What is the purpose of religion?
By Curlann
@annierose (21589)
Philippines
June 30, 2010 2:25am CST
Why was religion started? Why does it still exist? Should religion change with the times? Can a religion change with the times? Are there any new religions worth mentioning? What is the difference between a cult and a religion? What is the difference between a religion and a philosophy? What is the difference between a philosophy and ethics? What is the difference between ethics and personal guidelines? Feel free to answer the ones you wish and ignore the rest.
3 people like this
19 responses
@de_toya (2429)
• Indonesia
30 Jun 10
For me, religion is like vehicle. This vehicle help me to reach my goal. My goal is to be united with the God. I believe that my soul is a part of God. Religion is guide since we are walking in the highway toward God we need guide in order to avoid lost.
Religion is not like culture even though culture could be assimilation wit religion. Many religious activity influenced by culture where the religious people live. Religion is immortal but culture is not immortal. Culture can be change due to human civilization. Cult is one of the way of the religious conduct but it is tend to be influenced by culture or custom.
Every Religion has scripture. Scripture believed to be the revelation of God. While philosophy is human thought. They who has super intelligences could make wisdom guide of life. This wisdom guide of life could be ethic in certain place. Ethic could be influenced by religion. Culture could affected ethic as well. That's why there are different ethic in different culture. While personal guidelines is very unique. Every human has their own guidelines depend on their religion, experiences of life and their own belief.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
2 Jul 10
I don't think it's true that every religion has scripture. Hinduism has writings but they're not considered as scripture the same way that Christians consider the Bible to be scripture. Obviously tribal groups who don't have writing have religions. I'm not sure if religions like Wicca have scripture.
@de_toya (2429)
• Indonesia
4 Jul 10
If any religion doesn't has scripture, how they pray to God? Scripture is like guide for the religious. I don't know much about other religion but I know five religions that recognized by our government and all of them have scripture. Hindu has Veda, Islam has al Quran, Christian has bible and Buddhist has Tripitaka. I believe that scripture was written by person who has ability to receive God revelation directly. They are the saints. So, if some people claim that they have religion but don't have scripture, then I think they just believe in God.
@ericcam168 (14)
• Malaysia
30 Jun 10
The purpose of all religions are simple - Love, justice, peace and unity and progress. All religion teach us LOVE.
@jambi462 (4576)
• United States
3 Jul 10
I would have to say that religion was created as a way to get in touch with a higher power. I would also say that religion is something designed to give us something to believe in and something to give us morals to help us make decisions in life. A lot of religion is mainly just ideals and ways of life.
Whether you choose to believe in a religion or not you have to admit that the power of faith is a pretty strong thing and will allow us to stay motivated even in the most depressing situations. I feel that each person should study an religion or philosopher that interests them because there is an endless fountain of knowledge out there and we each need to find ourselves and find our own beliefs and ideals. There are a lot of religions out there that have some pretty amazing concepts that will help you to develop your own opinions as well.
@airakumar (1553)
• India
30 Jun 10
Hi Annie,
The more I study history, the more I see that religion has been the source and the cause for most of the conflicts in the world; most of the wars and the most of the hates. Religion is as old as humankind. Yet the purpose of religion has varied from time to time and from place to place. Religion's purpose is not for a moral code. It's not for an epiphany. It's not for a happy feeling or a sense of purpose.
Thanks.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
2 Jul 10
How many wars have been caused by religion or is it really that religion is an excuse for the war?
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
2 Jul 10
Huh!
Firstly Jehovah is mistake based on Jews combining the constants YHWH (which most English Bibles translate as "the Lord") with the vowels from Elohim (which most English Bibles translate as "God") because they didn't like to write or say the word YHWH for fear of breaking the 3rd commandment (not to misuse the name of God).
Secondly Yeshua (Jesus), who's the son and incarnation of YHWH, had twelve disciples. I think everybody agrees that religion obviously goes back a long way before that. The Bible has God talking to Adam, the first man. Religion almost certainly started before writing was invented and we don't have records of what happened back then. I think it's interesting that writing is thought to have been invented in the middle East about 3000 BC, and the Bible seems to place creation around 4000 BC, suggesting that Genesis may have been compiled from some of the earliest ever writing.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
2 Jul 10
Your religion is the sum of your beliefs about morality and the paranormal. This definition fits Christianity and Buddhism (which I've heard it argued aren't religions) but excludes football (which I've heard argued is).
This means that you can't NOT have a religion, it would be like not having a mass (here I use this word in the scientific sense or a quality that determines how much energy it takes to accelerate you by a particular amount). Atheism and Agnosticism are religions. The closes you can come to not having a religion is to have a very vague and poorly thought out religion. This is why separation of church and state gets problematic, because it tends to make Atheism the state religion instead of not having one.
Presumably religion started when man became capable of understanding morality and thinking that there might be a paranormal realm. Religion is mentioned in some of the oldest known writing, and therefore the beginning of recorded history. What happened before that is rather vague.
I think a cult is a subset of a religion. Cults brainwash people with low protein diets, sleep deprivation and deprivation of privacy. There are such things are marketing cults, which aren't very religions but still have the brainwashing.
Without religion, what is the point of life? You could argue what is the point of God but I don't think anybody has a good answer for that, just as nobody has a good answer of what the point of life is without God.
@getbiswa2000 (5544)
• India
1 Jul 10
Hi,
I think the main purpose of religion is to make human life more bearable and peaceful. Where the scope of our logic is limited we should depend upon our faith. There is a great statement made by Swami Vivekananda about religion. He said, "A learned ignorance is the end of philosophy and the beginning of religion." If you want to be complete and want a proportionate and integrated personality, religion is the quickest way. If you want to be happy and get love and unmixed blessings from others, religion is the method. Religion helps you to stay satisfied even in the most distressful situations. It reveals your self to you and make you more transparent and charismatic to others. Religion infuses in men, true love, affection beyond expectations. It makes you happy and free and that too without depending on any external factor. Thanks.
God bless you
@vishnumuthu (169)
• India
1 Jul 10
there are better question from u.and i have some better answer too that is there are lot of people in the world and in the olden days,there are some people who never come in the way of the king and on seeing them others too joined on their side so to have a control on all the people,the king on one other that his rule started a new way to rule the people by controlling by religion and that sooner be detached from the kingship and that is all about..have fun..
@meirhu (363)
• Israel
1 Jul 10
A lot of big questions.
We have learned that men have always had religion.
It is an attempt to try to understand how the world works.
Humanism is the newest religion and is very worth while mentioning.
It is a religion without a "God".
I'm not going to try to answer all the questions.
@lantisred (77)
• Philippines
1 Jul 10
Religion is belief plus tradition. Biblically , there is no religion, there is relation with a person and our Father. These followers, have a direct relation with God, and if you read the Bible, has a direct conversation with God. Religion sprouts way after the next generation of followers had come up with adding something to what is written, preferably their ideas. For example, and please this is only an example: there are 2 followers, one follower has his own rendition and understanding of a Biblical text, the other has his own and in a minor way disagrees with the other one's version. They then have friends and people under them that believe them causing a minor division in the group. The minor division worsen or each and every text they have disagreed at. Until one group follows one's rendition and what he says, and the other group follows the other. In a way, you can see instances of these happen a lot even today and with many cases not just belief.
@rappeter13 (8608)
• Romania
30 Jun 10
Religion exists because there is a God who rules the Universe. There are different type of religion because people interpret Him differently and there are other "worldish" factors that have influence on the different religions. There is no doubt about the fact that a superior "thing" exists because everybody does believe in something, even those who never heard about religions, worship something or somebody. The need of worshiping and believing in a superior force is in us. This is my opinion about this.
@markmarslu (19)
• China
1 Jul 10
someone that smart guy said religion is a tool for control people? really?hou you cna explain the different of Msulin and Buddhism ,the first is prodcut some terrible things and last one just lonely monk? So religion just a human activety and no any specialy for war and other collection action of human,,it`s mixture with culture and thogut , philosophy and other things ,so it`s really hard to say very detail.everyone have their own religion in their heard.
@kimberley123 (29)
•
2 Jul 10
Religion is just a way for people to try and explain the world around them. There is no right or wrong, and no real answers as to why we are here, and people use thier religion as a way of explaining this.
For many, religion is purely a comfort thing. Believing that god is looking out for you, that he loves you, is enough to get people through tough times.
I think religion does change with the times. Christianity has allowed female ministers because women are considered equals. Homosexuality is no longer considered a sin by most.
Essentionally, all religions are the same. It is just the names, dates and practices that change. Right down at the core, all religion (at least everyone i can think of from the top of my head) preach love not hate, respect for god and humanity, and to think right and do right. If more people realise this, maybe there would be less conflict in the world.
@animegirl334 (3263)
• United States
30 Jun 10
I think a religion is important for people to understand the meaning in life. When people believe in a religion, they have an identity, they have practices to follow and they have a way of life. They also know what to do with their lives. Like Christians know where they would go when they die. People who do not believe in a religion have more freedom in life but they also miss a lot of benefits that a religion offers.
@achilles2010 (3051)
• India
30 Jun 10
If we look around, we see that all creatures and animals live according to their given nature. Only human has a free will. He can choose to live either as an animal or as a human. Apparently, all have a semblance of a human but our base nature is that of an animal.
Human in earlier times realized that to live in society all must have a certain conduct. Society devised for them a set of rules. All were expected to follow those rules. Those who broke those rules society punished them. They soon discovered that society alone was not able to take care of the moral of the people living in the society. Some people in the society took upon themselves the task to take care of their morals. They realized that only power humans fear the most is God.
They told there is a supreme power to which all are answerable. They devised way to worship God. This system of faith and worship they named it religion. People found that religion was very effective in subduing the human nature. Thus, to some extent religion was able to take care of the moral of the people living in society.
Soon they realized that religion is a good money making business. With religion, several false religions too had evolved. They called these factions as cults.
While religion places the faith in God, the philosophy asks you to have faith in yourself without any assistance from God. In philosophy, you make your conduct right by mastering your opposing tendencies.
Then there are certain acceptable conducts. We call them ethics. Those who want to be morally right are expected to follow those ethics.
@shibilyt (252)
• India
30 Jun 10
religion are existed from the starting of the human kind. actually religions are the most essential for every one to live .
the religions have its own principles and by which the social stability is being maintained. every religion has their own principles and believers are compelled to follow that by that we can maintain our society.i f we have no religion there will be no guide lines for the people and there will not be a social stability in our world so religions are very important for the existence of a good world!!
may God bless us all!!
@blou020714 (163)
• Philippines
30 Jun 10
religion in my opinion is present to help us to be aware of our spiritual responsibility. and it is there to help us strenghten our faith and our connection with god. the way it is presented may change in various places and time such that it will be easily understood by the people but the thought and the value that they present is the same as of the old days.
@cherryjean (77)
• Philippines
30 Jun 10
I think RELIGION still exist because we, people, need it. :) And also, there's still a lot of believers.In the first place, religion won't exist if there are no believers. :D
That's all. : God bless.
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