Amen (Religion)

Name: Tcraze84

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Product:	Religion
Date:	01/04/01 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives people a motivation and value of beliefs.

Disadvantages: Can often lead to conflict.

As stated in the overused cliche (well obviously..), "It's a free country/world/planet/et al..", within the confines of the law, the general public are in fact, pretty much free to do just about anything they want in life. Whether it be sky-diving, orthinology or some other activity, whatever it may be, you can be sure that this "hobby" will have a sect of hardcore devotees who put aside most of their life for this interest.

And in reality, religion (as a whole) is perhaps the most obsessive "hobby" there is. Whether it be Christianity or otherwise you can bet your bottom dollar (Euro/Pound...) that alongside the general, light followers - there will inevitably be those who take things perhaps a touch too far. Comparable with celebrity-obsessed fans who in effect, start to stalk their idols, religious followers will do very much the same thing - only in a slightly less brash, more socially-acceptable fashion.

Yes, even those who visit the church even just once a week are possibly, effectively doing the same as an obsessed teenager camping outside of Westlife's hotel and screaming praise. Sound familiar? Well, it should. Because if you think about in a more open-minded, 21st Century kind of way, that's EXACTLY what happens at church for 52 weeks of the year.

I must stress that these are not my views directly, but many do believe, in an Atheist-type way, that going to church, even if it is only once a week, is merely the socially-acceptable equivalent of praising and singing hymns to a brick wall. There is also the similarly-styled view that if indeed God, Allah, etc are indeed the planet's saviour, then why are all the current plights occuring in today's society? Poverty, war, whatever it may be, it seems that all of the devoted praying has not really achieved a lot so far. Indeed, to quote a personal experience, one of the first things my own mum said upon hearing of Princess Diana's d
eath was "How can there possibly be a God??". I must admit that (a) I found this to be a strange thing for my mum to be saying in the first place and (b) a little over-the-top. I could however, see where she was coming from.

Indeed, on the metaphorical other side of the coin, it seems that, as mentioned elsewhere on this category, that religion may have in fact, caused more harm than good over time. Countless wars and battles have broken out, more recently for example, the Irish, Middle-Eastern and Balkan conflicts, simply due to conflicting religious beliefs and the realising that they could no co-exist.

However, I of course will not ignore the many good things that have arisen from religion. Many have found comfort in religion, commonly reformed alcoholics or drug-addicts for example, but in extreme cases, murderers, schizophrenics and the like. I see no reason that if the aforementioned were to be converted back into "social-acceptancy", that religion should not be the all-important motivator to give these people a fresh start or some realisation/direction in life. Religion as a whole, also brings people together in one way or another, which can only be a good thing.

I feel I should start to round things off now before I start to build up malicious comments and revenge ratings, as undoubtedly, I must have offended somebody, somewhere. Please let me stress that I sincerely hope I have not, and never set out to do this in the first place. What I did set out to do was to provide a balanced argument, which I hope I have achieved. Thanks for reading.

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