Report on the Degree of Religiousness of Human Beings - Essay Example

Report on the Degree of Religiousness of Human Beings The present report is mean to offer insight into the of religiousness understood as from the perspective of three major criteria on which I shall focus and which basically embody the meaning of religiousness for all human beings, regardless of their race, gender or nationality. According to the first one, religion cherishes life and protects it irrespective of the form it may embrace: human beings, animals, unborn children  since all mankind therefore should share “the belief of the immortality of the soul of man” (Tuke 7).

Secondly, all human beings must praise their deity and seek to evolve spiritually in places of worship . Thirdly, religion promotes peace and urges people to live together in harmony, without resorting to violence or war. The first principle seems to be understood and known by the vast majority of people: their life is an inalienable right and on the other hand, they cannot take somebody else’ s life away. There are many instances, however, in which human beings forget about this principle and commit suicides or murders, get involved in terrorist attacks and do abominable acts.

People have also designed laws which encourage abortion which is not seen as a crime as  “it destroys only a collection of cells, which could not survive outside the womb before the 24th week of the pregnancy”( Jordan 24). This shows that many humans do not believe in the existence of the human soul right from the moment of conception but only after birth. As a consequence, there are  less frequent the cases in which mothers kill their newly-born babies. Quite paradoxically, a very large majority believe in the soul’s immortality as once a person is buried the living family asks a priest to perform ceremonies in order to enable an easy passage of the soul in the afterlife although that person was not a fervent believer in the religious principles.

Getting to know one’s deity is surely the first step towards knowing yourself.  There are many churches, synagogues, mosques which are full of crowds of believers but at the same time they are significantly outnumbered by those who show no concern for their spiritual life. In terms of figures, H. Byrne states that according to the study Unchanged Americans made by George Gallup in 1978 “at least 61 million American adults were not members of any church” . Another concerning finding was that  “many Americans did not think church membership and attendance were important in being Christian” (11).

The situation has even worsened since then as now there are online churches broadcasting religious events or chapels in which one can get married on the spot just for fun. Humankind is mesmerized by the breakthroughs of new technology as they prefer to sit in front of a laptop and watch a religious ceremony than to physically participate to it. The last point I want to make is related to the  principle that religion should preach about peace and harmony. Although one cannot say there are many global conflicts and peace seems to prevail , terrorism is a constant threat to humankind as according to the Muslim faith  “not all violence can be condemned, and even that it may become an obligation and a duty”.

This form of defending one’s belief  makes “religious violence different and more dangerous than secular violence” (Larsson 32) . Planning bomb attacks, killing civilians, the lack of religious tolerance of the extremist groups illustrates a high degree of moral and religious backwardness. It is true that many religions work together to make peace prevail, they don’t reach a common ground or mutual understanding  because religious dialogue has a marginal place as opposed to the political, economic and social one.

The function of religion seems to be highly utilitarian, which means that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”( Mill 8).  Thus religious principles are applied only when they best suit their subjective interests: a woman who doesn’t want a child can have an abortionin order to be happy and enjoy life, adults can comfortably watch the broadcast of  Holy Mass to prove to get the satisfaction of being a believer and terrorists kill to protect themselves.

Religious principles are applied very subjectively and only when they make humans happy. As a conclusion, the degree of religiousness of human beings is overall quite low as they have a distorted image of what the three religious principles mean. Reference page: Byrne, Herbert. W. Reclaiming Inactive Church Members. Bloomington: Trafford, 2003 Jordan, Anne. Thinking about God and Morality: Study Guide for Aqua Gcse Religious Studies B. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd., 2003 Larsson , J.P. Understanding Religious Violence.

Thinking Outside the Box of Terrorism. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004 Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism.1863. Heydt. Colin (ed.) Ontario: Broadview Press, 2011 Tuke, Henry. The Principles of Religion as Professed by the Society of Christians. New York: Samuel Wood and Sons, 1819