What is the proper role of religion in

What is the proper role of religion in a modern, secular society?

Secularisation is the transformation of society from one, which had close religious values, towards a society with nonreligious (or irreligious) values. It is believed to have come about as a result of the development of science and the increased use of rationality in philosophy, particularly by two ‘classical’ sociology philosophers, Karl Marx and Max Weber. They both believed that the significance of religion in society would decrease in modern time, and that as we gained more and more knowledge of the world around us, we would soon realise the illusion that is religion, therefore reducing its role in society. As a result of this, it has led to the debate of whether religion has a proper role in a modern, secular society, or whether in fact the role of religion has disappeared and has been replaced by the advancement in knowledge of science and use of rationality. I believe that evidence suggests that religion does have a proper role in a modern secular society due to three key reasons.

Firstly, religion provides a clear moral guideline for all. This belief is one which is universal, as all religions, whether it be Christianity, Buddhism or Islam, all provide some sort of moral code which all humans live and abide by. Furthermore, without religion in place, there is nowhere else for a moral code to originate from. This is because all other ethical codes either come from or agree with the one put forward by religion. For example, in the Bible, many of the 10 commandments, such as ‘thou shall not steal’ or ‘thou shall not murder’, have been taken and implemented in today’s secular society. Therefore, this demonstrates that religion does have a proper role in today’s modern secular society.

Secondly, religion gives meaning and purpose to people’s lives and almost acts as a ‘means to an end’. This is because religion gives people hope of there potentially being an after life or something after death, whether it is heaven, or reincarnation or rebirth. Without religion, life would lack purpose. There would be little point in living, doing the right thing or acting morally, demonstrating that another of religion’s proper roles in society is providing purpose and a meaning to people’s lives.

The final key role of religion in today’s modern, secular society is that it is there to explain things that appear to be unexplainable by fact or science, for example, miraculous events, supernatural or ‘religious’ experiences and even bigger things such as the creation of the world and the universe. Without religion, these concepts and ideas would be incredibly hard to explain and justify, and therefore add more confusion to the world of science. With theories, such as the cosmological argument, the origins of the world become clearer. Although religious theorems will always be criticised due to the nature of society today, they do help provide explanations for certain events, even if they lack sufficient hard evidence and not all believe them. This therefore shows that religion does have a proper role in society.

However, atheists and scientists, such as Richard Dawkins, believe that religion no longer has a proper role in society, and they believe this for a number of reasons. Firstly, Dawkins explains that science provides the answers for everything, and for those things we do not no yet, we soon will due to the advancement in technology. Therefore, this removes religions ‘role’ in society as something that helps explain the unexplainable.

Furthermore, the fact that we now have a universal bill of rights in the world makes religions role as the world’s moral code provider as non-existent. Religious moral guidelines, such as the ones set in the Bible for Christianity, are often seen as outdated and not relevant in today’s modern’ secular society. The creation of these new moral codes, such as a bill of rights and modern day laws and constitutions, have now established a more modern and relevant ethical code for humans to follow. This therefore removes religions role in society as one, which provides guidance and a moral code for humanity to follow. Moreover, the idea of the conscience is key in this debate as well. Atheists and secularists would argue that our conscience helps decide for us what is right from wrong and so therefore we do not need religion to determine what is right and wrong for us. However, theists would counter this and state that God or religion gave us a conscience, and so therefore religions proper role in society is to provide us with a moral compass, our conscience, to help us do good in the world. Additionally, theists would argue that moral codes and guidelines, such as a bill of rights, will have taken and adapted some of their rulings from religious teachings and moral codes as well, therefore demonstrating that religion still have a role in todays modern society in providing moral and ethical guidelines for us.

Finally, many argue that religion does not have a role in modern day society, and in fact the only thing it adds to the world is conflict and violence. This is because the majority of wars and conflicts that occur in the world are as a result of religious and cultural disputes. Secularists and atheists therefore argue that without religion, these disputes are unlikely to happen. For example, the conflict with ISIS currently is mostly about religion. Therefore, many argue that religions only role in a modern secular society is to start conflict, and so therefore, religion is not necessary in today’s modern world.

In conclusion, the evidence suggests that despite the obvious criticism of religion about it causing conflict, religion has a major and proper role in today’s modern secular society, as it provides the background to almost all ethical and moral codes in the world today as well it providing meaning to people’s lives as well. Finally, religion must still have a proper role in today’s society due to the fact that only 11% of the whole world is either non-religious or atheist. Therefore, religion has a proper roles in today’s society, with it mainly being to add meaning to people’s lives as well as providing a moral code for everyone to live by.