Rethinking Religion in the 21st Century

In this 21st century, the world is witnessing a progressive shift, addressing the historical and systemic oppression and discrimination that prevails in our society. One of the key challenges hindering this progressive change is breaking free from the oppressive and discriminative norms and practices that are deep-rooted in individuals’ belief systems. With religion being one of the key factors shaping an individual’s belief system, it is high time for people to rethink what religion means to them, and how it acts as an anchor for oppression and perpetuates discrimination in society.

First, let's try to fully comprehend how religion came into existence. As a constantly evolving intellectual beings, humans have this inner quest to seek certainty in the pursuit of understanding the world around us. From early humans trying to comprehend natural phenomena rain and storms to modern scientists trying to unravel the secrets of the universe, it is evident that this quest for certainty is an intrinsic part of human nature. The origin of religion or supernatural beliefs can be traced back to when humans tried to grasp the natural phenomena happening around them (Stringer, 1999), such as rain, drought, flood, day and night, etc. In a desperate attempt to gain some control, even if it’s limited, over the actions of these forces, humans tried to quench this thirst for certainty by starting to worship them as supernatural forces and then as gods. As humans began to settle in groups for the ease of hunting and gathering, they started to organize their groups, by instituting common norms and beliefs within the confines of religion (Atran and Henrich, 2010). With the threat of punishment from supernatural forces or beings, for defying the collective norms and beliefs, the settlements were organized with conflict resolution and a peace-maintaining framework through religion (Peoples and Marlowe, 2012).

Since then, various norms and beliefs emerged and evolved into different religions as human intellect progressed, adapting to the changing needs of society up until the point where religion moved from just beliefs into a well-structured intuition of society. Many religious norms and beliefs have stopped evolving as they were established as sacred unchanging truths. With present-existing religious beliefs and norms, incompatible with the intellectual growth of humans and the progress of society as a whole, failing their purpose of origin, hindering social progression, and enforcing oppressive and discriminatory practices.

Over the centuries religion has become a core identity for many people while leaving their generations-old traditional practices might seem unwarranted and impossible, given that religion still serves as a source of morality, comfort, hope, and guidance for the majority of the population, we must realize that human intellect has evolved to a point where we don’t need religion to have morals. All we want is empathy towards each other. And society also progressed to a point where we can seek comfort, hope, and guidance from a fellow human being and the community.

Just because your regressive religious norms haven’t evolved enough to accept that, women in society are not just meant to raise children and serve the men in the family, doesn’t mean they can’t function as their own independent individuals, just because your regressive religious norms gives you the right over a woman’s sexuality doesn’t mean you get to control the women in your household and dictate what they wear, how they talk, with whom they have relationships with and how they live. Just because your regressive religious norms haven’t evolved enough to understand the basic biology of women’s menstruation doesn’t mean it should be tabooed. Just because your regressive religious norms haven’t evolved enough to treat every human with the same dignity doesn’t mean discrimination and oppression of certain classes/castes are justified.  Just because your regressive religious norms haven’t evolved enough to comprehend the multiple gender identities and sexual orientations doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to live and love. 

So in this 21st century, it is high time for everyone to realize the cost of clinging to the comfort and traditions of their religion. As people adhere to these regressive religious norms and practices because they are too weak and selfish to evolve and accept change, they will continue to oppress and discriminate against the people around them. And they will continue to be a hindrance that stops the social progression. 

Reference

Stringer, M. D. (1999). Rethinking Animism: Thoughts from the Infancy of Our Discipline. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 5(4), 541.

Atran, S., & Henrich, J. (2010). The evolution of religion: how cognitive by-products, adaptive learning heuristics, ritual displays, and group competition generate deep commitments to prosocial religions. Biological Theory, 5, 18–30.

Peoples, H. C., & Marlowe, F. W. (2012). Subsistence and the evolution of religion. Human Nature, 23(3), 253–269.