Blog Discussion Group Two
Blog post due at 11:55pm on Jan. 30 and comment due at 11:55pm on Feb. 2.
1. In addition to being faiths, are all religions political ideologies?
2. Should religion and politics be kept strictly separate, or is that impossible?
3. Why is Marxist theory called utopia?
4. How were Marx’s ideas developed by succeeding generations?
5. What are the different approaches used by democratic socialism and communism to pursue for equality?
The definition of religion is "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially of God or gods" (Merriam-Webster). In other words, it is a group of people that believe there is a person or persons that have divine power and they have faith in their teachings. Individuals therefore usually base the majority of their political values on the teachings they were taught through their religion and its belief system.
ReplyDeletePolitical ideology is defined as a set of ethical ideals and principles that a group uses to explain how society should work. This means that someone's religion is also their political ideology as long as they practice their religious beliefs in the public arena. However, it seems that, "ideologies have increasingly replaced religion in public life. Whereas in the premodern world religion was central to public affairs" (O'Neil, 88). People seem to be venturing outside of their religious values to form opinions about certain politics and their approach to different things in a public setting. So, the more modern form of religions can be political ideologies if people stick to their religious beliefs when making political decisions.
Religion in politics is an inevitability. Trying to separate both is near impossible because you would be asking politicians to abandon their own religious beliefs that shape thought process and morality when dealing with decisions that affect their constituents. This also means that you would be asking the voters in an election to put their religious views aside when picking a candidate for office. These two things would be impossible to accomplish because in the U.S. we have the freedom to believe and think how we want. To ask us to separate our religious views from our political views is encroaching upon that right. Our religious views play an important role in shaping our political views.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement. I also think that it is hard to separate the two because by taking religion out of politics you are basically not allowing us to have freedom. Even though politicians in the past have wanted to keep the two separate, I believe that it would be hard to considering most candidates use their religious believes to connect with their voters.
DeleteYou and I have the same opinions about the religion and politics question. You cannot separate both of these because every vote is based off people's religion. If you took them apart then they would lose the freedom of religion. In this great nation we have freedom of religion and separation of religion in politics would cause so many problems and people would have no idea how to react because they would lose their freedom.
Deletel don't think it is possible to separate religion in politics. Since a big part of voting is the belief one carries about what is right or what should be done. Religion becomes a part of person, it is part of who they are, it plays part of how they act and even in point of views of laws. Asking a politic to put aside their religion would be like asking them to be a robot, that would take the purpose of multiple candidates if we were molding what they can believe in. Another part of politics is getting the voters to relate to you, see you like them and religion makes that possible because of how many people you can reach.
ReplyDeleteOnce I had a professor tell me it is impossible to count the number of religions because no 2 people believe in the same thing, so as many people that are in the world is the number of religions in the world. Which is why I think it would be impossible to separate it.
The Founders of our country specifically provided for the separation of church and state in the First Amendment of the Constitution. They believed that it was wrong for the government to have direct influence on one's freedom of religion, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." (Amendment 1, Constitution of the United States). Many of the fundamental rights of our country, including decisions made by the Supreme Court, are based on this absolute. That said, in a modern world where the ability to communicate, travel, do commerce, and connect in what is truly a global community, it's not feasible to think that religion can remain completely free of political sway. The Church, the Synagogue, the Mosque, and other religious houses have all held political power since their inception. The importance of religion's influence over seats of political power are a standard, and can be accepted as long as the seats of political power remain outside the bonds of what is best for religion. Religion is a man's noble attempt to reach up to God, and shouldn't be tied to a political power or rule of law.
ReplyDeleteI think what the founders intended was not necessary to remove religion completely from the political sphere. But as refugees being religiously persecuted by a theocratic state (the Catholic Church - which dominated European politics) the people who came to America saw the inherent flaw of religious establishments having sole political authority. So you can vote for your christian representatives, we can make our president muslim, the DoD can be led by a buddhist, but the United States federal and local governments can't explicitly endorse any single religion. So I agree with you, religion inevitably bleeds into our politics because its so central to our being in the world.
DeleteIt is impossible for politics and religion to be kept completely separate because lawmakers generally get their set of morals from their religious beliefs and use them to form their political platforms. They follow their religion to make the laws they believe will help their community and support their decisions with their religion. Everyones views are based off of religion and what they do is because of the religion they believe in. Citizens that vote put their religion to view and vote for the candidates based off what they believe in and how well they think the candidate will follow that religion. If they weren't kept separate whichever religion had the most representation would have the most power and influence and be able to impose their beliefs on others. This would lead to a lot of conflicts in politics and disagreement among the nations people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that completely separating religion and politics is virtually impossible. While it is possible to keep religion to completely rule politics, you cannot keep politicians from bringing their religious views into politics. As long as our country allows for the freedoms that we currently enjoy you will never truly separate religion and politics. At the moment I believe we are at a perfect balance for the two, religion does not rule politics but it is still a factor based on what the politicians personal beliefs and policies.
DeleteReligion goes hand and hand with politics, the reason I say this is because when candidates are running for office they use their religious backgrounds and their own beliefs. They try to have a connection with the people who are voting for them. Some people connect to religious views when they are picking for a candidate because that is part of their freedom of rights. They have a right to believe in whatever they want to. So if you separate religion and politics the people who are voting and maybe even the people who are running for office wouldn't feel like that have that freedom, they are exercising their rights. In some other countries they use religion when dealing with some political views " Democratic parties in Europe and Latin America no longer had formal ties to the Church, but their Catholic doctrine continue to color some of their political positions on issues like abortion and divorce.(Micheal ,291). So I feel like it would be impossible to separate the two because their will always be some religious viewpoints when dealing with politics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Because of the shared beliefs that many religions share, religion almost becomes an advantage point when trying to gain voters. Candidates will make effort to show that side of them even if it normally is not there, but it becomes a way to connect with the public. I dont believe the separation is possible from both ends, the politician needs that connection and you cannot ask voters to ignore their beliefs when casting a vote.
DeleteIn a perfect world, I believe that the separation of politics and religion would be beneficial. Too many times in today's world are conflicts created by the simple fact that not everyone believes in the same thing. The citizens of the US see the many different problems arise from the different viewpoints and ideas on religion's place in politics from the political leaders themselves. If the citizens of the US see its political leaders erupting in conflict over simple religious disagreements, they are more likely to follow in their footsteps. Religion is a crucial part of American lives and just as important are politics that influence how Americans live their lives. I believe that religion does play a part in the forming of political views and ideas but I believe there must be a fine line that the two must not cross. The hardest thing about these two is to find an equal balance between them in order for the American people to benefit from it. An equal balance is required in the formation of legislation, movements, etc. Religion and politics are two very sensitive topics of conversation that must always be respected and taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, in a perfect world it would be beneficial for politics and religion to be separate. However, we do not live in a perfect world and it would be wrong to ask someone to put aside their own beliefs in order to make decisions. So, instead of politicians making decisions based on their own beliefs (religions), they make decisions for the people through voting. Although this may keep politics and religion separate, the people who are voting could be making their decisions about things based on their religious values and ideals. When thinking about it this way, it is easy to see that it is nearly impossible to keep religion and politics completely separate. Unless someone is not religious at all, I do not believe that there is much chance in it happening.
DeleteI like your point, however I believe not only are we not prepared for all the topics that could cause issues but normally the ones that religious beliefs play a big part in it, it is impossible to ask for people to put it aside. Some examples that I think right away is about abortion and death penalty, many have strong feeling about it because of their religious raising, and to be asked to put that aside when deciding is very hard. I think you are right it would possibly be great if it happened but now I think it is just too late for such a drastic change.
DeleteI agree with your statement I think that religion is a very powerfull force nowadays. I think that the world would be significantly better if the two were not intertwined. however because they are so side by side I think religion has to much power in culture and will continue to sway people
DeleteIn all honesty, politics and religion will always go hand and hand. However, I do believe that they should be separate. Religion creates more division than unification. They are both sensitive and always controversial conversations and they are conversations that have been going on since as long as we can remember. As human beings, we should all be seen as equal and treated with equity. Religions and Parties are just labels. What really matters is ones belief system and upholding it to ones integrity. In America, and worldwide, there is much work to accomplish before we can come together and embrace diversity rather than run away from it. Just because religion heavily influences peoples political views does not mean we cannot work for a more open-minded and accepting future. At the end of the day, religion is whatever one believes and how ever one decides to or not to worship it. Therefore, one way of thinking, one way of worshiping and one sided representation should not represent and dictate millions of unique individuals in their pursuit of happiness. And all religions trying to fight for political control, helps no one and creates bigotry and hate. Which, ironically, is the very thing many religions preach against.
ReplyDeleteI think that all religions do not try to be political but the the very nature of then brings out a political hierarchy. they is because of the faith that is connected with them. I believe that religion and politics should be separate because not everyone in every political system has the same religion and it seems ridiculous to make rules based on beliefs that are not fact. however I do not think it is possible to separate the too because the faith of religion easily translates to politics. Marxism was considered a utopian society because it was one where everyone was provided for from the government and everyone had a correct occupation. this later became known as socialism which was more democratic because there was voting involved. socialism and Marxism differ because socialism has voting involved making it more democratic while marxism it is more set
ReplyDeleteI think there must be pockets of religions - belief systems - that aren't mainstream/we don't know about that must be apolitical. I think it was the natural progression of history, the violence of developing countries entering the modern era, social/political circumstances which served to politicize religious beliefs. I do think religion and political ideology function in much of the same way in that we derive our values, and ideal vision of society from both religion and political ideology. Additionally ideology operates in our mind as something above scrutiny, in the face of logical criticism ideology is constantly justified and re-rationalized.
ReplyDeletePolitics is inherently bound up with religion because politics revolves around questions of justice and the good life. How we want to formulate society and coexist in this world. And religion is a major source of our values and morality which influences our conception of justice.
Although I have heard an alternative interpretation - Reza Aslan wrote that rather than religion being the source and cause of peace or violence in the world - we as humans insert our values into religion. If we're bigoted people we will find hatred and bigotry in scripture. If we're inclined towards peace we will create and find that in our belief systems.