Religion has a social function that encourages people to believe in their self-worth yet maintain a collective effort towards a greater good. People often form communities and social groups based on their beliefs, contributing to more unity and communal objectives to perpetuate good deeds. Moreover, another social function is a clear division between good and evil. Certain individuals find it challenging to base their judgment on predisposed laws created by people in the same position as them.
It is certain that many people view religion as a way of feeling loved, cared about, and valued by family members, friends, and communities. Moreover, understanding religion is significantly easier when the love described in sacred books is present through the emotions and actions of loved ones. Having a sense of self-worth, unity with other people, and affection from others has a vital role in understanding the teachings of the Bible.
Empathy is the first step towards giving help and actively trying to support people in their spiritual, physical, and mental struggles. Since religion itself is closely tied to the notion of value that each person has, people with a set of beliefs have to be empathetic towards individuals who cannot find this value within themselves. Moreover, since kindness often correlates with empathy and is a vital factor in Christianity, it is certain that this emotion is at the base of any religious experience.
Ambrosino (2019) refers to empathy as the definition of “human morality” and a way of being “interested in others.” This statement is truthful since empathy allows people to share an experience with someone else, whether it is a positive or a negative one. Empathy makes people want to get to know each other, learn about each other’s lives, and coexist. If individuals did not have the ability to see others from an empathetic point of view, friendships would not exist, and families would only be centered around bloodlines rather than love.
While religion is much more than following a set of rituals, such aspects can have a strong impact on the feeling of communal effort. When multiple people who believe in the same teachings are together and perform activities as a community, such actions allow them to have a visual representation of collectivism. Moreover, physically performing religious acts is another way of externalizing internal thoughts.
On the surface, it might seem that religion and science are two contrasting fields. However, they are reconcilable through the initial purpose of each subject. The primary domain that science and religion approach differently is the notion of purpose or its inexistence. Haight (2016) refers to science as a “friend that helps faith clarify its vision” (70). While religious teachings and scientific texts have different phrasing, this does not mean that they are not interconnected or that one describes a different thing from the other one.
The scientific argument tends to lack the understanding that God should not be perceived as a person but rather as someone eternal and omnipotent. Based on religious texts, God could have been at the very beginning of the creation of the universe. Haight (2016) mentions that there is a contrasting overview of God as a 13 billion-old entity who, at the same time, is actively intervening in world events and being somewhat close to people despite the omnipotence.
Moreover, the author mentions God and the perceived causality that individuals interpret as either a lack of purpose or a planned chain of events. Haight (2016) refers to this phenomenon as a result of the inability to explain God’s ways. In case people cannot explain why something happened as it should not have, it is not necessarily a lack of purpose but rather a plan that is difficult to view from a human perspective.
References
Ambrosino, B. (2019). How and why did religion evolve? BBC Future. Web.
Haight, R. (2016). Spiritual and religious: Explorations for seekers. Orbis Books.