Question for a Religions around the world class

Well, it's your assignment. Your task is to think of two effects that organised religion has had on society. Have a little try.

You have to do the study I give you a tip.
The social equality in Sweden grew out of the Lutheran Church.

the Spanish Inquisition and Crusades come to mind. Salem's witchcraft trials, etc.

The Catholic faith has demeaned people all over the world. The Inquisition and Crusades cost people their entire livelihoods and, oftentimes, their lives. More wars have been started in the name of organized religion than for any other reason. Muslims bombed the World Trade Center as a religious act. We retaliated. M<illions of lives have been lost.

Give THAT to your teacher.

quote
. More wars have been started in the name of organized religion than for any other reason
end of quote

Are you sure about that?
Of all the wars that have been going on in Europe the last few hundred years I think the last one purely about religion was the 30 year war 1618-1648. The others were about power and more land, sometimes also including religion but not as a main reason.

1) Ethical systems of behavior: Two religions, namely Judiasm and Islam incorporate ethical systems of behavior into their dogma. Islam has Sharia and Judaism has Halacha. Muslims and Jews can exist as civil societies in the absence of civil law. Christianity has no such ethical system and must rely on civil law to incorporate it's moral values into society. There are both positive and negative examples of this that you can research.

2) War: Many examples exist where war was waged (and continues to be waged) in the name of defending one god (or interpretation of the will of the same god) over another.

Christianity does have such ethical system and the basic civil law is based on some of the ten commandments and their moral values into society.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God (This is not against the law but certainly not considered good behavior)
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. (We don´t really keep it holy any more but we have laws regarding work on Sundays)
You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
You shall not covet your neighbor's house
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife

No, that's not an ethical system of behavior -- those are moral codes that, yes, have been incorporated into civil law. Ethical systems of behavior such as Sharia and Halacha allow religious societies to be fully functional without civil law. Christianity has nothing comparable.

And, these two are holiness codes, not moral codes and have nothing to do with ethical systems of behavior.

Some democrats and several official institutions in democratic countries (as the European Court for Human Rights) argue that Sharia is incompatible with a democratic state. These incompatibilities have been clarified in several legal disputes.

In 1998 the Turkish Constitutional Court banned and dissolved Turkey's Refah Party on the grounds that the "rules of sharia", which Refah sought to introduce, "were incompatible with the democratic regime," stating that "Democracy is the antithesis of sharia."

The question wasn't restricted to democratic societies. In general, organized religions establish moral codes that have been incorporated into societal ethical behaviors and laws. How's that?

I believe our youthful writer has already handed in his/her assignment. The point is now moot.

"religion may be morally useful
without being intellectually sustainable"- John Stuart Mill

"I want nothing to do with any religion which is organized and approved their god's invisibility.-- Rama