Many religions have been available for up to a thousand years. These religions have more than a billion individuals who believe in them. The values proposed by those religions are following by the believers in that particular religion. Despite religion having benefits to humanity, it also has serious problems. We are going to let you know the pros and cons of religion in this article.
Pros of religion
1. Religion can help individuals overcome insecurity: Some individuals can overcome their insecurities via religion. It mostly benefits individuals who are less confident in themselves. Therefore, religion can help them to get the feeling of community and overcome their insecurities.
2. Can help during hard times in life: Sometimes, life can be hard, and many may face challenges at one point. Some people can live with those challenges and finally overcome them, while others may end up suffering some serious mental problems. Those who find it difficult to deal with emotional pain and difficult times. Religion is one of the best solutions since it promotes values that enable individuals to be stable in life.
May give individuals trust in life after death. Many people are afraid of death. As humans, we don’t like the fact that we won’t be on this earth one day. Death is something that will come one day afterward. It is also heartbreaking to know that our parents or loved ones will leave us one day. Religion helps individuals to accept death since there is life after death.
3. Can help promote reasonable values: Values that are spread by religion can greatly benefit society when it is spread in a non-radical manner. For example, altruism is among the values that are spread by religions. Undoubtedly, it benefits the world by promoting peaceful life.
4. Can be a reasonable meaning to get up early in the morning: Some individuals are tired of their daily life. One may have a bad job and gets home exhausted in peanut income. Those people may not be motivated to get up. Religion can play a major role in such individual’s life by giving them hope and reason to get up.
5. Can help to overcome anxiety: This is also another positive impact of religion. You can be afraid of a particular thing in life—those who cannot overcome anxiety on their own. Religion can benefit them by believing in a superior power besides them.
6. Religion and art are closely connected: According to history, religion and art are connected. Spiritual practices inspired many artists. Today, many artists are also spiritual, and they are inspired by religion. Therefore, religion plays a major role in art.
7. May prevent animal behavior in society: As humans, we may have some animal traits. Religion helps us to practice the positive values and control the negative ones.
8. Opportunity to socialize: When you attend church services, you will meet different people and maybe find new connections. You may also participate in church activities and find good friends after some time.
9. People may help one another: Religion plays a major role in giving people a reasonable meaning to help each other. People may give out willingly to those who don’t have. Despite them not being related or don’t know each other.
10. May give people hope: Sometimes life can be very hard, and some people can’t sustain an end by giving up in life. Religion can play a major role by motivating those people that there are bright days ahead. Therefore, those people can get back on track rather than give up in those difficult situations.
Cons of Religion
1. Can lead to discrimination of minorities: Religion can cause bigotry against the minority. Despite religions encouraging social acceptance, some claim that individuals who don’t follow their values should be excluded. This has led to the suffering of minorities with an opposite belief system in human history. Even today, some minority groups are still suffering due to religious differences.
2. Religion arguments are often flawed: Another disadvantage of religion is that religious arguments can be flawed. The arguments passed by religious leaders may be disapproved by simple arguments. Therefore, if an individual is not smart, he can be easily misleading, resulting in unpleasant outcomes.
3. Can be a tool to keep humans under control: Religion has been used to control humans throughout history. Many political leaders have been using it to rule people by pointing some religious aspects to control the population and keep their powers. Unfortunately, the people may not have interest despite being forced to do particular things.
4. Suppression of freedom: It also limits the freedom of individuals. Many are limited from living a certain life since they are afraid to break the rules of their religion. This will result in a little world for that particular individual.
5. Religion books are hard to understand: Religion books were written a thousand years ago; hence the languages may be difficult to understand by many. Therefore, people rely on translations to simplify those languages. This may lead to misleading information of the Holy Script due to manipulation.
6. Can cause serious conflict: Some serious conflicts within a country or outside can also be brought by religion. For instance, one religion may want to defend its religion against the other religions that don’t believe in them.
7. Can take away responsibility from humans: Some individuals may not take their responsibilities due to religion. They use religion to defend themselves that God said they shouldn’t do it.
8. Limits humans from things they opt to do: Religion will also limit mankind from enjoying some things in life. Many things that are a source of joy are banned. Therefore, people are not able to practice what will give them joy in life.
9. Can lead to bad decisions: Religion can also lead to poor decisions in life. For example, some religions may put down that an individual should marry at a certain point in life. Therefore, one can marry to be in line with their religion. However, that can lead to family conflicts and unhappy marriages.
10. Religion may discourage technological progress: Several religions discourage some technological inventions because traditional values may be eroded. This can limit technological advancements because of religious concerns. But without technological advancements, human problems can’t be solved.
I like that you mentioned how religion could promote the development of good values. Our neighbor just recently invited us to go to church and I am thinking of accepting their offer. I heard its a Baptist ministry, I don’t know much about it but it wouldn’t hurt to attend church services at least once.