Religion is one of those topics (right along with politics) that we’re told not to talk about at the dinner table. It always leads to one party scoffing at the other’s opinion and both are left feeling offended. I was personally raised Jewish. Even though I wasn’t conservative by any means, I still went to temple occasionally and believed in all of what the religion had to offer. As I started to get older and learn more about science, some of the teachings from the Torah (First Testament) started to lose their credibility. This sparked the beginning of my agnostic phase. Since then, I began to wonder why other fields of knowledge advance and develop while religion (something that is so engrained in society) is stagnant. When there are break-throughs in science, religion doesn’t change.
Even though my faith in religion started to dwindle, I still believed (and still do to this day) that the underlying messages and “rules” were good and I really liked the traditions as they gave me an excuse to stuff my face with my family about 5 times per year. I truly believe that religion is as good or evil as the people participating make it. People who are inherently evil will find the evil in whatever they worship and vice versa.
With the recent global events involving radical religious groups, I’ve started to wonder if religion is helping or hurting society as a whole. Religion often conveys a rather confusing message; Do to others what you would want them to do to you…. unless they have different beliefs. I believe that religion, while there are undeniably positive characteristics, is just perpetuating intolerance. In the United States, people are being discriminated against because their beliefs don’t fit in with “Christian values.” All over the world, people are being killed by Isis (a radical religious group based off of Islam) in the name of Muhammad because they have a different set of ideas and values. I’m wondering if what was initially made to bring us together could now be a major force in dividing us.