How does religious beliefs affect politics?

Religion or at least having beliefs is natural to us. As rational beings, we wonder about the natural phenomena. When we were in the stone age, we were bewildered by what nature brings (rain, storm, game, earthquake, etc). The earth provides us with animals and plants for consumption, clothing and shelter and water to drink. But sometimes nature unleashes its wrath by volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, snow storms, earth quakes and the like. We cannot help but wonder how nature's mysterious ways work. Unlike other animals, we wanted an explanation out of the abstraction of reality. We knew that there might be something of a higher order which can make things shift easily from bad to worse. They believed that everything in nature is alive and spiritual. They believed that everything is interconnected. They had to respect the spirits of nature by thanksgiving and ardor to please them so that they keep sustaining their daily needs.

This new insight has become engraved in their daily lives that it later evolved into tradition as the rituals are passed on to generations. As the social group grew bigger, it evolved into culture as it defined the identity of the group (what makes them unique from the rest). Human thinking also became more curious of not only of the surroundings but what he is and what the surroundings are to him. They began to question why they live and who created them and the surroundings. They formulated their own beliefs on how the world was formed by a greater divine- god/gods. Natural phenomena can then be explained by the wrath of a god or a folklore of the interactions of the gods. They knew that the power of the divine is boundless that they fear them. And when there is fear there is control.

Religion is natural to our kind. There some things that we cannot fully explain, naturally and socially. This is why we turn to religion as our guidance. Since religion involves the power of the divine whom sets the role of each unit in the world, this power can be passed on by the manipulation of the privileged. Only the privileged few had the divine right to rule over a civilization and some even forced their way to the throne claiming that they were chosen by an even higher divine. Since pretty much everyone would fear their creator/s (since from them they can also destroy what they create), leaders used and abused this fear and obedience to steer their civilization to greatness. Most of the greatest structures ever built in history are temples or religious symbols. This was evident in the ancient civilizations in Egypt, Latin America, India, Middle East and Mediterranean.

Man is a political animal according to Aristotle, the great philosopher. This is why it is hard for us to separate two things that are natural to us- religion and politics. After we invented the concept of "religion", many grabbed the opportunity to find meaning from religion that would make their social hierarchy higher or make the others hierarchy lower. Some cultural tradition or social norm came before an established religion. It was commonplace that women were of lower rank in society since their main role was to bear children for the group's future and to care for them at home with other household affairs. This social norm later transcended into religious law and tradition that gave no opportunity for the discriminated to redeem themselves from the norm as time changes. Even if things have already changed, by the help of progress and technology, some societies still cannot improve the rights of women because of their religion.

Although religion brings fear to its followers, it also brings security in the divine and social sense. The divine sense promises rewards and a better after life. The social sense promises a sense of belonging and fellowship. People feel unsafe when one thinks differently. One example is Plato, who was an excellent thinker yet many scorn him for thinking differently. Because people fear the unknow, adding unknown or unexamined belief would make life more dangerous. It makes it more unpredictable to know the person's next move and it will be more difficult to manipulate them. With everyone believing in one thing, at least many of the unknown factors can be eliminated such as righteousness, morality, thought and action. Rulers then realized that religion can not only help them manipulate its people, but also help them protect itself from the outside world and later conquer it. Invasion is strategic to many civilizations territorially for mor resources and labor. But to align economic activities with the all colonies, it will be easier if the belief system of all is the same. Thus, religion not only had the purpose of security but also of economics. An example of this is the invasion of Britain by the Romans which introduced the colonized to Christianity.

Religion was usually used as a mask of political and military leader's bloody conquests to make the missions more dignified and glorified. One example is the crusaders' quest to revive the holy city from its Muslim occupiers. The Roman papacy needed a way to remedy the issue within (next generation nobles fighting over land because of scarcity) and to prevent the growth of the muslim population (threat to papacy's control and power). This can be evident til today.

Because man is a thinking animal and knows it is his advantage among other animals, the product of his thinking becomes his advantage among the others of his kind. The product of his thinking is his ideology and belief system. As a political animal, man stands for what he believes and aims to prove others wrong. This is evident in the workplace or in school. We always want to be right because if you're right it gives you the social status and thus power. In the emergence of modernization in the 20th century, different ideologies materialized. The most mischievous were the socialist and the capitalist thinking. As two big countries are the main contributors of each, US and the USSR engaged in cold war. One sees the world different from the other and this gave rise to conflict. Before the age of industrialization which lead to the age of modernization was the age of Enlightenment. Because of many successes in scientific endeavors in explaining the natural world, people began to view the world at a bigger picture. This lead to a deeper understanding of the society's role to the world. People became more sensitive to the problems around them. People have gone against medieval thinking in terms of religion and economics and demanded more freedom. This lead to the secularization- the separation of religion from state affairs. With more reason than religious manipulation, people have gained access to free thinking.

People began to despise the feudalistic system for it benefits the privileged few. They then drew their own theories of how society should be shaped for more order and economic progress of the society and state without the intervention of religion; thus, the emergence of ideologies. However, many attempts of creating an ideal world lead to a more chaotic situation where people see that although things have been more equitable compared to the feudal system in their own way (capitalist or socialist), a few still remain in power and more privileged than the rest. Many wars caused by the efforts to expand ideologies scarred many. So people want to regain righteousness in a more materialistic world by bringing in the authority of the divine. They realized that only God know what is ideal and not man. This later lead to the conflict of religion in politics in the modern age.

What we all see often times in the news are the actions fundamentalists. Islam has become the center of the topic terrorism. The battle of religious ideals becomes more complex as technology paved the way to more sophistication in communication and weapons. The irony of it all is that it all started as a group that wanted to help the common people (religious virtues) by providing services not accessible to them.

In Nostradamus book of revelations, a holy war in the modern world was predicted after the assassination of the pope by a member of another major religion . Experts say that according to the book, this will bring the worst chaos in the history of the world. The world enters another dark age. Will this be the end of the civilized world?

The sad part about this whole thing is that man destroys his own kind with the excuse of the divine to exempt him from wrong doing. What makes it worse is that many fall into false interpretations when scripture and tradition in major religions emphasize in peace and prosperity. When will we ever learn to accept that people vary in culture and religion? It is in the very nature of humans to be diverse for we have the freedom to choose our mark in the world. People hurt because they are also hurt. They may be victims of violence and oppression. The hardest thing to do is to learn not to hate especially when it has already been programmed deep into our emotions. Human and economic development, security and progress are essential to prevent destructive feelings.

We must realize that amongst this diversity is the unavoidable commonality that all of us perish. We must make most of our stay by respecting life in various forms inwardly and outwardly. Whatever belief you may have, no one has the right to claim theirs right over the others. After all belief is subjective in the first place.