Effects of Religion

CheckPoint: Effects of Religion

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CheckPoint: Effects of Religion

Religion has the unique quality that it can either unite or divide a society. Throughout history, there are thousands of examples that show how an organized religion can unite a people. Throughout the middle ages, Catholicism was the center of any major town or city. People lived by the church bells that would echo through villages. Births, deaths and weddings would all be announced by the sound of the bells and Sunday Mass was a regular routine. While the strength of the Catholic Church has waned over the years, the unification of religion has remained. Even today, small towns across the world use church bells to toll the hour and announce social events.

Unfortunately, the opposite effect can also be true in the fact that religion can divide a society as quickly as it can unite. Look at the Holy Wars that were fought in Medieval History and look at the ones that are still going on today, they might not be called holy wars but they are and some of them raged for decades. Millions of peoples have died over millennia’s in the name of religion because their particular brand or ideas are more "correct" than their neighbor's. Look at Northern Ireland, it has been torn apart because of Irish Catholic and Protestant factions warring in the city; killings were done in the name of God and often seen as something that needed to be done. Even school aged children would avoid certain classmates because of religious beliefs. In America, we see the same sort of prejudices in dealing with Muslim groups. There is a strong distrust based solely on religious beliefs.