Religion

According to Marx, religion and ethnicity are the two things in this world that will cause people to act irrationally. Again, as I have stated in my other blog posts, I don't think this concept can be agreed upon or denied. Nothing in our world is black and white, and I think many people look at things that way and it blocks the truth from their vision. Yes, religion is and has always been, a reasons why wars have been fought, why empires have crumbled, and why rulers have been assassinated. But I don't think the world is always going to be this way. Today, pictures are always coming to the forefront of Christians circling Muslims during their prayer merely so they can perform their practice in peace and harmony. And equally, we see many pictures of people killing in the name of their religion still today. I do realize that there is probably more proof of the latter going on in the world, but one hundred years ago we would not have even seen the harmony between religions that we can see today. I do think people are becoming more open-minded and accepting of their brethren. Particularly if their specific religion emphasized peace and harmony.
Some questions that were brought up in class: Does religion hinder or control rational thought? Is a person more likely to support/trust someone that has the same religious beliefs as them? To respond to the first question, no I don't think religion hinders rational thought. I think the way religion is taught may, though. If you grow up and are mentally conditioned to only accept what this specific person or book tells you, then yes that is a hard cycle to break and it may hinder your rationality. In other cases though, religion is left up to the individual. You're taught the dogma, yes usually from a young age still, but many people decide to take their own paths, not blindly follow the rantings of a crazy church leader or the like. It really just depends how you were raised, what your personality is like, and your past experiences. To answer the second question; personally I don't trust someone more or less depending on their religion. I'm not particularly religious at all and to be honest, unless someone is spouting Bible verses to me, I usually have no idea what someone's religious views are. I build trust on other aspects of their personality. This may be different for someone that is actually a devout Catholic or the like, I understand they probably trust one another more because they live their lives by the same "laws." But I don't think this stops them from trusting other people. Again, nothing is black and white. You always have anomalies in a group of people, both religion and non-religious so the role of religion on our lives I think is an organic and ever changing facet of our world.