I'm writing a paper for one of my college courses: The limitations of religion/faith when dealing with major global issues (ie: diplomacy, genetic science, recession, ect.) what are some of the limitations when looking at things from a religious point of view? any input is appreciated
Religion can't offer concrete solutions. Partaking in the Eucharist won't solve world hunger. Those crackers just ain't that filling!
religion certainly draws lines, but faith is different. to me, a religion (such as christianity) has boundaries, but faith is more clear. faith involves morality, and doing what is truly right; as for religion, it may protect a certain group. that is only my opinion though, hope it helps.
Thanks guys, that gave me a couple more ideas to think about. I thought it was a little bit of a difficult question to answer. I'll have to get ripped and think about this one for a while.
One limit is with personal responsibility; the idea that God will take care of everything, so we needn't worry about serious problems. For example, global warming isn't an issue because Jesus is coming back soon. Also, we needn't worry about animal species that we make extinct because God gave us dominion over them, and if their extinction was to be a problem then he would have given us some limitations over said dominion. Another limit is the idea of faith: if you just wish hard enough, things will go the way you want them to. This ties in with the previous point; why bother doing it yourself if the creator of the cosmos is personally taking your calls? Faith also limits one's intellectual curiosity, because sometimes it feels better not knowing how/what something is than actually knowing how/what that something is: cling to the original belief and then move on to other matters (like watching television). Another limit is intolerance to different cultures, customs, and -- sometimes as a by-product of the previous two -- races. Those people on the other side of the globe are just so different than me, so clearly their view on God is skewed. If only I could talk to them and tell them how it really is. Ah, but they wouldn't listen anyways, those ignorant [whatever]. And there are probably a hundred more limits.
