Frances Knaggs

Mr. Tierney
Prompt: Think about our
World
studies involving religion and
12/16/13
world history so far this year.
Write an essay on whether
religion has had a mostly
negative or mostly positive

Knaggs 4
History

A Monumental Setback
The Age of Faith marked a time period for medieval Europe filled
with reformation, expansion, great cathedrals, and war. The noble, yet
unsuccessful, Crusades attempted repeatedly over 200 years to drive
Muslims from the area of modern-day Israel, leading to lose of power,
lives, money, and ultimately the hatred that remains to this day
between most Christians and Muslims. That hatred has resulted in
momentous amounts of tension and death, and has resonated for
thousands of years, leaving some areas of the globe grappling with
continuous, non-stoppable violence. Conflicts between popes and
kings, conquered civilizations, cruel torture and brutal killing ultimately
prove that religion made a hugely negative impact on medieval
societies.
Since the rise of monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Islam
and Christianity, death and misfortune has followed in its wake. Early
Christians, seen as opposes to Roman rule, were used as scapegoats
and were prosecuted, executed, exiled, imprisoned, crucified, burned,
or eaten by animals for entertainment. As Christianity rose against the
onslaught of persecution, so did barbaric torture and creative ways to
kill.
Religion has always represented something monuments for
societies. Religion is belief, it is faith, and it is hope and tradition.
Religion, monotheistic or not, is found in every human being on Earth.
People turn to religion in times of pain, in times of struggle, of fear, of
happiness, of praise, of wonder. Religion can be as vague as believing
in something spiritual, or as specific as Presbyterian Protestant
Christianity. But with the monumental rise of monotheistic religion, one
practiced and believed by millions to be the truth, thousands and
thousands of people became willing to die in the name of their beliefs.
They became willing to abandon moral compasses, to slaughter
hundreds in the name of God. From the very beginning, Islam,
Christianity and Judaism have brought forth killing and pain.

Christianity itself can also be blamed for the destruction and

implosion of one of the worlds greatest empires to ever thrive- the
Roman Empire. Following the persistent rise of a persecuted religion,
Rome eventually became a Christian empire, leading the empire to
eventually abandon its advancements in learning and instead turned
its focus instead to religious devotion. This would eventually contribute
to the downfall of Rome and the demise of a continent into the Dark
Ages, a period of loss and backtracking in advancement.
A huge portion of medieval Europe was represented by the
Crusades. Launched by a Christian king, the goal was to drive out
Muslims from a land that was deemed holy. Religion was the cause for
wars that would go on to divide sacred land, destroy grand cities, and
cause the deaths of thousands of children. Children were victims of a
war very few could understand; in a journey dubbed the Childrens
Crusade, thousands of young children attempted to reach land that has
been warred over since the dawn of religion, and the children failed.
They would abandon hope, retreat, be sold into child slavery, or die
from starvation, exhaustion, drowning. The Crusades left behind a
mark on history lasting 200 years, filled with meaningless bloodshed
that ultimately accomplished almost nothing.
The Crusades began the Reconquista, a 700-year period of time
in which the Christian kings of the Iberian peninsula attempted to
reclaim the countries of modern day Spain and Portugal, and in doing
so, drive out the Muslims living there. For 700 years, there was war
against the Christians and the Muslims. By the end of it, Spain was
successful, and an entire people were displaced. But one could argue
that the war has never really stopped.
Without religion, the Dark Ages would not have set Europe-and
therefore the world- back hundreds of years, and mankind could live in
a far more advanced society today. Without religion, wars would not
have been waged over a strip of land. Without religion, the rift and
tension between Western Civilization and the Middle East would not be
as near as strong, or would be nonexistent entirely. Without religion,
millions of deaths could have been avoided. Our world, without
religion, would be a better world.