Religion : The Answer To All Or Puzzling Nonsense

By: 오주한

Religion, a particular system of faith and worship towards something sacred and fantastical, usually a god. Religions have sprung up over 3000 years ago, and have been influencing the lives of many ever since. You would think that such an important system would have intricate coordination and algorithm, but this is all flawed, for religion is centered around people’s beliefs. While some believers think religion is the answer to all, I believe it is nonsense.

     Let’s take a step back and look at all the times religion caused great conflicts between 2 religious groups. The Thirty Years War,which took place between 1618 to 1648, lasted 30 years as the name suggests and happened because of Catholicism. In simple terms, Ferdinand Ⅱ, the Roman Emperor at that time wanted to force Catholicism into people he had power over, but it caused people to rebel and eventually start a war. This war later turned less about religion and more about the government, but it is clear that the reason behind all that fighting was religion. Another noticeable war is The Crusades, which happened between 1095 to 1291 because of religion. The conflict happened between the Christians and Muslims when a disagreement occurred about securing sites that were considered holy to both of the groups. The brutal war lasted about 200 years and killed off many soldiers who fought for their beliefs. Were the deaths that took place because of these 2 wars really necessary?

     The 2 wars described above both happened because of differences in belief and religion. In a world that already suffers because of the conflicts that happen about race, language, and gender, we do not need another factor that will set people apart from the rest. To support this, according to both police reports and victim surveys regarding a crime, about 10% of all crimes happen because of a religious bias. 52% of these crimes are aimed towards Muslims. As you can see, religion is often the starter of conflicts and only causes confusion and chaos to one’s mind and the society.

     The 2nd, reason why religion is nonsense, is that it has no scientific evidence supporting the existence of their beliefs. The fact we all know is that there is no concrete evidence that god really exists. Some might say that the lack of evidence means god can be real, since it also means that there is no evidence against the existence of god either. But scientifically speaking, there is plenty of evidence. Religion is not something that someone makes because it is true, but rather something someone makes to feel comfort, joy, relief and other positive emotions by having someone to beg, blame, plead, and sometimes even take advice from. People want to believe because it is a lot easier that way for them to live, and we can see this just by typing in ‘Does god exist?’ in our google search bar. There are many more articles saying that god does exist than the opposite ; people want to believe in god. Maybe just believing in something is okay, but taking advice from someone non-existent and begging for something that will never come true is wrong. Religion is not scientific and can disturb the human mind.

     To sum up, religion is nonsense and flawed because it is a seed for violence and has no scientific evidence supporting it, making it dangerous to the human mind. However, I do think that believing to some extent where you find inner peace while not being influenced too much by it is completely okay, if not healthy. The true effects that religion will have on the up-coming modern society is yet to be seen, but I doubt the new era that leans heavily on science will consider religion the answer to all.