Does religion make us happy?
Nov. 11 2017
Mitt Shirouzu
Let’s listen to the conversation between A and B.
A: Every Sunday morning, I go to church and spend a few hours listening to the speeches by the clergymen or share (ing) our ideas with (each)other members about our troubles or worries. I’m a firm believer in Christianity and leading a life(abide)abiding by theprinciples of Christianity is indispensable for me. Whenever I face (the)difficulties or when Iwant to feel safe and secure, I go to church and ask for the help. Then I can console myself and feel better. In a way, I can recharge my batteries and (get a gut) get the courage to start things again. How about you? Do you believe in any religion?
B: No, I don’t have any religious faith. But I lead quite a happy life. When I worry about something, I have many good friends with whom I can share my troubles and most of the time they(could)can give me some clues to solve those problems. (And)I like to read books from which I (could)can learn many valuable lessons. So as for me, I don’t need any religion. Healthy and well developed interpersonal relationshipsisare much more useful and meaningful for me to lead a happy life. Religion doesn’t occupy a large part in my life. I believe most people can live well and happily without the help of religion. Besides, when we look back (over the)through history, we can easily recognize that many tragedies or wars were caused by religion. Under the name of sacred war or just in order to increase the power of a specific religion, the rulers in the past killed many innocent people in many parts of the world. There are countless number of incidents of this kind. I‘ve never given a (big) a lot of thought toward(s)religion myself, but I would say people can live more happily if there are no religions.
A: I don’t deny the fact that many sad events were induced by religion. However, the important thing about religion is how people recognize religion and how they interpret religious teachings. We Christians, for example, interpret the teachings of Christianity in our own way and act based on our own way of thinking and understanding(s). Some have very positive and righteous faith and act in a way to please or help others while others don’t or may behave in a completely different fashion. So even though we say religion (had)has been the main cause of some tragic events, it is not because religion itself was wrong but more likely than not those tragedies were caused by misleading faith and wrong interpretations shared among some exceptional people. As long as we keep righteous faith and belief, religion will surely make people happy.
B: What you say is true. If everybody keeps the right belief, then there will be no problem. But you’ve missed one point. That is about the nature of religion. May I ask you?Is it possible for everybody to have a right religious faith all the time? Or are there any good ways to change the wrong way of thinking and make people have the right faith? Those things are so difficult. Once people get started believing in something, the stronger the belief develops the more difficult it would be to change that belief. If his belief is right and goesalong a good direction, then it’s fine. But how about the opposite case. If someone starts to have a malicious idea and strengthen it, then it will be a problem. Not just for himself but for the rest of the world.
In Japan, for example, they had the sad event caused by Omu Shinri Kyo, a kind of religious group. The believers of that religion spread a poisonous gas in the commuter train and as a result some people died and many were seriously injured. Those who committed (a)the crime were not originally bad-natured, however, since their personal code of conduct went wrong, thusmade them very dangerous. So one of the risky characteristics of religion is that (they easily mislead people without being noticed by themselves) the followers are often unaware that they are being mised. I think today’s Islamic State problem symbolizes this trait of religion.
A: Indeed, once our faith has been derailed from the right track (path), (the)a strong belief will gather momentum and (it)get(s)worse and worse. And that misleading idea may cause some serious incidents. However, we will have to live with religion from now on too,like we used to until today. Because as long as we have worries, fears and agonies,we need religion and it is next to impossible to have (the)asociety completely devoid of religion. You said you don’t need religion because you have good friends andfamily(families) to whom you can turn when you have troubles. That means you rely on others. And we all need someone or something to turn to at the time of depression or crises. You rely on people and others rely on religion. The same thing. Suppose there is someone who(is in a big) has great sorrow and has no one to ask for help (for), he will surely try to find something he can trust. And that something would be the principle or a set of thinking on which religion grows. You are lucky, in a way, you have many people around you who will help you. But there are many who are not in such an environment. For those people, religion is a must.
Q1What are the good points and bad points of religion?
Q2Does religion make us happy?
Q3What will be the relation between religion and us in the future?
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Religion
Science
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