In this essay, I will be explaining whether I think religion is a force for good or evil in this world and why I think that, I will be introducing the two different views; religion is a force for good and religion is a force of evil. I personally think religion is a force for good in the world, it is because of several reasons, there are teachings from the holy bibles of different religions where they teach us life lessons, for example, they establish that by doing good deeds like helping out with charities, you will be rewarded and treated well by your companions. In the next few paragraphs, I will be stating more reason why I think religion is a force for good in the world.
Religion may not be the kindest thing on earth as well, there are some evilness in it ask well. Terrorism is a popular topic in the society, many has been killed during these terrorist attacks and all done in the name of their god. Let’s take an example, September 9th 2001, four members of the terrorist organization- The Al Qaeda, took hijacked four of the planes that they boarded and two of them had hit the two World Trade Centre in New York City, one headed for The Pentagon outside of Washington DC, and the last one crashed straight down onto a rural field in western Pennsylvania; all happened on the same day, one after the other; killing over 3000 people and hundreds, thousands, injured.
Though it is to be said terrorist attacks are all done in the name of god, I still don’t think it is right and fair to attack innocent people and to create a negative effect and shadow on its life after an incident. “Fight in the cause of God of those who fight you” This is a quote from The Qur’an; even though it is to be said that they can fight in those who fight you, I don’t think it is right to be targeting at people who never hurt or actually know about you.
Despite these horrible actions, religion can also produce kindness and sincerity in people, let’s take a look at William Wilberforce; he was a member of the British parliament for Hull, and was a devoted evangelical Christian. His Christian faith attracted him in social reformation and made him want to improve of the factory conditions in England. But what Wilberforce is famous for is for what he and Thomas Clarkson had done in order to successfully abolish slavery. Thomas Clarkson, the abolitionist created a massive impact on Wilberforce, he persuaded Wilberforce to join his campaign to abolish slavery and to give slaves freedom; so for 18 years he regularly introduced the bad conditions of slaves to the parliament and joined in campaigns and protests. So, finally in 1807, slavery was abolished and of course, William wouldn’t have done this without believing in his religion.
There are a lot of good things about religion as well. There are heaps of charities around the world; there are bibles from different religions that teach us about why we should do good deeds for the less fortunate people. “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” from the Christian bible and “A place in God’s court can only be attained if we do service to others in this world.” from the words of the Sikhism bible. As from these two quotes, you can tell that it promotes us to do charity work, not just by using our mouths to speak, but to do actions, and to help other people if we would want to be in God’s court when we pass away. An example of a charity is Muslim Aid; they have been collecting in food donations and distributed them to homeless shelters in December 2012 .
Religion can cause us to relieve stress when we feel like we have a lot of pressure and we feel weak and do not want to carry on, your beliefs and religion can help you regain your energy. For example, you just had a busy day at work and you don’t want to go home and face another stack of work to do, you can stop and go somewhere quiet where you can pray to your God, beg them and ask them for your directions of what to do, and believe in what you say, and God will hear your prayers out and guide you towards your right path, it will take away stress and make you feel better because you know there is God behind your back supporting, believing and guiding your throughout your stressful maze.
In conclusion, I think religion is a force for good in the world and not evil; attacking innocent people is not a good way to represent your religion and it should never happen again, because religion is not for us to use violent but to create charities like Muslim Aid and the help out and gain reasonable rights like the abolition to slavery by Wilberforce, these two are both excellent examples. ¬
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