Reuben 1

Ashley Reuben
John Kubler
English 115
22 September 2014
Religion vs Life
In the dictionary, the definition of religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman
controlling power, especially a personal God or Gods. However, religion is one of those concepts
that could mean many different things. Religion means something different to everyone, so you
can never put a set definition on it. This is one of the many reasons that religion causes so many
issues in todays society. Religion also isnt just about what you believe in, but it comes with a
certain culture. No one celebrates holidays the same way, each person has their own culture and
that is what makes everyone so different and unique from each other. Normally, I would think of
this as a good thing, but today it causes too many problems. Religion pushes people away from
each other because often times, one thinks their religion is more important than someone elses.
In Marjane Satrapis book The Complete Persepolis, it shows a great deal of how religion
and culture impact our world in many different ways. For one, it has a major influence on children. Because of the war going on in Satrapis book, the children have ganged up on each other
due to what they think they know about the war. My father says Ramins father was in the
Savak. He killed a million people . . . In the name of the dead million, well teach Ramin a good
lesson. I have an idea My idea was to put nails between our fingers like American brass
knuckles and to attack Ramin (44-45). This quote shows how the events going on around them,
are causing them to become more violent to each other. Marji even mentions in

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the book, that the battle was over for their parents but not for them. With the war going on
around them, and their parents talking about it so much, the children feel as if they are involved
in it. When in reality no kid should be involved in any war. Parents should be trying to protect
their kids from it. In the book it also shows how Marjis family has to lie in order to survive in
their neighborhood. If anyone ever asks you what you do during the day, say you pray, you understand?? . . . . At first, it was a little hard but I learned to lie quickly. . . . . I pray five times a
day. Me? Ten or eleven times sometimes twelve (75). Marjis mom is teaching Marji to lie
because if they dont, then they will be executed. A number of people in the book have been executed because they didnt follow the new rules that have been brought up by the war. In the book
Marji and her mother even put up black drapes to cover the windows in their house so that the
neighbors wont be able to see what they are doing. The neighbors, that Marji and her family
have been close with for a while, are believed to be spies. They have to cover the windows so
that they dont see that they are having parties because it is not allowed. If the neighbors do see,
then they will have to turn them in. This war that is going on with the Iranians and the Arabs has
made people that were once very close, turn against each other. The Complete Persepolis also
shows how war and religion tries to manipulate society. For example in the book it talks about a
key given to boys so that they would fight in the war. They gave this to my son at school. They
told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into
Heaven. . . . . They told him that in paradise there will plenty of food, women and houses made
of gold and diamonds (100). Later on in the book we find out that they only give this key to the
poor boys and they try to convince them that the afterlife is even better than Disneyland. They
tried to manipulate the boys into thinking that if they go and fight, whether they believe in what

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they are fighting for or not, then their lives would be better than how they are living right now.
They are breaking up families just so they can get more warriors in a battle over religion.
Religion causes many issues between families as well. I know that in my family there
have been many issues due to the different cultures that all my family members have. My mothers side of the family is less religious compared to my fathers side of the family. My mothers
side puts love before anything else and my dads side puts their religion before anything else. My
cousin, from my dads side of the family, got married about a little over a year ago, and her family had a very hard time accepting her boyfriend at the time. Her parents werent sure that they
wanted her to marry him because he wasnt religious enough for them. Her parents were born
in Iran and raised in Israel, she was born in Israel and raised in America so of course she would
be less religious than her parents. She wanted to marry someone that was like her, which ideally
is what everyone should do, but her parents wanted her to marry someone that was more like her
family. She had to fight for her parents to let her date him because they didnt believe it was
right. In the end they finally warmed up to him, and they got married. Now my other cousin,
from my moms side of the family, has just gotten engaged. We are Jewish, and her fianc is
Muslim. In the Jewish religion it is almost unheard of to marry someone that isnt the same religion as you, because you are supposed to stick to your own religion. My dads side of the family
would completely disapprove of this, but my moms side is thrilled that she has found someone
that she loves, and to share the rest of her life with. I was dating someone for three years. We
started dating when I was 15 years old, he was 16 and he was not Jewish. I never told my dad
about it because he has a more strict personality and I didnt think it meant much since I was
only 15 years old. I wasnt taking the relationship too seriously because we were so young,

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and I had no intention of getting married anytime soon. So another year and a half went by and
we were still dating. I was 16 when my dad found out that we were dating. Of course, he immediately told me to break up with him, but I didnt being the rebellious teenager I was. I am now
18 years old and I still have issues with my dad because of this incident. My dad doesnt know
how I feel because he thinks that I did break up with him when he asked me to. However, I feel
very far away from my dad because we arent on the same page in life. My dad tries to force the
Jewish religion upon me and it not only makes me not want to learn about the religion but it also
makes my siblings feel the same way. My dad has told all of us that if we ever marry someone
that is not Jewish, he will disown us. This has really broken my relationship with my dad. My
mom on the other hand, knew about the relationship and didnt think anything bad of it because
she knew that since we were so young we werent thinking about marriage. Religion can be
something great for people to bond over, but it can also do the exact opposite.
Not only does religion cause issues in relationships and family, but it also causes problems in business. There have been many arguments that have come up recently about the law of
religious freedom and when it is being violated. For example, the Hobby Lobby supreme court
case was filed because the owners of Hobby Lobby chain business thought that their right to religious freedom was being violated. They felt violated because the law required them to pay for
insurance that would grant woman access to all contraceptives, including the morning after pill.
The owners did not believe in using the morning after pill because they did not believe that taking a life was right. They thought that by paying for this insurance, they would be helping in the
process of killing someone and their religion did not allow this. In this court case the majority of
judges voted for the owners, so the owners had won this case. There was another case brought

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to court about a woman that owned a flower shop. She had a male customer that was in a relationship with another man, and he had been coming to her for flowers for nine years. She had
made him flowers for their anniversaries and birthdays, knowing that he was in a relationship
with another man. When it came to their wedding, she refused to make them flowers because it
was a same sex marriage. Religion should not be brought into business because it will cause too
many conflicts. If your business is to make flowers for people, then you shouldnt turn people
away to make flowers for their wedding just because they are marrying a person of the same sex.
Religion should be limited to your personal life, it should not cut in to your business life.
There are many ways religion can be looked at in a positive way. Religion can be used to
unite people so that they all stand for one thing. It can be a very powerful, beautiful things at
times. However, in our society today, not many people know how to balance it out. I am not saying that the world should not have religion. It is perfectly fine if we do have religion, in fact I
think that without it some people would be lost. However people need to learn that they way that
they practice their religion, and what they believe in wont necessarily be how everyone else
feels. For example, in all the situations I have talked about, the conflict is that people have different a culture and a different way of living life. My father believes that you should only marry
inside of your religion, but that doesnt mean that I believe that. The lady that owns a flower
shop believes that marriage is only between man and wife, but that doesnt mean that all of her
customers will believe that. Marriage is supposed to be about finding someone that you love and
someone who treats you right, so why should you not follow your heart because of what other
people believe in? Someone can believe in whatever they want, but they have to understand that
it is only what they think. They should not let it invade the other aspects of their life to the

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point where it will cause problems. If everyone understood this, then religion would not be considered something bad in todays society.

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Works Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. USA: Random Houses, Inc., 2007. Print.
Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hobby Lobby Stores. Supreme Court of the
United States. 30 June 2014. Court Decision. Course Handout. Print.
The Barronelle Stutzman Story n.p. Youtube. Web. 16 March 2014.
Exclusive: Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Hobby Lobby Dissent Liz Goodwin. Yahoo News, n.d.
Web.

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