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| Behavior makes you a
better person. |
Beliefs
Religious belief refers to attitudes towards
mythological, supernatural, or spiritual aspects of a
religion. Religious belief is distinct from religious
practice and from religious behaviours – with some
believers not practicing religion and some practitioners
not believing religion. Religious beliefs, deriving from
ideas that are exclusive to religion, often relate to
the existence, characteristics and worship of a deity or
deities, to the idea of divine intervention in the
universe and in human life, or to the deontological
explanations for the values and practices centered on
the teachings of a spiritual leader or community. In
contrast to other belief systems, religious beliefs are
usually codified. |
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A popular view holds that different religions each have
identifiable and exclusive sets of beliefs or creeds,
but surveys of religious belief have often found that
the official doctrine and descriptions of the beliefs
offered by religious authorities do not always agree
with the privately held beliefs of those who identify as
members of a particular religion. |
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Adherence
Typical reasons for adherence to religion include the
following: |
- Some see belief in a deity as
necessary for moral behavior.
- Some regard religious practices as
serene, beautiful, and conducive to religious
experiences, which in turn support religious beliefs.
- Organized religions promote a sense
of community among their followers, and the moral and
cultural common ground of these communities makes them
attractive to people with similar values. Indeed, while
religious beliefs and practices are usually connected,
some individuals with substantially secular beliefs
still participate in religious practices for cultural
reasons.
- Each religion asserts that it is a
means by which its adherents may come into closer
contact with the Divine, with Truth, and with spiritual
power. They all promise to free adherents from spiritual
bondage, and to bring them into spiritual freedom. It
naturally follows that a religion which can free its
adherents from deception, sin, and spiritual death will
have significant mental-health benefits. Abraham
Maslow's research after World War II showed that
Holocaust survivors tended to be those who held strong
religious beliefs (not necessarily temple attendance,
etc.), suggesting that belief helped people cope in
extreme circumstances. Humanistic psychology went on to
investigate how religious or spiritual identity may have
correlations with longer lifespan and better health. The
study found that humans may particularly need religious
ideas to serve various emotional needs such as the need
to feel loved, the need to belong to homogeneous groups,
the need for understandable explanations and the need
for a guarantee of ultimate justice. Other factors may
involve sense of purpose, sense of identity, or a sense
of contact with the divine. See also Man's Search for
Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, detailing his experience with
the importance of religion in surviving the Holocaust.
Critics assert that the very fact that religion was the
primary selector for research subjects may have
introduced a bias, and that the fact that all subjects
were Holocaust survivors may also have had an effect.
According to Larson et al. (2000), "[m]ore longitudinal
research with better multidimensional measures will help
further clarify the roles of these [religious] factors
and whether they are beneficial or harmful."
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Psychologist James Alcock also summarizes a number of
apparent benefits which reinforce religious belief. These
include prayer appearing to account for successful
resolution of problems, "a bulwark against existential
anxiety and fear of annihilation," an increased sense of
control, companionship with one's deity, a source of
self-significance, and group identity. |
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Apostasy
Typical reasons for rejection of religion include: |
- Some people regard certain
fundamental doctrines of some religions as
illogical, contrary to experience, or unsupported by
sufficient evidence; such people may reject one or
more religions for those reasons. Even some
believers may have difficulty accepting particular
religious assertions or doctrines. Some people
believe the body of evidence available to humans to
be insufficient to justify certain religious
beliefs. They may thus disagree with religious
interpretations of ethics and human purpose, or with
various creation myths. This reason has perhaps been
aggravated by the protestations and emphases of some
fundamentalist Christians.
- Some religions include beliefs
that certain groups of people are inferior or sinful
and deserve contempt, persecution, or even death,
and that non-believers will be punished for their
unbelief in an after-life. Adherents to a religion
may feel antipathy to unbelievers. Numerous examples
exist of people of one religion or sect using
religion as an excuse to murder people with
different religious beliefs. To mention just a few
examples:
- the slaughter of the Huguenots
by French Catholics in the sixteenth century
- Hindus and Muslims killing each
other when Pakistan separated from India in 1947
- the persecution and killing of
Shiite Muslims by Sunni Muslims in Iraq
- the murder of Protestants by
Catholics and vice versa in Ireland (both of these
examples in the late twentieth century)
- the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
that continues as of 2018 – According to some
critics of religion, such beliefs can encourage
completely unnecessary conflicts and in some cases
even wars. Many atheists believe that, because of
this, religion is incompatible with world peace,
freedom, civil rights, equality, and good
government. On the other hand, most religions
perceive atheism as a threat and will vigorously and
even violently defend themselves against religious
sterilization, making the attempt to remove public
religious practices a source of strife.
- Some people may be unable to
accept the values that a specific religion promotes
and will therefore not join that religion. They may
also be unable to accept the proposition that those
who do not believe will go to hell or be damned,
especially if said nonbelievers are close to the
person.
- The maintenance of life and the
achievement of self-esteem require of a person the
fullest exercise of reason—but morality (people are
taught ests on and requires faith.
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