Webster defines religion as "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects."(1999) Since the beginning of time there was religion. Historically religion has been the basis of our ethics and morals within the Judeo Christian culture. There are many different religions practiced thorough out the world that signifies a great need and importance of religions to all cultures.
There are two reasons why I think religion plays a major role in today's world, one is thorough politics although, it is often said that there should be or is a separation between church and state here in the United States. The second is in the personal individual lives of which religion is practiced.
We see the political effect in our news today; it is between the Christian faith and the Muslin faith. Jihad is the name of a sector in the muslin religion that will resist everything and will fight even until death, anyone who oppresses their faith and muslin values. So they go around killing innocent people for their faith even their own people to make this statement of liberation! On the other hand the United States being historically Judeo Christians say that it is wrong to kill innocent people and even oppressing their own people. So we (United States) stepped in and took some action. The idea of bringing democracy to the Muslins is a revolutionary democracy that is grown out of western culture; Christian principles are very different from the Muslin ways of governing life. Christians want to preserve life and live peacefully among each other. Muslins will destroy even their own lives if it opposes their religious beliefs. Now there is a very aggressive conflict between these two religions that are literally affecting the whole world! .
Religion secondly has played a very important role in individual lives that choose to practice it.