Everyone is entitled to have his or her own beliefs. The trouble arises when those beliefs are forced upon others. It is true that being religious or spiritual has helped individual people or even groups of people greatly.

But when it comes to society, history shows that religion has hurt more than helped. The fact is, one religion has not often helped society as a whole; especially if there is one dominant religion in a position of power.

Salem, Massa. in the 1600s is a good example of religion harming society more than helping it. The Salem Witch Trials killed many innocent people because of religious beliefs. Another example would be Adolf Hitler. He slaughtered millions of people simply because they were Jewish. The Medieval Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition also show how people took violent measures in order for their religion to reign supreme.

One of the problems with religion in society is that many strong believers of their religion are so convinced that their way of life is the only correct way to live that they try to convert and “save” the rest of the world. In many cases, people use their religion to give themselves power over others by converting and collecting a group of followers.

What people need to realize is that not everyone can or wants to conform to the same way of life. People need to put this in perspective when they try to preach their religion to other non-believers.

Of course, it is true that not all those who strongly have faith in their religion are extremists and intolerant of other religions. Many religious people are very friendly and open-minded about other religions.

But not everyone has such a tolorant attitude. Another point to consider is that religion is not the only way to teach morals and values. Many people who are not religious still have their own moral guidelines and boundaries. Either way, religion may be a good form of guidance for individuals; but once again, letting religion strongly influence all of society has never led to something good.

Take Afghanistan for example. There are terrible things happening in the Middle East, all related to religion. Muslim extremists hate the United States and Jews are constantly at war with the Muslims in Israel. It seems like in many cases conflicting religions segregate us even more. Afghanistan is a country that has not separated religion from the country’s laws.

The people of the U.S. saw the flaws in their government clearly. The ironic thing is, there are still many Americans who strongly believe that the U.S. should have Christian values and that it is a Christian country. If America succumbed to that belief then the U.S. could be just as bad as Afghanistan is.

Besides that, the belief that the U.S. is a Christian country is false. America’s Founding Fathers agreed to the separation of church and state as well as freedom of religion. So technically, the U.S. is not a country bound by the rule of God. At least, there is not only one God ruling everyone. A funny thing is, the Christian Bible even says “Thou shall not judge.”

If people who are Christian try to force their beliefs upon others or allow their faith to inspire violent and disrespectful actions, they are actually going against their own religion. By being extremely religious and disrespecting other religions they are defying their own faith. Talk about irony.

It is ridiculous if two neighbors with different religions can’t live in the same area without killing each other. It is not acceptable for people to commit crimes or kill others in the name of religion. A person finding something that he or she can truly, spiritually believe in is beautiful. He just has to make sure he doesn’t turn his blessing into a curse.