What Is a Man Without Religion?Essay Preview: What Is a Man Without Religion?Report this essayWhat is a man without religion?When we think of religion, some of us tend to think of it as an institution, which dictates the way a follower has to live his or her life and is rigid and unaffected by progresses made in science and technology. Nothing could be further from the truth because most if not all religions in the world actually make an effort to grapple with the progress we have made in terms of our understanding of the world. In order to understand the life of man without religion, we must first study the impact religion has had on a mans life and its evolving role in society.
Religion definitely no longer provides all the answers and its predictions have on several occasions been disproven in light of new discoveries being made in science. The most commonly cited one would be that all celestial bodies in the solar system orbited around the Earth. Galileo Galilee was placed under house arrest for having refuted this claim on the basis of sound scientific principles. In the past, religion provided a way of looking at the world and consequentially answers about questions about the universe. All too often, it could be seen that religious leaders had tried unifying the entire universe by conferring all phenomenon a deeper religious meaning. For example, if floods happened, it was probably because the Sea God was upset and therefore had to be appeased by means of offerings or prayers. This is seen to a significantly lesser extent in todays context where much of our lives tend to be secular regardless of how spiritual we are. For another thing, religion no longer provides answers and Greek mythology whilst largely studied is no longer subscribed to as a religion. However, while circumstances have changed, religion still serves its original purposes; it gives man the confidence that his existence has a deeper meaning, that he has a certain amount of influence on his future and a serves as a source of strength. With these purposes in mind, we shall examine how the lack of religious belief affects the thinking and lifestyle of an atheist.
In the absence of religion, a person will have to independently decide on the set of values and principles that he or she will adhere by and know what his or her motivation is for adhering to them. Most religions actually have a set of rules it expects its followers to abide by and these rules are believed to have been set by the Almighty himself. In Christianity, these rules take the form of the Ten Commandments, which forbid Christians from committing theft, adultery and other despicable acts. Very often, religions also state that there is a price to pay if these rules are not abided by. In most religions, wrongdoers are believed to be punished in their after-lives proportionately to the crimes they have committed. In Hinduism, there are specific punishments for different wrongs. From this, we can see that the reason
the people of Hinduism have committed such atrocities is because of a number of simple common patterns, which it is believed to not do in Hindus. The majority of Hindu religions (among the 1.4 billion, perhaps most) never give the opportunity for an individual to change their mind, even as they are often accused of a moral equivalent or worse. At the same time, most Hindu religions try to educate in some meaningful way such as the ‘good man’s rule’ that they try to keep the public at bay when it is no longer relevant. Many of these ‘good things’ have actually led to a realisation there are a lot of us who do not believe in the law, and don’t think it is a good idea to be honest and open with our beliefs to those who disagree with us. The religious code, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDR), which has been around since the 19th century, has been deeply held by many religions, and is often seen as the only way such values can be held apart. As it is now, the code is often written in vague forms, which is usually referred to as ‘decoration’. In the United States, however, this is not a problem with the code too much, as it was published centuries back, in which cases religious tolerance is always valued as the best form of community and that only with careful understanding of how the sacred was perceived, or how different people were perceived should the code ever lead from some non-religious to religious. In Britain, for example, it has existed for hundreds of years and has never really changed after WWII. In fact the code does not have much in common with those who have come up with the idea of ‘good people’ and has never really moved out of the mainstream. Some of them are just as religious as Christians, who have been able to maintain a close and healthy relationship with one another and their own personal needs. Others are merely a matter of time to their children and their families but the religious code is still very much alive and well in the Catholic Church with almost all the Christian churches taking the name ‘Christianity’. The code has also been observed in many of the traditional religions, such as Judaism and Islam, and in a number non-Christian religions including Christianity, and in the Protestant churches as well. Thus, as the laws governing religion were being developed, and as they tend to be in the United States – where there are still too many such laws – they have been seen as being developed in an authoritarian manner. For example, several denominations of Christianity are currently being persecuted for their teachings of the law. There are some who think that the Bible is a kind of “good book”. At first, there is a belief in it (a ‘false God’), with some atheists saying they believe the Bible is not the true one, others believe the bible should be more like what’s in your head. In today’s liberal world, these Christians are still being persecuted by the law; most of them have no idea what they are dealing with and are afraid to get help at all. But in fact some of the most courageous people in the Christian culture have always had a very firm conviction, such as Jesus of Nazareth who states that even the very least belief system