Your secular view of religion

[wally]

Question:

Laying aside your personal convictions and beliefs, and looking at the system as a whole, what are your secular views on the function of religion in society?

In my limited understanding of how things interrelate my perception is that one of the the roles (as it has come to be) of traditional religion in modern society is to serve as an anchor to the value systems of the past. This oftentimes necessarily slows social trends (like gay marriage) when modern views clash with traditional views. It slows the whole process down so that we have time to think things out. My perception is that when you slow things down, consensus has a chance to be built on these issues.

Given this as my perspective, I rather like the idea of religion functioning as sort of a check and balance to rapidly changing culture and society.

I am interested in your thoughts.

[All-American]

Question:

Laying aside your personal convictions and beliefs, and looking at the system as a whole, what are your secular views on the function of religion in society?

In my limited understanding of how things interrelate my perception is that one of the the roles (as it has come to be) of traditional religion in modern society is to serve as an anchor to the value systems of the past. This oftentimes necessarily slows social trends (like gay marriage) when modern views clash with traditional views. It slows the whole process down so that we have time to think things out. My perception is that when you slow things down, consensus has a chance to be built on these issues.

Given this as my perspective, I rather like the idea of religion functioning as sort of a check and balance to rapidly changing culture and society.

I am interested in your thoughts.

Any general trend will usually be riddled with exceptions, but there are several which are important enough that you may need to do more to accommodate them. The abolitionist movement, for example, were driven by religious fervor, and Martin Luther King Jr. was a reverend. You can make the argument that religion was a strong motivating factor in the push for racial equality.

In other words, it's clear enough that religion can catalyze and motivate as easily as it can settle and restrain.