The essay that I anticipate to construct for this course will be centralized around the category of religion.  Under the category of religion, the research question that I formed focuses on, "Religion, in a general context, is the centered around the concept of peace, but through the years why has it received such a negative connotation in the way many perceive religion in America and around the World?".  This research question catches my interest since I am a person who considers myself particularly religious in the aspect of Christianity.  The foundation behind the research question proposed not only has an effect on my own religious values, but the overall structural disposition of what all religions are based upon.  Negativity and ignorance are two key factors that strike against religion as the cause of violence and hatred that is circulating nationally, as well as internationally.  These factors placed upon religion are from those who lack knowledge about what religion and different sectors' overall intent is, peace.  That being said, there have been personal experiences where I have encountered this negativity and ignorance from others when I bring up the topic of religion and Christianity.  At times I am shammed for being a Christian and see us as the bad guys in preventing liberal views on things in America or giving us the stereotype of being up tight/ judgmental human beings.  It is not until I explain to them what Christianity is focused upon and its intent by referring to scripture breaking it down to be easily comprehended, is when people begin to accept my opinion on religion and leaving the door open in respect to their own counter views.  I have learned that when people see that you respect other opinions beyond your own in conversations they begin to gain your respect and encounter a greater understanding of the discussion topic beyond what the public eye conveys.  Personally, I am not by all means a philosophical expert or a pastor, but I am a witness to what society has placed in regards to stereotyped and false assumptions upon the foundation of all religion.  Yes, each religion is different by means of what they preach, but the object of peace and worship of their god is what brings them together as analogous.  Thereby, I believe I am qualified to write about this research question and categorical topic through being able to witness how religion is negatively portrayed in society. 


The peer review journal of "Religion, Sociology of", by David Voas, uses sociology to evaluate the aims in how religion can be affected by social forces in society.  Vaos breaks down the overall claim from the journal by defining the disciplinarily boundaries in the sociology of religion, along with the definitional term of religion, the explaining the founder's views behind this branch of sociology, and key debates that arise with religion in his introduction for a smooth transition into the different sectors of the sociological study. 

 The major evidence provided in the article is found within the sectors of Theory and Methods, How Religion is Supplied, How Religion is Consumed, Religion/Religiosity as Explanatory Factors, and Religion & Public Policy.  These sectors illustrate not only how different elements in social forces affect and aid in shaping societies understanding of different religious organization, but  how societal domains are affected by religion overall.  

The credibility that Voas has to offer is that he works for the University of Essex in Colchester, UK but also the place in which this journal article, that he conducted, was established in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition).  It is classified under dictionaries and encyclopedias as a source of reference material to off for social and behavior sciences, which makes this a credible source and limited amount of bias to be scientifically accurate. 


The blog article, "Does Religion Cause War?" by Kabir Helminski makes a claim as to why and how religion gets condemned for the cause of war, along with stating that religion is a state of transformation and should be applied as so for it to shape our lives differently than what they are presently.  Helminniski argues three main pieces of evidence that support his claim of why religion is receiving a negative connotation through the ego that grasps onto us, humanity has ignored that we are all one, and the misconception of things that are and are not truly sacred.  

This article values the power of the ego that is within each and every one of us.  These egos are present in religion as we express its language as the servants of God, but association with this expression of language are rather negative in present day.  In summary, human egos and negative association work together in the causation of the corruption that interferes with the true meaning of religion. Also, Helminiski values the unity of humanity being one through religion.  This concept is rather forgotten while we look at negative perceptions and segregate one from another.  Lastly, the distorted definition of sacred in our lives tributes to religion being blamed as the cause of war and violence though through its lack of acceptance keeping the negative state at a maximum.  

The credibility behind this article blog in the Huffington Post is its author, Kabir Helminski, from being a popular due to his background in spiritual writing of books and translation.  Helminksi was noted one of the world most influential Muslims, but this entry limited in bias for not pertaining to a particular religion, rather the aspect of religion in general. 


In the blog article, "Religion is Not to Blame" Soumaya Ghannoushi proposes a claim that there is a mirroring effect when it comes to religion and worldly tensions by taking a religious name or medium but has a foundation within socio-political factors.  The evidence Ghannoushi provides emphasizes on going further into revealing the underlying problems that are not seen at the surface to identify the true indications that are beyond religious aspects.  

In the article, examples of war are given that originally place different religions and their regions as the fault.  Each example goes in depth as to why the religion and scripture were not the intent reason for involvement in war.  

There is credibility to this blog article since Soumayay Ghannoushi is a notable Bristish Tunisian writer who is an expert in Middle Eastern politics with work published in leading international publications.  There is some bias to be accounted for since she is Muslim, but Ghannoushi does a sufficient job conveying the overall claim to relate to all types of religion. 

-Reflection on Feasibility 

My research question, "Religion, in a general context, is the centered around the concept of peace, but through the years why has it received such a negative connotation in way many perceive religion in America and around the World?", is arguable in the fact that some may not think topic of religion as a whole is not viewed negatively and keeps an outlook of peace.  Some may also disagree that religion is the central targeted for blame in the cause of violence, war, and discrimination.   Agreements and disagreements among the sources were prevalent, which allows my research question to be more open to multiple ways of interpretation to support its claim.  In general, each source agreed on how social factors play a role in how society is influenced to think about religion.  As for disagreements, each source had its own perspective as to why religion gets the short end of the stick due to misconceptions of different types of actions done to in mirroring as religious.  These mirroring actions from each source include, false image through our egos, social forces in society, and roots in socio-political factors in worldly tensions.  These perspectives from the sources do affect my own perspective since I do have my own biases of being a Christian.  Two of the sources were written about by credited Muslim writers, but kept the bias to a minimum or none.  Therefore, with two opposing religious views create small conflicts in interpretation, but in this case it was not so due to the minimal amount of biases present within the articles.  This difference in perspectives also aided into the need for revision of my research question.  Instead of focusing on why religion has received negative connotation through the years, rather more on what social factors contribute to the negative connotations that have been placed upon religion.  

