Blog 20: Quote Integration

Religion has many great qualities that it bestows upon its followers.  It can teach morals and ethics that are socially acceptable that a person might not otherwise learn elsewhere.  However, Religion also causes many rifts between cultures.  A great many of wars within the past two thousand years may never have occurred had there not been disagreements between two differing theologies.  Mark Twain may sum it up best when he states:"Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion—several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight."(Twain).  Look no further than the Israelis and Palestinians.  The two countries have been waging an unstoppable war with each other for years, all centered around their different religions and in turn, their different cultures.  These two countries have no other reason to be fighting other than whose God is better than whose.  Also, another example, the Spanish Inquisition, how many innocent Spanish women were executed simply because they were a suspected "witch."  This would have no basis in any court of law, however, under a misguided follower of a religion, it had a disastrous effect.  So yes, while a religion gives many, many great things to this world, it can also do a lot of harm when it's acts are carried out by its misguided constituents.