Sean Riddle
Professor Patton
ENGL1010M24
20 March 2014
Organized Religion Harms Humanity Since the beginning of time we, the human species, have looked all around ourselves to find reason and understanding for the aspects of life that are uncertain. Ultimately, people have come up with the idea that the fate of our species is in the hands an all-knowing, unseen force that controls everything around us. This idea spread around the world in many different cultures, resulting in the organization of “faith” or “religion”. This is where one’s urges to be curious and seek truth and reason end. One researcher says that “with the victory of faith based forces, science and learning-the age old victims of religion-now face a danger such as they have not seen since the time of the Holy Roman Inquisition” (Zindler). Every day, organized religion harms humanity, discrediting science-based information and inspiring war and terror. The threat to science, our “secular savior,” is something that cannot be ignored. For example, one researcher contends President George W. Bush, under his faith in God and religious beliefs discerning right and wrong, “pulled out of the Kyoto Accord (an international treaty on global warming), and does not believe global warming to be a reality” (Zindler). Under the same religious fashion, President Bush also selected his advisors based on their ideology and ties to Bush-friendly industries, instead of their scientific expertise. Voters who choose leaders of our country based on religious backgrounds throw out all hope of support for life sustaining scientific advancements, because scientific facts and ideas simply do not fit the Bible bill. Zindler states:
Since science is the only antidote to the lethally wishful thinking of religion, it is worrisome to the edge of terrifying to discover that the chief executive of this great nation is woefully ignorant of science. Although these United States of America are the fruit of the period known as Enlightenment-a period when religion was subjected to scientific study and many had cast off its shackles-they are now governed by an Evangelist-in-chief rather than by a scientist and discoverer of truth such as Thomas Jefferson. (2)
To say that religion is being used as an excuse for the corruption that infests our government would be a massive understatement.
Through time, organized religion has also been the underlining cause of many wars such as the Catholic Protestant War in Ireland, and the Crusades. The Catholic Protestant War was simply a power struggle between Irish Catholics and English Protestants. Over the last 80 years, religious divide caused many wars and terrorist attacks. The first of the Crusades began in 1095, when armies of Christians from Western Europe responded to Pope Urban II’s plea to go to war against Muslim forces in the Holy Land. One philosophy professor, Gad Horowitz states that, “The concept of blood sacrifice is a part of every religion and part of every war” (Phifer). He also argues that, “What ancient people did in sacrificing humans to appease gods, we have come to do in war” (Phifer). The simple truth is that nations have not agreed on certain life creeds and have different organized faiths, which define their vision of right and wrong and light their path to “Heaven.” These differences have resulted in massive blood shed in the name of “God.”
Religious fanatics all over the world argue that humanity needs organized religion. They state “Religion gives people a framework in which our lives make since” (Phifer). “Our lives can take on a