Manipulation of Religon

Throughout this entire unit, I have not seen that religion can be used for the good or for the bad of the people subjected to it. When introduced to the concept of religion being an agent of the powerful, I thought to myself that that was a very large step to take in terms of my understanding and perception of religion, but it made a lot of sense as religion has and is been used as a mean by which people use to achieve/gain certain things. But, the notion of religion being used as an agent of the powerless was something alien to me. As I made sense of it, it began to sink in and I thought of some instances in which this occurred. Although, other ideas began to foster in my head about religion in general. I began to think that religion wasn’t something spiritual or meaningful to most individuals, but rather was utilized as a mere tool in order to gain something which they strive for in their lives. In the concluding section of the textbook reading, it says that, “Powerful people often use religion to retain their power by violent means often use religion. However, religion certainly may be used by those without power in a nonviolent manner to achieve social justice. History has shown that religion is a means by which people see the world, and their use of religious beliefs, depending upon the way in which they see the world, can be either for or against those in power.” For whatever the reason may be, I feel somewhat uncomfortable when I read this statement  because to me, religion is something much more than just a tool or utility in life. I find it controversial, however, as religion can be used for horrible intentions, such as gaining more land via battle and brutal violence, or, can be used for really good reasons as to gain social justice or equality in the world. Although, I began to disregard my personal feelings when I looked at this blog prompt and it actually cleared a lot of thing up in my head. I think that purely looking at religion through a historical perspective, it is merely a mean by which people manipulate in which ever way benefits themselves or their cause the most, and is entirely disregarded as a spiritual or deeper meaning in one’s life. In the example above, I pointed out that religion can be used for positive of negative reasons and in good or bad ways as well as people’s methods when using religion contrast with good or bad. But once again, the idea of historiography comes into play as the justification of what is good versus what is bad is entirely pertaining to those involved in the action, being the contributors or the receivers. For example, Pope Urban used religion to further spread his religious ideas and empire, and to gain power. That is not necessarily a bad or evil idea, but the ways by which he executed his cause were--now to him they may not have been seen as crimes or unjust, but to the history observers and the persecuted ones, that act would have been seen as vile and inhuman. Plus, its interesting that religion itself could and does provide the answers to whether or not such acts or good or bad in the name of the people and participants of the religion. Although, because religion has developed into such a powerful, driving, and  unifying force throughout history, people have completely neglected the fundamental reason that religion exists, and are using it for the wrong reasons in whichever manner that one would. The justification of how one uses it and for what reasons one uses religion cannot be entirely answered as there are countless perspectives on the subject; but, religion itself may provide good insight. When looking through history, religion has sparked political motives, social motives, economic motives, cultural motives, etc. It has been an overlying source of unification and a commonality between most people in history. Therefore, it would makes sense that in order to fit and play a role in all of these different situations, it would be manipulated in all sorts of ways so that it could fulfill the role which people sought to in their lives. It’s interesting now that I look at religion that way, that it is not something that fulfills a spiritual or meaningful aspect in life, but rather is a mean by which things are done by. On a side note, that could be one of the reasons why so many different religions were established; one couldn’t fit the needs or circumstances of someone, so they sought out something new to fill that emptiness which the other religion used to hold. But who knows, religion has become so much more than just a spirituality in life, it has become a defining, fundamental property of human history.