Does Religion Enhance Or Hinder The Human Condition, On Balance Essay Samples

Religions across the world have played the omnipotent role in the lives of the people. Religions have always urged the people to be ardent followers so that they can be led along the path to find peace of mind, salvation and happiness. On the outside, religion has been the paramount path of attaining the transcendental. Thus, it has allured the masses with the promise to make them reach the ultimate fulfillment in their mortal lives and beyond.
However, in the garb of being a way of emancipation from the drudgeries and shortcomings of the humans, religion has influenced the masses as the ultimate binding force which keeps the human race away from the freedom of mind. Religion contains the human spirit and mind within its constriction boundaries of blind faith and ritualism. Religion defies scientific logic and truth and blinds the human mind with the array of mythical explanations to reality and imposed restrictions concealed in the shell of righteousness and piety.
In Hinduism, the Vedas preach of the cosmogony of the golden egg. It is stated that the gods and human originated in impersonal primordial entity. In the Purushasukta hymn it has been stated that the giant Purusha emerged from the golden egg and it was though the sacrifice of this individual that the world was built and also the animals and duality of sexes which exists.
In the Vedic hymns it is not so clear what the roles of gods were in the process of creation of the human beings. However, it is expressed that humans are responsible to the gods for the way in which they sustain in the universe. Human beings are meant to seek constant forgiveness for all the sins which they perform in the mortal world. Such sins can actually be the immoral activities of the individuals or the erroneous performance of the correct religious rituals. The afterlife is ruled by Yama, who is the god of death. Yama has been mentioned in Taoist and old Buddhist scriptures too. Yama, Indra and Soma are the gods who assure divine justice and there is no impersonal law as karma.
On the other hand, in Islam, the Quran talks of the creation and fall like what has been mentioned in the Judeo-Christian texts. It says that both human beings and angels came in existence to worship Allah. Adam was created by Allah and he was to be worshiped by the angels.
This was opposed by Satan or Iblis who later imbibed the humans with passion which made them sin. There are two angels who are appointed for every person and they keep track of the actions of the individual which are weighed during the final judgment.
Thus, it is quite clear that religions resort to stories of transcendence which lack logical and scientific coherence. There is, moreover, no uniformity of explanation regarding the creation and existence of human beings. The human condition, thus, can only be keep under constrain by the religions of the world which would amputate the mind’s capability to think logically and rise above the scriptural explanations which can be found in the religions across the globe.
The absence of harmony among the religions is reason enough to establish the incorrectness and falsity of the explanations. Religion poses hindrance to the emancipation of the human mind. Thus, reconciliation and freedom of the mind can only be achieved by denouncing the shackles of religion and freeing the mind of the biases and impositions.