Thoughts & Ruminations on Ch. 7: Religion

Trevor Jones 

1/8/16

Per. 3

Sources: 

Human Geography: People, Places, and Culture: Chapter 7 - Religion 

Religion: Is Christianity Fading in the U.S.?: https://dawsonschool.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/715/download/download_1748415.pdf
Center For Reduction of Religious-Based Conflict- Hotspots in the Middle East: https://dawsonschool.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/715/download/download_1736776.pdf

Singapore: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/singapore.is.the.world.capital.of.religious.diversity/36676.htm

Israel & Palestinian Conflict: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli–Palestinian_conflict#Jerusalem

Since the middle of the 20th century up until today, the Israelis have wanted complete control of the city of Jerusalem which they view as holy, but other religious groups see this city as holy as well, such as Jews and Christians. So, in 2001 the United States proposed a plan in which the Arab parts of Jerusalem would be given to the proposed Palestinian state while the Jewish parts of Jerusalem were given to Israel. Then, as predicted, this proposal fell apart leading to unrest among the religious groups and various acts of violence and terrorism in the time leading up to the current date. 

How is religion fading and leading to secularism in modern countries such as the USA and also being reinforced in the form of extremism in others such as Middle Eastern Countries?

Religion has been around since the dawn of human civilization. It is what defines us and gives us order and meaning in the universe. Religion can be seen in many forms: faith, devotion, even terrorism as an extreme example. However, it seems that as many of the countries of the world develop and industrialize, the need to seek faith in religion has become less of a way of life. Generally, the modern trend is that more globalized and industrialized countries tend to be less religious than developing countries. The reason for this is determined by a number of things, but is mostly due to people’s uncertainty in everyday life, therefore believing that a god can give them guidance through tough times. The United States has the highest number of religious adherents of any industrialized country, and is comprised of many ethnic religions and universalizing religions. Even though the number of adherents are high in the U.S., many believe that religion is fading in the U.S. and giving rise to secularism. Conservative views expressed in many universalizing religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and many more is nowadays being associated with intolerance, such as battles against woman rights and abortions, causing many to stay away from religion and all associated with it. Over the past decade, fewer americans have associated themselves with a religion causing the pattern of less religion in developed countries, to stand strong in the United States. 

In other countries around the world, religion continues to be a way of life and has even stemmed religious conflict between different religions. A perfect example of this is in the middle east, where religious groups fight over territory that has been a part of their religion for centuries. Religions in the middle east share the same scared sited (like islam and judaism share jerusalem as a holy city) which leads to religious conflict and in some cases, religious extremism. An example of this dating back to 3000 years ago is the conflict between Judaism and Islam, which does not reduce to a religious conflict alone, but certainly stemmed from one. This conflict has been ongoing for millennia and continues today, almost exclusively in the middle east, however examples of the conflict exist outside the middle east as well. For example, In late December, 2000, two Islamic men stopped a school bus carrying 50 Jewish children between the ages of 8 and 10 at gunpoint near Paris, France, and residents of the mainly Arab suburb stoned the vehicle. These acts of violence are random and frequent among Judaic and Islamic adherents and will not cease due to the two’s long history of conflict. In short, globalization and religious conflict based on territory negatively impact the worlds most prominent religion’s adherents by discouraging new members from joining and can lead to random acts of terrorism and religious extremism due to an overlap of sacred sites or ideas. 

The reason that I chose to color this map of Southeastern Asia is because it contains Singapore, a small island city-state off of southern Malaysia. Singapore is the most religiously diverse country in the world, with 33.9% of its population following Buddhism, 18.2% Christian, 14.3% Muslim, 5.2% Hindu, 2.3% adhering to folk religions, and 9.7% falling into other religious groups. Those who adhere to no religion in Singapore account for 16.4% of the population. This is surprising to hear because generally, developed countries are less religions than un-developed countries, making it seem strange that the ninth most developed country in the world is the most religiously diverse country. Nevertheless, Singapore contains the most diverse religious landscape in the world, followed up by its close neighbors Taiwan and Vietnam respectively.