just the latest of manifestation of the tendency of antique dictators to place themselves as identical with God, as the Roman Emperors would do, having the citizens bow in worship of them. In actual fact, history swarms with examples of power starved governments and individuals using God, gods and religion as a mean of justification for their thoughtless and self-aggrandizing use of political power. So then, is religions especially precisely the Christian faith, then, simply another scheme imposed upon the tidy sum to keep them obedient to the law of the land, no matter how unfair the law may be to intercept them retaliating?A quote from the Bible, Hebrew 111 states that To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot seeif this passage is clearly and attentionfully looked at with the thought of it being used by the government or higher ruling classes as a tool of oppression, then its clear that this is used as a reassurance to its followers not to doubt the passages in the book and have faith that all the deceit they are exposed to is for their own good. In the Bible, the passage Matthew 10, talks about rescuer sending out his disciples out into the world, instructing them to preach his gospel no matter what the subsequences may be as well as warning them of the resistance and acts of hatred they will encounter just because of their message, Jesus saysThink not that I have come to send peace on earth I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a mans foes shall be they of his ow n household When the disciples went forth and began to teach, they were arrested repeatedly. At one court hearing they were asked if they had not understood that they were not allowed to teach the Gospel of Jesus, to which they replied, We ought to obey God rather than men.So therefore the real question is has religion been used as a tool for governments and authorities to control the masses? Absolutely.However, there is one element found in all such religions that is conspicuously absent in veracious Christianity. That is the idea that true religion consists of obeying a set of laws in order to gain eternal reward.In ancient Egypt the deceased are judged by their deeds in life, their souls being weighed against a feather. If the soul is not weighed prevail over with wickedness, they pass into the realm of the gods. In modern day Islam there is a similar belief where Allah decide the dead, weighing their adherence to the laws set forth in the Quran against their evil deeds.If All ah deems that the persons obedience was greater than their disobedience, they pass into paradise.Even in Roman Catholicism, a person must unendingly confess and make amends for their evil, following the various rituals of the Church in order to gain salvation. When a religion forces constant performance from its followers, promising the highest reward for obedience and the most monstrouspenalties for failure to execute, that religion has a controlling tack together that cannot be overstated. The followers of the religion become absolute slaves to the performance demanded by their faith. There is also a strong tendency to hypocrisy in such religions, since the followers tend to overestimate their own upright performance while looking down on others. Proper Christianity, however, is no such faith.While all(prenominal) other religion offers only enslavement to law, Christianity offers freedom from law and laws. This is why Christians have always obeyed a power that transcends gove rnment, often to the violation of those governments. Because those who must follow laws in order to obtain Gods favour come to resent those laws, but those who are freely forgiven and adopted have a commitment that surpasses compulsory obedience. They have a loyalty to God that stems from bottomless gratitude On the other hand religion is not all gloom and doom, religion is inevitable in our day to day life.Religion is an important part of life for many people. Even people who are not all that ghostly by nature consider it to be important. The question is why do they feel this way? The understanding is more often than not down to the belief that society needs religion. As a society we benefit from our collective religious beliefs. In fact there are many people who would argue that we could not function without religion. The biggest causal agent that society needs religion is to regulate behaviour. Most of the laws that we follow today have their basis in religious teachings.The re is considerable debate as to whether or not religion is required to make us good people but what is beyond dispute is that the rules for what is acceptable for society are largely based on religion. Without religion we would almost certainly live in a different example of society, it can be debated whether it would be better or worse but it would certainly be different. Since a major change like that would be impractical it is important that we maintain religion. The other big reason that society needs religion is that it teaches self-sufficiency. Virtually all religions that teach that you are responsible for taking care of yourself. While they all support the idea of charity, none of them teach that accepting charity should be desirable.This has helped to supercharge the work ethic that is needed to make society successful. Therefore it is important that people continue to appetency to do the work that is necessary. Society is largely based on the idea of cooperation. This c an be a bit of a tricky issue since as humans we are self-loving by nature. There is an obvious problem here we need to work together to be successful but for the most part we can benefit personally by being selfish. Religion has proven to be an telling way to get around this problem.Religion teaches that we should work together and help each other and it discourages the descriptor of selfish behaviour that would make a functioning society impossible. Certainly there are selfish people who are willing to take advantage of others for their own benefit. However the fact that the people who do this are in the minority is largely down to religion.