Q1 L3: Positive and Negative Effects

• 6 POSITIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION INCLUDES:

  • promotes social harmony
  • provides moral values
  • provides social change
  • reduces fear of the unknown
  • it gives people a sense of belonging
  • gives positive goals in life
• religion provides moral values as it provides a systematic

  model of the universe, which in effect determines organized

  human behavior. By providing moral values, one is able to

  distinguish right from wrong, good from evil. It also provides a

  system of reward and punishment that administers and

  standardizes people’s behavior in society.
• 6 NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION

  • affirms social hierarchy
  • causes discrimination
  • triggers conflicts and fights
  • economic tool for exploiting the masses
  • impedes scientific success and development
  • obstructs the use of reason
• Some religions affirm social

  hierarchy often favouring men and as a result, perpetuate the

  notions of class or gender discrimination and oppression.
• Religious fanaticism can lead

  to feelings of hatred, which could lead to racism, and

  eventually violence. Throughout history, religion has been

  used by colonizers to justify their forcible occupation of

  territories.
• According to the German philosopher Karl Marx, “religion is the

  opium of the masses.” According to Marx, it maintains social

  inequality by propagating a worldview that justifies oppression.

  He believed that religion can be effectively used by the ruling class

  to maintain a social order that is more favorable to them. Whether

  one is Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, religious teachings justifying

  one’s acceptance of oppression as a normal part of life
• it has often been said that the Catholic

  Church used to teach that the world is flat
• the case of the trepanning, or the ancient practice of boring holes

  in the human skull, a surgical procedure performed on epileptics

  and the mentally ill, with the belief that through the hole the evil

  spirit will leave the person.