Magbanua, Rhymel Daniel G.

PHL01
IS220 10/11/2019

THE IMPORTANCE OF WORLD RELIGIONS AND HOW THEY SHAPED SOCIETY

Thesis Statement: Religion has been a part of society ever since its creation, it has helped us
create a sense of order and a set of rules that helped shape our society to what it is today.
I. Religion has influenced the cultures and practices of each society.
II. It has helped the development of society in the sectors of Health and Education.
III. How religion gives people an optimistic view of life, based on Christianity, Islam and
Hinduism.
Conclusion: Each society of a country has been influenced by religion. They’ve promoted
practices that are still seen up until today, promoted the development of the education and health
sectors, and has given people an optimistic view on life.
Magbanua, Rhymel Daniel G. PHL01
IS220 10/11/2019

Introduction
Ever since our society has grown over the past years, religion has been a part of that
growth and has continued to shape our society to what it is today. This paper would be focusing
on three of the twelve major religions that are currently prominent in the modern age, namely,
Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. With these religions in mind, this paper would be focusing on
how religion has influenced the practices of a culture, how each religion affects each sector of
society, and how each religion affects the optimistic thinking of a person.
Christianity
A religion that are composed of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, Christianity, is a
monotheistic religion that believes God exist and he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to save men
from their sins. A Christian’s beliefs are based on the Bible and sacred traditions that have been
practice ever since its emergence. According to Pew Research Center, 2011 they claim in a study
that there are currently 2.18 billion Christians in the world, which makes it the most wide-spread
religion in the world and takes 1/3 of the total global population. But most of the Christians that
exist today are mostly distributed in Europe, which constitutes to about 26% of the world
population, and about 37% live in America (Pew Research Center, 2011). With most of the
Christians living in America, how has it shaped its culture? According to Payne (n.d.) in an
article stated that for the past 240 years Christianity has been played a fundamental role across
America. It helped shape its government, gave Americans the concept of freedom, liberty, and
equality, and help conceptualize the early schools in America (Payne, n.d.). In addition to this,
Christianity has shaped American Society as claimed by Fagan (1996) that “The practice of
religion is good for individuals, families, states, and the nation. It improves health, learning,
economic well-being, self-control, self-esteem, and empathy. It reduces the incidence of social
pathologies, such as out-of-wedlock births, crime, delinquency, drug and alcohol addiction,
health problems, anxieties, and prejudices.” (Fagan, 1996). Which means that religion has helped
improved the society of America.
According to a demographic study made by the Pew Research Center (2016) state that
Christianity helped education by promoting literacy. Because of Protestant reformers urging
people to read the Bible, and their conviction to spread the word of God was so strong that
religious leaders have started to build schools and translate it to the local language so that
everyone could understand it (Pew Research Center, 2016). In recent time, religion has also
promoted education by putting up U.S. schools that are run by faith groups, but this has
originated in the 1700’s in England, which helped the people and children at the time get
education and were taught to read and learn the Prayer Book Catechism (Oliver, 2007).
Christianity has also played a role in improving the economy of the state and even going as far as
to creating innovations that help benefit the latter part of a country, which are the people who are
economically struggling. Such example of this is social entrepreneurships, which are goaled to
help solve social problems that are currently present. Which is also in line with the views and
practices that are observed in the Bible such as Jesus claiming that he came to “proclaim the
good new to the poor” and even encouraged the rich to give their belongings to the poor. (Dowd,
2014). Christianity’s medicinal practices were, for the most part, based on the ministry of the
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healing Jesus Christ, although some Christian ideals are still practiced by some hospitals and
doctors, such ideals include making medicine available for a person, regardless of class and
economic status (Love, 2008).
Islam
A religion that emerged around in the 7th century which makes it one of the youngest
major world religions. This religion is composed of the followers of Prophet Muhammad and
aims to spread the word of Allah. Like Christianity, Islam is also a monotheistic religion. It is
also similar to Christianity as they also believe in the same prophets, such as Abraham, Moses,
Noah and Jesus (History.com, 2019). But how did Islam shape it’s society? Most of the existing
Muslims currently reside mainly on Middle East and North Africa Region, and they make up 1.8
billion adherents as of 2015, making up 24.1% of the world population (Lipka & Hackett, 2017).
Islam countries work more on a dictatorship, which teaches it people to be governed by dictators
as seen being evident in MENA countries (CBN.com- World Magazine, CBN.com). Islam has
also contributed to modern society in creating public libraries, surgical tools, algebra, optics, and
coffee (Hameed, 2017).
Islam has always pursued knowledge that allowed it to better understand Allah’s word
and their pursuit has led them to the innovations of fields such as mathematics, medicine,
philosophy, astronomy, and poetry. Schools were put up so that they could spread the word of
Allah. Islamic leaders have put up libraries and educational institutions that helped its people
promote education, and even countries, such as Southern Spain, under the Muslim rule be the
center of higher learning that produced renowned Muslim philosopher Averroes (Hefner &
Zaman, 2007). Islam has also contributed to the innovation of the health sector by introducing
medical practices that are still used today. According to an article by Majeed (2005) stated that
the current foundation of medicinal practices was introduced by Arab physicians and scholars,
with one of its most notable people being Ibn Sina, who was known as “The Prince of
Physicians” due to his contribution to philosophy of medicine, which states that in treating
patients there were psychological and physical factors. (Majeed, 2005).
Hinduism
According to History.com (2019) in an article claimed that Hinduism is the world’s
oldest religion, and its practices and customs can be rooted back to 4000 years ago. Unlike
Christianity and Islam, which is diverse and spread out, 95% of the existing Hindus currently
reside in India and this religion has no specific founder. It is also believed that Hindus are
henotheistic, meaning that they believe in one deity, but still worship other gods. With this in
mind how does this religion impact its society? According to an article by Trémaurice Johnson,
states that Hinduism has influenced society by introducing meditation and yoga, some of its
followers not even considering themselves as Hindus by faith. Another practice that was
influenced by the Hindus is Vegetarianism or Veganism, since they believe that people should
respect all living things, which includes animals, and is called Ahmisa. Since they believe that
the food industry has subjected animals to systematic abuse and the people who turned to
vegetarianism no longer want to be a part of this cruelty (Johnson, 2018). Hinduism did not only
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influence the non-religious part of society, it also includes its religious parts, such as influencing
the practices of Buddhism because it is believed that Gautama Buddha is an incarnation of Lord
Vishnu (Johnson, 2018).
According to an article by the Pew Research Center (2016) state that “For Hindus,
education vanquishes a fundamental source of human suffering, which is ignorance, says
Anantanand Rambachan, a professor of religion at St. Olaf College.” (Pew Research Center,
2016), which could mean that the more knowledgeable a person becomes, the closer he or she is
to attain a state of enlightenment and it counteracts the cause of human sufferings which is
ignorance. Which makes education in Hinduism essential in order to attain the solution to human
suffering. But even though education is important to Hinduism, it is noted that today the vast
majority of Hindus live in developing countries, which could explain why the educational
attainment in this religion is relatively low. The relationship between modern medicine and
Hinduism has been rough through the years. It has been noted that some Hindus in the modern
era still refuse to take insulin as it goes against Ahmisa (non-violence) and would only take
traditional ways in treating diseases (Sukumaran, n.d.)
How religion presents optimism in life
Religion has also given hope to people who are struggling with their current situation and
research show that it has gone as far as to encourage happiness, as claimed by a research done by
Lyubomirsky (2008), it is evident that based on the findings, 47% of the people who attend
religious services several times a week describe themselves as “very happy”, which compared to
the 28% who attend less than a month (Lyubomisky, 2008). Which means that more people are
happy when actively participating with religious services compared to people who participate
rarely. It is also found that religion was a factor that made people “happy” and this claim is
furthered by a study that defined a “happy person” refers to people who are young, healthy, well-
educated, optimistic, economically stable, and extroverted. This research found that the happiest
people were married, religious, high self-esteem, and modest aspirations (Wilson, 1967). But of
course, these studies were restricted to religions that allowed marriage.
Overall, religion has played a part in the growth of our society and as a result it has
influenced most of the practices seen today. Different religions influence the practices of the
cultures in a country, take Philippines for example. The colonization era of the Philippines,
especially the in the Spanish inquisition, proved to be the most influential part of the country’s
history, seeing as some of its practices are still widely done until today, such as the Cenaculo.
Most of the people in the Philippines are composed of Christians, but a part of the country has
been seen to be influenced by Islamic practices, this is due to the early introduction to the
religion country and their resistance to the Spanish inquisition has caused them to stay persistent
through the years of colonization of the Philippines. Religion has not only influenced the culture
of a country, but also help the sectors of health and education. Christianity, for example, has
promoted literacy in countries such as the U.K. in order to promote the word of God to most of
the people and spread their religion and has contributed to health sector by promoting practices
that give poor people to have access to healthcare. Islam has also contributed to its country’s
health sector by developing skilled people in the field of medicinal philosophy which until today
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is still seen being practiced by most practitioners in the field. In terms of how Islam contributed
to its education sector by putting up educational libraries that allowed their religion to spread the
word of Allah. Hinduism, on the other hand, influenced its health and educational sectors
differently. Instead of developing medicinal practices and using medicine from plants as a way to
cure diseases, Hindus believed that these practices of using medicine from plants is against their
practices and prefer to use traditional way in countering diseases. Hindus also believed that
education was needed in order to reach a state of enlightenment in their religion, yet despite that
their educational attainment seems to be relatively low. Religion has also shown to give
optimism to people who believe in it. It encouraged “happiness” towards its believers and a sense
of hope that people will be able to live in a “Utopia” once they reached heaven or a form of
enlightenment in these religions.
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IS220 10/11/2019

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