When thinking about religion and the origins of religion, it is important to recognize that some practices have become more secular than they once were. When thinking about religion, one tends to think of an archaic set of norms and rules that must be followed to ensure a promising afterlife filled with milk and honey.

Now, religion seems to be a competition of innovation separate from the spiritual realm, which was one the main focus. Religion can be seen as a way to create uniformity within a society, or brainwashing. A basic system to decipher what is wrong and right is already flawed because we see there are a lot of gray areas. However, religion can be both cultural and social.

The definition of religion has become more secular over the years and has been heavily influenced by a generation where things aren’t so black and white, a generation who also has a more lenient interpretation of sacred texts and allusions. This is because we have opened our minds in this age to see those gray areas that were once forbidden or stigmatized to speak about. For example, we have realized that to be a good Christian, this does not involve spending every minute attending bible studies and church every Sunday. It is what you do when you are outside of these places that show people who aren’t followers of a given religion, or any religion at all, should still be treated with respect and their beliefs should be respected.

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Any society needs structure to ensure success. By success, I mean a more democratic definition where there is a strong and unified infrastructure economically and politically. I feel religion has become a characteristic that dictated political affiliation and economy. For instance, in the United States, we have a history of Christian presidents. Since Christianity is such a widespread religion, and probably the biggest religion in such a glorious place, we are depicted to be superior and established, maybe even elite. There may not be an exact correlation between religion and these types of success, but predominately, Christian countries seem to be more progressive. Not to say that’s better than Islamic faiths and Hindu, but the image associated with these people and the history of their cultures are portrayed to be more positive than Indonesia, where the population is mostly Islamic.

Religion can also be a way to divide people, which is not always a bad thing. By holding on to the religion, you are also holding on to a piece of history of when that religion was started, where it was started and how far your people have come. For example, Christianity is widespread in the Black community since being enslaved in the 17th century. This was a part of our history. Without knowing our history, I imagine it would be hard to understand the current obstacles and oppression that exist today as an effect. The only problem is when people take differentiating to mean that one group is superior to another. I believe that there is nothing wrong with keeping people separated as long as they are equal and time is taken to understand different people, being considerate to what they believe in. This goes into being exposed to more than one view and involved in things outside of your own interests. Just because you may not believe in all the details in a particular aspect of a belief, does not mean you should reject it.

One thing that I have noticed is that the foundations of religions have a lot of similarities. One commonality is the idea of God, monotheistic or polytheistic. The idea of God is understood to be almighty and supreme, and life being a plan of God to be like him and move closer to him. There is still the idea that there is a God, a creator, who lives in us as well and the idea that we, as people, are children of him. Also, the idea of an afterlife and how it is impacted by the actions of your current life is common.

One thing I have found especially in the course of writing this is how hard it is to distinguish between religion and belief. I have come to the conclusion that the distinction is religion being something to help give hope and explain different concepts and elements of life. It is not necessary to be of religion and agree with every aspect. That is where belief comes in — your own personal thoughts on issues related to religion. Most people are born into the religion that they pursue, but everyone has different experiences that require an individual analysis of faith and the importance of faith.

Faith is a difficult concept to understand because living in blind faith means not questioning the concepts of religion and legitimacy. However, for me to openly profess my affiliation, I would want to be sure of everything that comes with that particular affiliation. I think just the thought of questioning is a very millennial attitude. Asking questions is an effort to understand things rather than just taking them for what they are. I don’t even see how you could understand something fully without at least asking questions — and that is the easy part. You still have to go looking for the answers.

Religion also is a way to recognize what is right and wrong, to an extent. Not saying that people are taught only through religion what is wrong, but there is spiritual reinforcement that something is waiting for you if you do the right thing. We are constantly bribed into situations where if you do this, you will get that. Like when your parent told you to do your homework and if you did it, you could get your favorite dessert. We are constantly reinforced with these kinds of mechanisms.

As a Christian, we believe Jesus died for our sins and we should try to be like him and not sin. We understand that as human we sin, but it seems like the big ones are what we focus on. Our norms are set up based on the fact that we all believe murder, stealing and disobeying our parents are bad because they are sins. However, when it comes to topics like sexuality, which is most commonly opposed by religions, being good to thy neighbor goes out the window because we are used to a church run state no matter how much we don’t want to admit it. It would be interesting to see what life would consist of if this kind of law enforcing concept were different. Because of the fact that most people try to be as close to God as they can or at least supposed to be, I feel like the government may use this. If you weren’t scared of physical consequences of deviance, then there would also be spiritual ramifications to follow.

Another popular argument when concerning religion is whether you agree with science or faith. I do not think this is a real argument. I think this is one of those things that, because of progression and rebellion to older ways, people started to question and were rejected by religion so they are able to question science and get answers through science.

As a result, religion, like many other words, holds a generational definition. When I think of religion, I think of something old and set in stone. Something, that for the most part, everyone is familiar with. I think of it as something that binds humans together, but also keeps us separated by our ignorance. The definition of religion and being religious is not as strict, and this can be a good thing considering all of the scrutinies within the church.

Diversity is an idea that we seem reluctant to accept, but I'm optimistic about what we could become. We seem to be going more into the direction of looking for spirituality, asking questions and making our own beliefs. We have religion and appreciate the foundations, but in our age of progression, we tend to flock to easier concepts that are convenient and have more than one explanation, so to speak. I believe that religion is something people forget this country was built on.

Janei Holder

Writing since April 2019 · 3 stories contributed