• Religion can affect people in many different ways. List at
least two effects that organized religion has had on society and give examples from past
and/or present world events that illustrate your examples.
2 answers
Consider wars, disease, bigotry, hate: how many times have religion been the root cause of these?
Religion, like any establishment, seeks power. As Lord Acton once said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Absolute (or nearly so) power can influence people into bigotry an dhate, which leads quite often to wars. The "I'm the only one who knows what is true and right. You're wrong and should convert or die" attitude causes much of the trouble in the Middle East these days, caused the troubles in Ireland recently, and was the cause of much of the difficulties during the Middle Ages.
2 answers