RELIGION WORSENS SOCIETY

OUTLINE
I. INTRODUCTION
Religion worsens Indonesian society because it makes barriers and conflicts between
people.
II. BODY PARAGRAPH #1
Religion divides our society and makes barriers between us.
A. Grouped society limits our social intercourse.
B. Barriers threatens our unity.

III. BODY PARAGRAPH #2
Religion is a primary cause of conflicts in society.
A. Religion creates jealousies between people.
B. Bigotry misuses religion to do evil things.

IV. BODY PARAGRAPH #3
Counter Argument: Religion shows people how to behave and differentiate between
good and bad things.
A. People dont comply with good things religion instructs.
B. Each religion has different doctrines.
C. Conscience tells best how to behave.

II. CONCLUSION
By dividing society into groups thus making religious barriers and causing so many
conflicts between people, religion per se doesnt bring Indonesian society to betterment.
Otherwise, religion worsens our society.




Oscar Kokonugroho Lumban Tobing
PPA 32
RELIGION WORSENS SOCIETY

Religion can be defined as the collection of beliefs and cultural systems related to the
existence of divine power. Religion is organized into institutional religion which is a
community of people coming from common faith. The first principle of Indonesia's
philosophical foundation, Pancasila, is "belief in the one and only God". Since the New Era,
the fear of communism, of course including atheism, has led Indonesian government to
require citizens to choose a religion out of five officially recognized religions: Islam,
Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism which later expanded into six by
adding Confucianism in the Reformation Era. Consequently, the demographic of Indonesia is
classified mainly by religion, even with the disclosure of religion as a facet of identity in
Citizens Identity Card (KTP). The obligation to have a religion can either improves or
conversely worsens Indonesian society. A number of people believe that religion would bring
Indonesia to betterment by giving direction how to behave in society. However, since 1980
until now, the conflicts between religions made up 60% of all conflicts in Indonesia. Religion
has been used as a justification of evil things; therefore, people can not live with a
compromise. Thus, it is obvious that religion worsens Indonesian society because it makes
barriers and conflicts between people.
The first reason why religion worsens our society is because it divides our society and
makes religious barriers between people. People in Indonesia are compartmentalized into
boxes that is separated each other while a good nation consists of not is divided by
various division of people. It is bad living in country which has barriers that restricts social
intercourse between groups. Further, it is very unfair that due to different basis of faith,
someone can refuse to share social activity wih others coming from different groups of
religion, either consentual or forced by the environment. For example, by the existence of
religious schools such as Islamic schools or Catholic school, childrens mind are set that they
are different from their friends coming from another religious school. Moreover, the cases
like prohibition of inter-faith marriage is a perfect exhibition that there are such great barriers
among society that one need to change his faith first in order to marry to another from
different basis. In addition, in divided society, people are also allowed to judge ones
personality by his religion. Someone could simply presume the personality or behavior of
another people as identical to their religion. Furthermore, the barriers in our society can make
people prioritize their group interests above collective interests. For instance, the religious
parties in the parliament often only have a relatively small point of view in dealing with a
case like arranging regulations. Generally, they only prioritize their religion interests in
making those regulations. They dont put national interests above their religion interests. This
is very harmful to our nations unity. Therefore, it is clear that religion both limits our social
intercourse and harms our unity. Consequently, religion worsens Indonesian society.
The second reason why I say religion worsens our society is because it is a primary
cause of conflicts in our society. Religion creates social jealousies among people. Since
government has grouped people into various groups, the governments treatment toward
citizens also differs according to their faith. Because of that, people from a religion would be
jealous to the treatment government give to other religions. For example, a church in Islam
majority area, which is attended by Christians who drive cars and want to gather in a Sunday
service, often become a cause of jealousies for the neighboring Muslims. This will lead to
discrimination of minority religion believers in one place and end with conflicts between
majority and minority religious groups. As your matter of fact, in 2011 there were more than
20 churches in Indonesia blocked and prohibited to conduct Sunday and even Christmas
services. Meanwhile, in Tapanuli, North Sumatra, there are also restrictions for mosques to
broadcast the call to prayer in high volume. So, it is clear that religion lead conflicts
between people. Furthermore, fanatical believers of particular religions often misuses their
faith to justify their evil actions. That all religions teach the same good things kindness,
love, compassion is true, but contradictive tenets between religions often lead believers to
bigotry. Maluku Sectarian Conflict from 1999 to 2002 between Christians and Muslims that
victimized 600-700 people are a past history and worthed enough to be our lesson that a
nation should not be divided into distinct religious groups. In addition, the nature of religion
is to spread itself to as many people as possible. Thus, spreading of a religion such as by
door-to-door evangelization often disturbs people from other religions. For example, it is
Jehovahs Witnesses, a Christian sect, which was spread from the United States, that often
does agressive christianization or evangelization. Jehovahs Witnesses is very disturbing for
some people because they are targetting people who already have a religion, not the
irreligious one. It was banned in the Soeharto era but Abdurrahman Wahid allowed it again in
his era, as a freedom of faith. So, by creating jealousies between people and letting the
fanatical believers to do evil actions, religion worsens Indonesian society.
Some may argue that religion improves the society by showing people how to behave
and differentiate between good and bad things. By owning a religion, people can have a
conformity because they know that they have a guidance about how to face their life since
religion contains instructions that can be used as a social norm to justify whether an action is
acceptable or not. They believe that religion functions as a complementary to the other norms
such as the law, morality, and manner. However, this argument could not go any further since
people tend not to comply with the good things religion instructs. The fact is that bad things
still happen in the name of religion, like criminality and terrorism as well. There has been so
many people victimized behind the violation of law masked with religion. This happens
because people no longer remember the core of religion, which is kindness. Moreover, each
religion is different in that of their doctrines. So, even if the goal of all religions are the same,
they failed to reach it due to the different doctrines they teach. A religion tenet doesnt shelter
the society in general; therefore, religion could not be used as a norm to justify ones action. I
believe that morals, shared values, and conscience could tell you best how to behave in your
society, not your religion.
On the whole, religion tries to offer society an improvement by giving meaning,
purpose, and instruction in life. However, it has been clearly proven that by dividing society
into groups thus making religious barriers and causing so many conflicts between people,
religion per se doesnt bring Indonesian society to betterment. Otherwise, religion worsens
our society.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. remarks, I have a dream that my four little children one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged ... , but by the content of their character.
Finally, religion really worsens our society.

Oscar Kokonugroho Lumban Tobing
PPA 32