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IDEOLOGY AND ETHICS SURVEY SAMPLE ARGUMENTS |
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| 23. |
What is the preferable function of religion in a society? |
| (- 5) Genetic view: From a purely scientific viewpoint, religious emotion is subjective, genetically-based behavior that inspires individual sacrifice for long term group survival. This is analogous to the way sexual instincts help motivate reproduction, the creation of a family unit, and long term nurturance of offspring. Religions start in history as tribal "natural religions." From a social-Darwinian viewpoint, groups with strong religious instincts often conquer and displace groups with weaker or dysfunctional religious instincts, thereby gaining more territory and hence population expansion for their brand of altruistic genetic expression. For a group's feelings of altruism to continue to survive, a tribe must mate within itself to perpetrate its altruistic genes. When mothers adopt alien children, this can be a parasitic consumption of their altruism if they help alien genes expand at the expense of those of their own tribe. Societies need to maintain their genetic uniqueness in order to better retain their identity, fend off aggressors, optimize group effectiveness, and achieve their highest cultural pitch. Religious feelings often help define the fault lines of irreconcilable differences with other societies. Maintaining awareness of differences through religious code speak can be a good thing. When we mix up all the races, we may smother superior genes within a sea of mediocrity. |
. . . | (+5) Environmental view: Universalistic world religions tend to be "environmental." They are the ultimate way to go. They inspire men to sacrifice themselves for abstractions beyond the selfish survival needs of their immediate tribe. They generally preach that all men have equal souls and an equal chance at some form of salvation. Instead of focusing on the traditions of ones immediate tribe, they approach religion with (allegedly) sacred texts, indoctrination, and mass persuasion that apply to everyone. Universalistic religions help restructure societies to be based more upon ideology than tribal loyalties. This can be a good thing from the vantage point of people who live in multi-racial, multi-ethnic urban centers who need a psychological formula to help them get along better with people of many different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Also, compared to a "natural religion" (see opposing statement) universal religions can be more flexible. Whereas natural religions often focus upon heroic tribal lore and spiritual interpretations of natural phenomenon, universal religions such as Christianity and Islam have leftist social revolutionary ideology embedded within them that can provide opportunities for political leaders to cut across racial, ethnic, and class boundaries in building mass political power bases, creating empires, or consolidating provinces under their control. |
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