As Modern Society, This House Would Leave Religion

In the given motion, there are 3 variables that we can explore and characterize, which are modern society, leave, and religion. So, for the first variable: modern society, it could be elaborated like our present condition (the Millenials, the people whose life is greatly influenced by science or information technology, like internet. Generally people who lived in the 20th century. They are the people who take things rationally (means they conduct researches, present evidences, use principles to support their claim on something). On the opposite, the conservative or traditional people would be type of people who just simply believe something is true just because they are told so or the legends/myths/fables/divine messages say so.

The second variable ‘leave’, is to be interpreted literally, which would have the meaning of not exercising it anymore. It does not mean necessarily banning it. So it will require reasons why we should or should not leave religion. Next, the characteristic of religion (this is the best part). The one and only exclusive feature of religion that no other thing has, is the concept of afterlife (but none of us has ever experienced it, and those who did, never come back 🙁 so that makes us still clueless until today). Seriously, if some of you pay attention toward your surroundings, you would have realize this sooner. Some people would just say that “religion makes me a better person” or “without religion, there is no order”, etc. stuff. Well, FYI, in order to be a better person, there are now many options just to be a better person, e.g. rehabilitation (LOL!), morality education, therapy, psychology Ed, etc. Those options could accommodate your need to be a better person though. Another thing like ‘religion brings order/peace’ stuff, is also not exclusive anymore, such as the existence of Human Rights/United Nations/any other local/international law/treaty to accommodate justice. Another characteristic of religion would be that it is demanding people to behave in a certain way. Remember: we are not proving religion is true or not. Just whether or not the existence of religion brings more harm or good.

Hopefully that introduction would do.

Team Positive

Background

Believe it or not, thanks to science, now we have discovered a lot of things that is not supposed to be discovered (re:taboo). Worse, not only that we have discovered the taboo things, but we also begin to compromise ourselves with the so-called-evil things. In our society today, we have finally been exposed toward the existence of the LGBT people, the Feminist movement, the interracial/interfaith marriage, and any other considered-to-be-weird trends. Instead of promoting peace in the global community, religion actually plays a contributing factor toward the rejection experienced by the minority/vulnerable groups.

Argument #1: Religion is outdated and unable to cope with the modern world.

Everyday, scientists are struggling to enrich our knowledge with their discoveries and researches. Many of our scientific finding today has successfully answered the used-to-be-a-magical-phenomeno-but-not-anymore-today. Just a very simple example (too lazy to present a more actual evidence, but here’s the general concept), some people still literally believe that natural disasters are caused by God’s wrath as a punishment. Well, such claim is to not be taken into account, since there is no actual proof or principles to back up the proof. The one and only source of knowledge you could present is only in the holy scriptures, yet they are also very vulnerable toward misinterpretation or mistranslation (grammar and vocabulary matters!), since the holy scriptures have been passed down for many generations.

The elaboration does not end there. Because of the rise of both natural and social science, humanity has moving forwards. Sciences have brought us to a new degree of understanding, to take things objectively, not subjectively. The value of our science is the standard that is agreed by the humanity, who believe in clause and effect approach. To simply believe in the story of a certain divinely-inspiring figure would just contribute to ignorance. Not to mention the nature of religion that is self-righteous (no matter what, others’ religion are wrong).

Argument #2: The concept of reward and punishment in religion is just radical.

In religions we are taught to be good in life so that later we are rewarded in our afterlife. This is totally a good motivation to construct a positive behavior. However, such point is often to be misunderstood, especially when it comes to the self-righteous nature of religion glorified by the ignorant people. The results would be devastating. For starters, religion greatly influences the believer’s lifestyle. It can be seen on how the LGBT movements are constantly being rejected and sometimes assaulted in society because of the hatred. The hatred that is subtly come from religion, but mainly encouraged by human. Human with its limitation and sometimes evil purpose, e.g. the fault in interpreting the religious scriptures, the hidden agenda/personal interest,etc.

Those who become victims are not the evangelist/the preacher, but rather the poorly-educated-and-ignorant-people who overrate the value of a religion without actually knowing the bigger picture or truth behind. There are crowds who are ready to do whatever necessary just to protect one’s extreme ideology, with the promise of a great afterlife. These are the crowds who are willing to deny other people’s rights just to justify and satisfy themselves. In this argument, religion has become a rather political tool than just a good lifestyle. A platform to rule people based on the afterlife fear of punishment. The only antidote is education and proper understanding of our surrounding, which is only accommodated by sciences.

Team Negative

Background

Here we are going to defend religion at all costs. First of all, historically speaking, right before the birth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the fancy United Nations, people are relying on religion. It is not the platform that is being credited, but the values within. Religion obviously promotes good values (no doubt(s), right?). Everything is meant well, with no evil intention. Those who corrupted religion is none other than man. Moreover, religion also supports the law in a way that people would have doubts before committing crimes (for they fear of having sins), which is arguably effective, but at least, the extra prevention action is there (better than none). Also, although it may sound like a schizophrenic person, but humans also have a spiritual need and it is better to have a higher-order friend than just a regular imaginary friend.

Argument #1: It accommodates human’s spiritual need.

Quite sure that most humans experience the bitter part of life, that has so many nicknames: failure/rejection/tragedy/any-other-terrible-things-that-fall-upon-you. There is a point when we got broken (not physically, but mentally). There is no source of power anymore from you or your surrounding. You have no one to rely on. Nobody seems to care about you. And in this moment, suicidal behavior is just so feasible to rise. The amount of helplessness and hopelessness have consumed all your desire to live. But behold, right in this lowest point of your life, religion plays its role significantly. Using the label of faith, has magically encouraged human to keep on dreaming and living. With faith, you get the power to move on with life and deal with it, knowing that none of your actions are futile (in line with the concept of reward and punishment mentioned previously).

Furthermore, in mortal’s life there are just so many unfairness. No matter how you have been behaving, there is the X-factor that deny what is rightfully yours. Just a simple example, we are told that if we work harder then we would get rich. Well, the reality is that even though the Africans have been working so hard on their mines, yet they remain poor and in fact exploited. Given the circumstances, the reality has taken their hope. it is through religion that God understands your condition and has the authority to deliver the ultimate justice, a justice that no man could give. Modern people may stick with research and science, however, people are equipped with many vulnerabilities. The problems vary and some of them can be resolved with the spiritual exercise. So, this is one of religion’s benefits.

Argument #2: It reinforces the law in a way

If you exercise religion constantly, you would come to the realization that religion is very demanding of us. For example, in Islam, its believers are expected to pray 5 times a day. This is the trait of religion to control and make us obedience. Basically, the value that we obey is in line with general humanity, i.e. compassion and love. The philosophy is that humans have to learn to control themselves from the tempting environments. And they could only learn it from the higher being, God. Because God plays a role that humans can’t.

In the realm of mortals, where constant disagreements always exist, religion promotes the value of forgiveness. This is one of the many possible reasons why the Criminal Justice System has the rehabilitation point, not just simply killing the criminals. The concept of religion is that everyone is born in a white slate, then for some reasons, we screw up and become sinful. And through religion, our sins could be washed away so that we become pure again and then rewarded in the afterlife.