Alright, for our 11th English class we are required to do a research paper, specifically on what has affected American culture as a whole. I don't want to just BS my way through it and do a topic like "Computers" or "Cell Phones" Like everyone else is, I want to do something on religion.

The paper needs to be 5-7 pages long, so it can't be too narrow or broad of a topic, and right now I'm trying to just narrow down the religion topic a bit. We need a final question and 4 supporting questions. I currently have:


What if we were never brought up with a religion?
Which specific religions affect us more?
How are we brought up by it?
Why are we brought up with it?
How would things be different if we didn't have it?


They're pretty rough questions and I'm needing a bit of help with them, or at least an entirely different idea in general. My friend is doing how religion effects politics an I'm hoping to try and do how it affects just society as a whole. Any articles or other papers that can be related to this would be awesome, thanks.

I wasn't sure which form this would go in, but this seemed to fit more in.

You should really do your own homework, it's the only way you'll hone your skills. Anyway, everyone asks how religion affects society, why not ask how society affects religion? That is to say, if it were me writing the paper, I would stress that you cannot treat something as being an influence on society, so to speak, but that that something has to be treated as if it were "embedded" within society, i.e. I would treat the "affective relations" between society and religion as a two-way street, rather than treating religion as something that stands outside of society and acts upon it. In order to understand religion's affect on society, you have to understand society's affect on religion, otherwise you may confuse the two.

Why not try something a little more specific? March 2009 will be the 10 anniversary of the movie

The Matrix

Why not do religion and The Matrix?

Two terms that were never used in the film but obviously apply to it are

Reincarnation and Avatar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysbczEYvKY

DT

What if we were never brought up with a religion?
Anarchy would ensue. Civil unrest and lack of morality would be more abdundent.

Which specific religions affect us more?
I don't think a specific variation of the one religion that has been morphed and modified through out time to reach tribal goals and other selfish acts affect us more than any other variation.

How are we brought up by it?
Well, our society is very much affected by the fact that it is devided. Even though (I believe) most surviving religions today originate from one source, the differences allow us to devide ourselves into tribal and ethnic-like formations. Thus continuing the route of humanity.

Why are we brought up with it?
Because it exists ;)

How would things be different if we didn't have it?
I think this question is abundent as it is the same as the first.

The paper needs to be 5-7 pages long, so it can't be too narrow or broad of a topic

You can really make it as narrow or broad as you want. One of my professors did a 50 page (peer reviewed) journal on a three word excerpt from a Shakespeare play. That means you can do 5 pages on an easy topic. Like others said do your own research. Go to libraries and see if they have any online article subscritptions, jstor is a champ for history type articles. Or just look up religious articles and draw your own conclusions from how they affected the US society.

look up the creation of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints and its relation to the american dream and freedom of expression. im sure you could write a good essay just on that

look up the creation of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints and its relation to the american dream and freedom of expression. im sure you could write a good essay just on that

The Mormon Church influencing Prop 8? Polygamy and admitting the Mormons into the USA?

You should do it on the legality of giving Churches and religious organizations tax exemption in the U.S, even after they've endorsed polital parties, political candidates and political issues like Proposition 8 in California.


This is a lot more specific and probably much easier to do research on. "How religion affects society" is so broad that it's going to be hard to reach a meaningful conclusion.

your current idea for the paper is way to broad to keep it in the spectrum of simply "religion and the affects it has upon society". you need to pick out certain aspects of society and then outline what religion has done to effect those aspects. talking about society as a whole will encompass so much that i doubt you'll be able to fit it into a 5-7 page paper.

you can get into how exactly religion is brought up in the first place. discuss and research why humans tend to look upwards into the "divine" and the thoughts that there is a more powerful being. blind faith will be a GIANT part of your essay, as almost every faith requires that you blindly believe in god(s), as no empirical proof can be shown to tell you that there is, in fact, a god(s) watching over us, or whatever. then you'd have to outline what types of religions you are going to discuss. if you are only going to focus on, lets say, jesus, then you might have a very biased paper; whereas you talk about more than one major religion (perhaps add in buddism or agnosticism) then you will have to discuss not only the differences between those religions, but also the affect each one has had on whatever aspects of society you want to discuss. if you only choose one, you cannot just broadly state "religion and it's affects" it would need to be changed to "christian faith and it's affects upon society" but even then, that will be a giant paper in itself.

this is a good topic, and i support your willingness to take on such a broad subject. but first you really need to narrow down what aspects of society you want to discuss, and which religions you wish to find that cause/affect on. your questions are good - but they need to be targeted at something specific you can define early on in your essay.

Utah perspectives on Prop. 8:

http://dailyutahchronicle.com/7.5652?q=proposition+8

But don't do it on that, do it on how dirty words affect society. It would be especially relevant what with the recent supreme court case.

What if we were never brought up with a religion?
Anarchy would ensue. Civil unrest and lack of morality would be more abdundent.

So you deny the existence of secular ethics, a la Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Epictetus, Antisthenes, Grotius, Gentili, Bentham, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, etc.?

So you deny the existence of secular ethics, a la Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Epictetus, Antisthenes, Grotius, Gentili, Bentham, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, etc.?

He denies their massive influence.

So you deny the existence of secular ethics, a la Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Epictetus, Antisthenes, Grotius, Gentili, Bentham, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, etc.?

What nshanin said, the age that those men lived in is long gone. Now, greed and corportism is the only god :)

What nshanin said, the age that those men lived in is long gone. Now, greed and corportism is the only god :)

Rawls is still alive, IIRC. Not that that's relevant because it's hard to put your soul into secular ethics.

Rawls is still alive, IIRC. Not that that's relevant because it's hard to put your soul into secular ethics.

I suppose it's human tendency to do good in order to escape the wrath of god rather than the main goal which is to form a better society.

I suppose it's human tendency to do good in order to escape the wrath of god rather than the main goal which is to form a better society.

That's just it. People are not selfless enough to be good for other people. They do good to get into a place called heaven-for themselves.

post it when your finished;)