Religion and Culture: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Name
Professor
Subject
Date
Religion and Culture: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Religion. What is religion? Why is it important to know religion? What does it have to do with our well-being? How does religion affect the way we behave as a person and towards other people? How does it help us become what we really are? Religion has been there for a long time, but still, there are a lot of questions in relation to such which are left unanswered.
Religion, commonly associated as the sense of holiness and sacredness, is more of a belief system. Indeed, it is the concept of man and the faith he has for a Supreme Being. It varies all throughout different cultures – Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and a lot more others. Scholars, however, argue that some of these religious beliefs are more of a set of standards that one follows if he chooses to belong to one. Religious beliefs involve teachings, modes of prayer or meditation, rituals and worship practices.
Many scholars believe that religiousness is inherent in every human being. They coined this as homo religiosus. Karen Armstrong, among others, believes that religion and culture are intermittently connected to each other. She considers religion as an integral part of the human being since the old days, more particularly, the Palaeolithic Era. She believes that religion exists to discipline mankind and to help each and every soul in reaching transcendental contentment. Since it coexists with culture, she further argues that religion is the driving force which impacts the change in our society. Religion, according to her, is changing and evolving through time depending on how mankind reacts to it. We justify and validate our actions by improving the ways we perceive religion. In her conclusion, thus so stated, the center of religion is not the existence of a Supreme Being; rather, it is the sense of religiosity that a man possesses in relation to what he perceives of himself and the set of standards laid to him by the religion he chooses.
Maggie Nelson had a different view, which as a little not too deviated, however. Her perspective, nonetheless, invites us to the impression of what the new world would experience if we continue to be stuck in the present age. Her theories and ideas significantly express the future direction of religion in the coming years or so.
Nelson, in her essay “Great to Watch,” focused on violence and the relationship that it has today with culture. She emphasized her theory on technology – the media, television, movies, and others of the same kind. She believes that such rooted from the artistic inherit characteristics of the avant-garde. In her essay, she described the society as a community in which violence has become a norm. It would seem like instead of discouraging violence, the media is boosting its sense. And so, leaving us the question: How do we reformulate our minds that has been corrupted with so much violence shown by the media? How do we get back on track, to what it originally means to be good, if we are being exposed to so much ferocity and strength in this era?
Such would seem a little unimaginable. If this continuous exposure of violence would be tolerated, then what is there to expect of our b...