Since the dawn of humanity, people have sought guidance on right and wrong. Religion has provided answers for billions. Whether it is the Ten Commandments of Christianity, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Eightfold Path in Buddhism, or countless other principles of life, religion has played a significant role in the development of society.
While religion has undoubtedly led to many examples of social reform, the benefit may not be all that it seems. Throughout history, when religious institutions have exercised authority over social norms, morality, or governance, they have contributed to increased violence, rigid social and political hierarchies, and racial oppression, undermining the flourishing of society.
One of the clearest ways religion has incited harm is through the organization and justification of violence. Between the late eleventh and thirteenth centuries, a series of religious wars – the Crusades – were fought over control of holy sites. This violence was directly incited and promoted by the Papacy, the most dominant institution of Western Europe during the medieval period. Many European monarchs, in fact, derived their power through alliances with the Church, merging religious and political governance. Through its spiritual authority, the Church mobilized large-scale participation in a conflict that resulted in widespread death and destruction (history.com).
When religion is intertwined with government, societies often develop with little to no social or political mobility. The caste system in India, adapted from Hindu principles, divides Hindus into a rigid hierarchy that determines their occupation, social status, and highest attainable education (bbc.com).
Key foundations for the system come from Hindu scripture, particularly Manusmriti, a highly influential text on social code and ethics in Hinduism. Furthermore, Hindu cosmology describes each social group as deriving from a different body part of a cosmic being, often interpreted in modern tradition as Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. According to the BBC, “[the caste system] remained virtually unchanged for centuries, trapping people into fixed social orders from which it was impossible to escape.” While the influence of Hinduism on India’s formal governance has declined, the hierarchies it legitimized continue to shape social and economic inequality in the country today (bbc.com).
The influence of religion over social norms and morality can be as socially destructive as formal political authority. In the United States, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist and Protestant Nationalist movement, has perpetrated widespread violence since the Reconstruction Era. This terrorism primarily targeted African Americans; however, in the 20th century, the Klan extended its attacks to Catholics, Jews, and other religious minorities (history.com).
The Klan explicitly bases its racist ideologies on religion. In The Kloran, the organization’s official handbook, the Klan declares, “We avow the distinction between the races of mankind as same has been decreed by the Creator…,” which frames white supremacy as a social order sanctioned by God (library.wisc.edu). By invoking the authority of the Creator, the Klan presents its racist and discriminatory world order as morally legitimate within a divine framework.
In a common defense of religion, it is claimed that the religions do not cause harm, but rather the people. While superficially true, this argument is much more of a straw man than a precise rebuttal. Religions, specifically those predicated on texts, preserve their longevity by using metaphor and abstraction. This empowers religious texts to be subjected to cultural and contextual reinterpretations over time.
The Curse of Ham is the clearest example of the complications of interpretation. It originates in the Book of Genesis when Noah curses his grandson Canaan’s descendants to be servants because of his father, Ham’s, shameful behavior. While in the Biblical account, there was no mention of race, the interpretation of the curse gradually developed into one of race and servitude, because of predisposed beliefs against people of African descent. Christian Southerners used this interpretation as a direct justification of slavery. According to Stephen R. Haynes, a professor of religion at Rhodes College, “pro-slavery Southerners were drawn to Genesis 9:20-27 because it resonated with their deepest cultural values.” While the Bible did not specifically refer to race, cultural interpretations made it a powerful tool for racism (nytimes.com).
While religion may inspire personal virtues of honesty and compassion, history warns that when religious institutions have authority over a society, the effects can be deeply detrimental. When religion advances beyond a personal belief, it uniquely legitimizes harm as a sacred obligation. Violence is now framed as a duty, rigid hierarchies are designed by divine will, and inequality becomes a moral law. Religion, thus, no longer guides humanity on a path of virtue, but rather diminishes the well-being of society.