Religion in Society - Essay Example

Religion in effect, gives these like minded people a place where they can meet and exchange ideas freely. Although their intention is based on sound principles, the problem is that religion, just like any clique in school or lifestyle trend in the real world, tends to encourage a sense of “group in, group out” among its members (Libby Anne “In Group, Out Group”).. Religion tends to encourage that their members mingle amongst each other and disallow influences outside of the church into their lives.

It is through this controlling aspect that religion manages to control their members. It is also this sense of belonging and safety among like minded people, who seemingly get hypnotized into believing the same things without question just because “God said so”, that has turned sect and religious membership into a group phenomenon (Stewart, Joyce “What the Phenomenon of a Small Group Says About the Vitality of the Local Church”). . William “Church-Sect Theory”). This theory as advocated by Weber is the basis of all other church-sect theories that were later developed by the likes of Ernst Troeltsch.

If one should ask people who have a strong religious belief how they became highly religious, that person will get either one of two answers. Either they were born into the religion and blindly raised on the principles so they simply continued on with the tradition because they know nothing else, or, the person being spoken to will claim to have had a religious awakening while they were at a very trying point in their lives. The first reason, indoctrination by birth, is the process by which one becomes religious in a church setting.

The other, becoming religious due to a traumatic event in life, is the process by which sects agrresively recruit their members (“The Two Ways to Become Religious: Rise or Fall”). Of the two methods, it is the latter that preys on unsuspecting people who are looking for someone to cling to or blame in life for their misfortunes. While the prior has the person indoctrinated from birth because he was exposed to nothing else and has been raised in a community of like minded people. This community has in effect removed his ability to think and decide for himself because of his need for acceptance within the church community, thus making him a religious person in the monkey see - monkey do sense of things.

The reason that is religious conflict is the same reason that there is constant war and strife in our world. Religious conflict is brought about because of the differing set of ideas that various churches and sects base their beliefs upon. Since their members oftentimes become highly passionate about their religious causes, this brings forth a time