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Does religion have an influence on politics and votes
- Thread starter Rabbi Daniel
- Start date
It's a question that is made incredibly complicated by the fact that "religion" itself is in no small part a social/cultural construct. The long and the short of it is that a person's cultural background - which inevitably includes all the things we stuff into the box labeled "religion" - impacts their behavior across the board including but not limited to politics (and politics is also part of a person's cultural background).
The modern construct of religion in the West is strange and awkward in that it is often a superficial or disingenuous label. I can go into what I mean by that in more detail if needed, but it is the effect that is important - it is not uncommon for someone's "religion" to not have all that much impact on who they are as a person or their way of life. Because of that, that person's values either aren't perceived as originating from religion (by themselves or others) or the values they do hold to aren't actually those of their professed religion anyway. This mismatch means there's also a mismatch on how the identified religious affiliation plays into politics and voting. For those for whom this is not the case, there is much less mismatch and a straighter arrow between their identified religions and behavior.
The modern construct of religion in the West is strange and awkward in that it is often a superficial or disingenuous label. I can go into what I mean by that in more detail if needed, but it is the effect that is important - it is not uncommon for someone's "religion" to not have all that much impact on who they are as a person or their way of life. Because of that, that person's values either aren't perceived as originating from religion (by themselves or others) or the values they do hold to aren't actually those of their professed religion anyway. This mismatch means there's also a mismatch on how the identified religious affiliation plays into politics and voting. For those for whom this is not the case, there is much less mismatch and a straighter arrow between their identified religions and behavior.
To be completely honest, the fact that you would offer such a list with no option such as
Number ?: Moral/Ethical considerations
is more than a little disturbing, particularly given your username.