Religion has a negative impact on society. According to researchers, it decreases people’s motivation to pursue goals. Researchers believe that religious people rely very much on God and are hence unable to effectively drive themselves towards their goals. Religion has also been faulted for the rise of extremist terrorist groups. It has contributed to the social, cultural and economic development of many societies. Religion has been used as a tool to maintain political dominance of the world order and is one of the biggest obstructions to scientific development and success.
Medical science has faced some of the most disgusting attacks from religious fanatics hiding behind facades of morality and righteousness. Religion is now and has always been the cheapest and most effective way of controlling society. This was especially true during the earlier years by reinforcing moral behavior among people without the treatment of divine punishment. It served to provide hope to people in desperate situations, giving them something to believe in rather than just giving up on everything.
This is especially true for the elderly, as belief in the fterlife provides comfort to them. The negative effects it has on society are tremendous. It is filling people with fear, turning people against each other, and keeping society in ignorance. Albert Einstein said, “If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”. Religion is one of the main reasons why people are afraid of living. And when I say ‘living I don’t mean Just surviving. To survive is one thing, even stones do that, but to live is a completely different thing.
To live means to e sensitive, it means to feel, to grow, to discover your potential and achieve to higher states of being each and every moment. The starting point is fear. Religion is based on the idea of sin: all people are born sinners and impure souls. If people in society do not purify themselves, they will soon be condemned to hell by God and experience eternal suffering. In order to avoid hell, religion demands that people prove to God they are worthy of heaven by following the dogma of it. Naturally, when people are put in such a situation, they find themselves in a continuous state of fear.
They are always afraid whether their actions are right or wrong. When you believe that you are being continuously watched by an all-seeing eye of God, you will have to act in certain ways to please God. The fear of hell is continuously in your mind, filling you with worry and anxiety, and this does not allow you to live spontaneously. As a result, most so-called religious people become neurotic and in some cases even schizophrenic. The demands that religion places on people are unrealistic. Religion, on the one whatever we humans are doing is bound to be corrupted in one way or another.
On the other hand, however, religion is teaching people to behave in the best ways possible – in a few words, to be perfect, Just like angels. But unfortunately, people are not angels, so how can they act in such an unnatural way? This thinking has 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, and not worthy as a human being. And once you do so, your life becomes filled with anger, bitterness and resentment ??” a true hell on earth.
Once ou start hating yourself, you are bound to start hating others too. When you accept the idea that you are a sinner, you start seeing those around you as sinners. And when believed that others are sinners, there is always a deep-rooted fear within you that the other wants to harm you-the other is corrupted, ill-willed, an enemy of yours. Religion is like slow poison, and Just as poison is killing your body, in the same way religion is killing your soul. There is only one difference: religion is masquerading as medicine, and while you think it is there for your own benefit, it is secretly killing you.
And before you become aware of it, religion has turned you into a lifeless soul. In addition, you will not tolerate religious ideologies that are different from the one you follow. This is why you see religions fighting against each other. To identify with a religious ideology, and call it the only truth and way, leads to tremendously negative consequences – hatred, racism, and all kinds of violence. Just think of how many wars have been carried out throughout history in the name of God and religion. To live means to learn and life is a continuous lesson.
When, however, you have rown up conditioned to believe what is right and wrong according to religion, and told that to doubt religion means to go to hell, naturally you become afraid of seeking true knowledge. You stop searching to find the truth, to learn, and hence to grow as a human being. As you can see, the negative effects of religion on society are tremendous. To blindly follow a religion, or any other ideology, simply means to restrict your perception, suppress yourself, and live in hypocrisy ??” in other words, to live in suffering and misery.
Many people choose to follow religion, even though they suffer from this hoice, simply because religion frees them from personal responsibility. To live spontaneously one has to take responsibility for oneself, and this is certainly painful. Life is made of choices, and to make the right choices is not always easy. So people prefer not to choose for themselves, but to have others chose for them. They prefer to walk on paths made by others, instead of creating their own path. Unless we stop having an authority to tell us what to do or what not to, we will never be free. And unless we are free, we will never be happy and peaceful.
