Religion, the Pros and Cons

Throughout the world, there are an infinite amount of differences, depending on the culture of the said location. But throughout these different cultures, religion stands strong, existing in nearly every culture on earth. The interesting point about this is that even though in a lot of cases, cultures had been inherited from outsiders, is the fact that humans thousands of years ago created their own religion specifically tailored to their own beliefs. Often times religions in an area can overlap creating tension and even sparking wars. But why? Why do people all over the world seem so dependent on religion, and what effects do these beliefs produce?

With religious parents myself, i have experienced first hand how the passing down of beliefs tends to take place within a family setting, which brings me to my first point. Do you choose your beliefs? Or are these beliefs set upon you at birth? If an die heart christian were to be born in the middle east instead of a neighborhood in southern America, would they still strive to become a christian? or vise versa? Most likely not, religion in todays world is more of a tradition rather than a choice, even though due to globalization it is slowly changing. Although the different options of religion can vary very much they tend to serve the same purpose. Which brings me to my next point, being the purpose of religion.

Although it may not seem as clear cut as i am about to put it, religion is in place to answer the unanswerable. With questions like why am i here, who put me here, and what will happen to me after I am gone. Religion offers a sense of comfort for people who want these answers and have no way of obtaining the answer. Not only this but your place of worship can become such a closely knit group that acts as a family, with strong bonds to many individuals. But not all aspects of religion are positive which lastly brings up my last point.

Although religion is meant for positive purposes, throughout history we know of many negative effects that it has brought upon the world in form of discrimination and war. The most popular case of this would be the lasting battle over Jerusalem, which is the focal point of two major religions, both demanding that they should have access to it over the other religion. Like i said earlier, religion is mostly a form of tradition, but there comes a problem when some of the old fashion views, that people used to have may not be relevant in today's world. Recently we have noticed this conflict over the issue of same sex marriage with Christianity. In the olden days same sex marriage was punishable by death, but just because it was that way should we still view these issues like our ancestors followed thousands of years ago? It is an issue that is not easily answered but offers insight on the difficulties religion faces today.

http://www.humanreligions.info/causes.html
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/15/the-battle-for-jerusalem-the-sacred-citys-five-most-contested-sites/