INFLUENCES OF

RELIGION TO
CULTURE AND
SOCIETY
Influences of Religion to Culture and Society
• The Growth and Spread of World Religion had a
Great impact on Culture and Society. Extensive
Researches have Emerged over the past years that
establishes the fact that Religious practices and
beliefs have the vast potential to make or break
one’s society.
POSSITIVE EFFECTS OF RELIGION
• 1. PROMOTES SOCIAL HARMONY
Religion believes in supernatural beings and powers. Religion
practices a set of rituals and ceremonious rites of passage and
intensification. It also regards religious leaders in high esteem.
These characteristics help advance social harmony by
assimilating and stabilizing cultures and nations. Religion
provides divine authority to ethical and moral principles which
also help promote unity among people.
•2.PROVIDES MORAL VALUES
This is one of the most
significant functions of religion. It provides a
systematic model of the universe, which in effect
determines organized human behavior. By
providing moral values, one is able to distinguish
right from wrong. good from evil.
•3. PROVIDES MORAL VALUES Since
religion is a source of moral values, it provides
social change. It can be very effective in lobbying
and campaigning for certain social issues using
its own moral teachings as the basis for argument.
• 4. Reduces the Fear of the Unknown Religion was
developed from man's need to have a sense of origin and
destination; to discover where they came from and where they
are bound to go when they die. Religion provides answers for
phenomena and questions that science or reason cannot explain.
Myths about creation abound but more importantly, religion has
provided assurances as to where spirits will go when people die,
reducing people's fear of death as something undesirable.
 •5. Gives Positive Goals in Life
People were inspired by the stories of different prophets from their own
religious affiliations like that of Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. These
people showed how ordinary people like them were given important
missions in life, and how they struggled to carry out their respective
missions. Their narratives (known to us because of religion) may give
people a sense of meaning in life; that they are not placed in this world
without a purpose, that each has a mission to fulfill and it is up to them to
fathom what their missions in life are.
• 6.GIVES PEOPLE A SENSE OF BELONGING
For some, religion provides people with personal
identity as part of a group with similar worldviews,
beliefs, values, practices, and lifestyles. Belonging to a
particular religion - whose members share the same
beliefs, practices the same rituals and worship the same
god-gives individuals a sense of being in the right place
with the right people.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF
RELIGION
• 1. Affirms Social Hierarchy Some
religions often favor men and as a result,
perpetuate the notions of class or gender
discrimination or oppression.
•2. Causes Discrimination Religion can be a source of discrimination or the prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. Some
people do not tolerate religious ideologies different from the one they follow. Religious fanaticism can lead to feelings of hatred, which could lead to
racism and eventually violence.
• 3. Triggers Conflict and Fight Wars have
been fought in the name of religion. Numerous lives
were sacrificed and lost and this phenomenon
continues up to the present time.
• 4. As an Economic Tool for Exploiting
the Masses Karl Marx said "Religion is the opium of
the masses." he believes that religion maintains social
inequality by propagating a worldview that justifies
oppression. People will not complain of being poor or being
in the lower ranks because "the kingdom of Heaven is
waiting for them"
• 5. Impedes Scientific Success and
Development Catholic church
claimed that the earth was flat and that it is the center of
the solar system and so when Copernicus stated his
theory that the sun is the center of the solar system, he
was banned from the church and his book was banned
for more than 200 years.
• 6. Obstruct the Use of Reason Many
question the sustainability of religious doctrines to
the needs of the present and future generations.
Ancient religious beliefs and practices which have
proven to be inhuman should be replaced with
sensible ones.
Religious Belief and Rituals of Some Religions
Around the World
• Wearing Venomous Ant-filled Gloves - Rituals that mark the transition from boyhood to
manhood exist all around the world. In the Amazon, male teenagers must enter adulthood
by plunging their hands into gloves filled with hundreds of venomous ants. Bullet ants,
the largest ant on the planet and with one of the most painful bites, said to be 30 times
more painful than a wasp sting, are woven into the ritual gloves and used as part of the
initiation ceremony for the region's youth. The Brazilian indigenous tribe, the Satere-
Mawe, believe that experiencing this intense level of pain and suffering will make young
men into braver, tougher, and better warriors, and that the ritual will protect them from
disease.
The boys are expected to keep the gloves on for ten minutes, letting the ants
attack their hands. The initial bites are painful enough, but that is only the
beginning of the ordeal. When the neurotoxins from the ants kick in, participants
suffer symptoms that can last for hours or even days, ranging from gradually
intensifying pain, paralysis, fever, hallucinations, shaking, convulsions, and loss of
muscle control. Those who endure the torment become men.
• Celebrating in the Cemetery As Americans and Canadians are decorating
for Halloween and choosing costumes for parties and trick-or-treating, Mexicans prepare to honor their
dead on All Souls' Day by celebrating Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Families spend months
making cookies, candies, and cakes in the shapes of skeletons skulls, internal organs, coffins, crosses,
altars, and flowers and gathering appropriate items to take to the cemetery on the night of the celebration.
Whole families visit the graves of their loved ones to clean and maintain the gravesites, place candles,
flowers, and gifts around the tombstones and to celebrate the memory of their ancestors. Then the
families gather for an all-night party in the cemeteries, bringing the favorite food and drink of the
deceased, photos and other mementos, as well as flowers and decorations. Gifts for the dead may include
toys (for children who have passed away), bottles of alcohol, food, pillows and blankets (so that the dead
may rest comfortably), marigolds, or even CDs of the deceased's favorite music. Family members to tell
funny stories, sing songs, drink, eat, and celebrate both life and death. The holiday is all about
appreciating the cycle of life and death, not to mention enticing the spirits of the dearly departed back to
earth for a night in order to hear the prayers and grant the wishes of the living.
•Baby-Tossing For more than 700 years, at Grishneshwar Temple in
western India's Maharashtra state, parents have asked clerics to drop their infants from a 50-foot
tower. The parents believe that the free-fall will make their children more intelligent, braver,
luckier, and healthier. Children between the ages of one and two are carefully dropped from the
tower, and caught a sheet held by men below, then are quickly passed into the arms of their
waiting parents. Many Westerners and secular Indians who have witnessed the spectacle are
horrified by this ceremony, but it's traditional in rural parts of India and is practiced both by
Muslims and Hindus. Although religious officials are quick to declare that no children have been
injured in the ritual, state officials are currently working to ban the practice. Supporters of the ban
state the trauma and danger to the children, who are understandably terrified and visibly shaken
by the ordeal, but those opposed to the ban feel strongly that practitioners should be allowed
religious freedom.
• Digambaras Digambar also spelled
Digambara is one of the two main sects of Jainism. Senior Digambar
monks wear no clothes, following the practice of Lord Mahavira. They
do not consider themselves to be nude - they are wearing the
environment. Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal
to give in to the body's demands for comfort and private property-only
Digambara ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara
ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a
water gourd.
• Sati Pratha I It was mainly practiced in
India, but some recent cases of Sati shocked the nation. Under this
ritual, the widow used to sit on the dead body of their deceased male
partner which in turn used to be burnt alive This ritual was very
dominant during the time of British rule. British records from the early
19th century stated that over 500 incidents of Sati took place each year
between 1813 to 1828,