Religion a hindrance towards the development of societies

Religion a hindrance towards the development of societies As difficult as it can get to define religion, it gets even harder to explain its parameters. There has not been a general consensus on the definition of religion although social scientists have long tried to provide clarity to the definition of religion as it fits best to justify their work. Belief is at the core of Religion (Jeff Haynes, 1997). According to Jeff, Bellah termed religion as, a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate man [sic] to the ultimate conditions of his existence. Jeff interprets these ultimate conditions of existence in two ways, in material and spiritual sense. I will be modifying the material sense of conditions as those pertaining to the political, social and economic factors defining the sophistication of modern world. Empirical and theoretical researchers have long stressed on only the instrumental factors affecting the development of society. It is important to understand that these instrumental factors are insufficient to reflect true results withou t the inclusion of qualitative factors such as religion. The effect of religion on the economic development of an economy cannot be fairly established without defining economic development. This concept has been a popular one among the economic and social scientists throughout the history of economics. However, the inclusion of terms to define this concept has varied. The concept of economic development lies beyond the conventional boundaries. It is not just a mere calculation of income levels per person in an economy. As noted by Amartya Sen in his book Development as Freedom, it is not simply adequate to take the maximization of income or wealth as our basic objective. Rather than quantifying economic development as a function of wealth or income it should be more focused with its relevance in enhancing the lives being lead and the freedoms being enjoyed. The concept of economic development is far younger than that of religion. Religion and prosperity have often been seen essential to exist side by side. The presence of one has serious implications on the other. The inclusion of religion in economics was first introduced by Adam Smith, who is also known as the Economist of Religion. He viewed religion from a public finance perspective. Adam Smith argues about the idea of increased competitiveness under the presence of different religious institutions in an economy. His approach towards religion and its role in economics was rather a neglected one but he raised some broader questions that have been centre of research by many contemporary economists. These questions pertain to whether competitive religions or established (state) monopoly churches or both are a fundamental requirement in achieving optimality in religious markets. Many economists have worked on making a statement about Adam Smiths stance on religion in economics. Gary And erson (1988) extended the argument to the farthest reach. According to him, Smith argues in favor of free-market anarchism stronger than in any of his works. Adam Smith regarded the notion of moral sense as tied with the concept of self-love, altruism and the right to interact with others on a contractual basis. It was Max Weber who dealt with the impact of religion on economic forces by stressing the effect of religion on economy through its direct influence on the individual traits of the economic agents. According to Weber, religion affected individuals by making them more or less productive hence indirectly effecting the operation of an economy. Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary were the ones who found religion to have a positive effect on economic development. The parameters defining development were cooperation, government, working women, legal rules, thriftiness and per capita income levels. The effects of religion differ between and across religious denominations, but overall, their studies found that Christianity based on the attendance level in churches and belief in life after death is associated positively with attitudes conducive to economic growth. However, there have been economists like John L. Perkins who have criticized the existence of religion as a sole determinant of econ omic retardation in the developing country. He is one of the few contemporary western economists that have tried capturing the effects of religion particularly Islam on the socio-economic evolution of a society. However, there has not been much work done on Pakistan and its development in the context of religion. Thesis Statement The main hypothesis is to find if the economic failure of Pakistan is self inflicted or caused by political and socio economic forces beyond control. Is it the growing religious fanaticism that is hindering the growth and development of Pakistani society as projected by the world nowadays? Approach and Development The paper addresses some crucial questions that need to be answered in the wake of the past decades events. There is a growing dissent towards the role of Pakistan in the modern world. The concerns are not only raised by international community but also by the moderate citizens within the country. The cries to bring about a change have been raised by people who are being victimized by the internal situation of the country, majority of them being women, minorities and the educated middle class. The paper intends to focus on addressing a vital question. Can religion play a role in the retardation of the economic development or wellbeing of the society? How have the so called Islamic laws such as Hudood Ordinance left a devastating impact on women and minorities? What is the future of Pakistan in terms of its economy and the level of prosperity? Is it time to review the extent of religious interference with the matters of the government? These questions will be addressed by conducting a research and analyzing the influence of religion on economic progress and development. Religion and economic development will both be defined in terms of certain factors based on the amended definitions presented in the early part of the proposal. The paper will focus on religiosity as an empirical determinant of economic development in Pakistan. Robert R. Barro and Rachel M. McCleary in their working paper, Religion and Economic growth captured the effect of religion by considering the effect of church attendance and religious beliefs. This paper will provide as a starting point for this research paper. The empirical model used in their paper can be amended and adopted to cater to the needs of a developing country, in this case Pakistan. However it is important to note that the motive here is not to capture the effect of the typical dictionary term religion on economic development of a society. The events happening around us do not require an answer to this question anymore. It is the extent of the adoption of religion resulting in religious extremism that requires the attention of economists. The data used by Barro in his paper has a few drawbacks when modified for the case of Pakistan. As the approach to assessing the possi ble effects of Islam on the economic growth of Pakistan has to cater for the changes in the way religion is defined nowadays, the two fundamental variables used in his work are not applicable here any more. The inclusion of attendance to church (mosques in this case) does not signify anything about the evident extremism in the country. It is therefore important to base the research on the right questions. These sample questions are compiled from a variety of questions pooled in for The measurement of Family Religiosity and Spirituality for Indicators for Child, Family and Community Connections. These will help answer the vital questions presented earlier. Variables that can define religiosity in Pakistan better can possibly include like: Religious school enrollment in Pakistan. These schools are the madrassahs that focus on the religion as mode of teaching. There is a clear distinction between private and public schools which follow a regular curriculum with the inclusion of knowledge of religion only. Level of religious communication at home. This includes the frequency with which religion is preached at home. The nature of religious beliefs. This focuses on distinguishing if the person is just spiritual and not religious. Desire, willingness or involvement in religious training camps and activities. Similarity in religious beliefs to ones parents and partner. How comfortable does the person feel to be around people sharing strong beliefs? Religion through media. To what extent are people trying to explore more of their religion through the use of different religious web-sites, chat rooms and religious programming on television? The willingness to find opportunities to learn more about religion. The willingness towards women achieving higher education. The level of tolerance towards a secular state rather than a religious monopoly. Does the person view complete Shariah rule as a necessary step. The paper will use survey data based on questions designed to capture the level of extremism prevailing in the society. Individual data will be collected for the survey applying to 1000-2000 respondents. The survey data will be used to form country-wide average of data which will be based on questions pertaining to the data compiled for Pakistan. The result of this research would help in highlighting the partial correlation between measures of religiosity and indicators of economic development. These indicators might be the women representation in the country, GDP per capita, percentage of people living under poverty line, capital and investment inflow, freedom to minorities, literacy rate and level of migration etc. In compiling research data it has to be kept in mind that there are certain problems associated with the empirical data of this nature. A main limitation of this research is the possible reversibility of the causation effect of the data. This pertains to the problem of determining if economic growth is affected by increased religiosity or is this extremism an outcome of vicious economic traps faced by developing economies. Another limitation is the inability of economic development to take into account just the economic factors. Religion influences the development of not only the economic forces but also has serious political and social implications. Similarly there are other determinants such as culture that are closely linked with religion in countries with strong historical background. These determinants tend to create a bias towards the findings of how religiosity can influence development. This problem has to be dealt with very carefully when analyzing empirical work. Implications of Research The area of religion and economic development is a very sensitive and dangerous one to handle. It has been analyzed for years by social scientists but there has not been much done on Islam and its effect on Pakistan over the decade when it was much needed. There is a need for new set of parameters defining religion as there is a fine line between spirituality and religious extremism which has to be revealed in order to understand the mechanisms of a developing country with religious monopoly. This study will help overcome this gap and will assist in finding answers about the future of Pakistan and its role in the modern world.

Faith in “Life of Pi” Essay

How deep is your faith? How strong is your will to survive if the tables were turned and misfortune rocked your boat of life? Throughout the entire novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel develops an extreme devotion to God. As the story progresses Pi’s faith becomes stronger, allowing him to continue living a peaceful life even when things get nearly impossible. Religion keeps Pi busy, happy and most importantly†¦ alive. He develops a profound faith in God’s of 3 different religions (Hinduism, Islam and Christianity), which is put to the test when he spends 227 days stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. During those 227 days Pi as a character grows immensely and his beliefs are truly put to the test. Eventually the theme of faith leads to the biggest question in the novel after Pi tells two completely different stories of his survival to the Japanese insurance investigators. Which is the better story? Faith is believing what you want to believe, yet cannot prove. Sadly, many people live with this definition of faith. For some it feels liberating. It means being able to believe in anything; no explanation is required or given; it is just a matter of faith. For others, such a definition is sickening. This definition states as faith increases, reason and meaning eventually disappear. Nothing can be proved, so in other words living in faith is living in the dark. â€Å"Religion will save us,† I said. Since when I could remember, religions had always been close to my heart. â€Å"Religion?† Mr. Kumar grinned broadly. â€Å"I don’t believe in religion. Religion is darkness.†Darkness?† I was puzzled. I thought, Darkness is the last thing that religion is. Religion is light† Pi completely contradicts the statement ‘faith is living in the dark.’ Faith is not meant to be interpreted in such a way, which is something Pi realizes during the earliest stages of the novel. Pi chooses to believe what he would like to believe, even if it meant taking several concepts from 3 completely different religions and combining them to create a Utopian religion in a sense. As a child, Pi begins to read a great amount and starts embracing more than just one religion. He notices that their powerful narratives have the ability to provide meaning and dimension to life, which is where Pi’s  interest and faith in multiple religions truly begin to develop. In Pondicherry, his atheist biology teacher Mr. Kumar challenges his Hindu faith in God, this makes Pi realize the positive power of belief and the need to overcome the harshness of the universe. Piscine then becomes incredibly motivated to learn more and begins practicing Christianity and Islam, realizing these religions all share the same foundation: belief in a loving higher power. Practicing three different religions gave Pi the flexibility to choose the good and convenient aspects from each. This allowed him to practice a utopian religion where his curiosity could be satisfied, so Pi became very dedicated to each religion. He went to worship at the local mosque, mandir and church but chose to hide all of this from his parents. Pi’s faith and belief in God inspires him as a child, keeps him motivated and constantly thinking but most importantly, helps sustain him while at sea. While Pi is in middle the ocean on the lifeboat after the sinking of the TsimTsum, he turns to faith and religion to keep busy and give himself hope. Throughout the novel we see that faith and religion is something Pi turns to in order to keep himself occupied, especially during his 227 days at sea. On that stormy night, cruising on a ship in the middle of the ocean, Pi lost everything, everything that meant something to him, his family, his protection, the feeling of safety and love. In other words, everything that could give him a hint of hope had disappeared in a matter of seconds. In exchange for all of that he was left stranded on a life boat in the Pacific Ocean surrounded with fierce zoo animals. Even though he had no way of being sure that he would be saved, he still pushed himself to believing that somehow he will be able to overcome the crises that he had fallen in. He prayed to God even though he had no proof He was there but he believed that God really was listening. He believed because he had no other choice. In a situation such as this one, Pi needed a miracle. On the lifeboat, prayer becomes a daily routine for the cast away. Each day Pi wakes up, prays, feeds Richard Parker and inspects the raft and lifeboat, which helps him maintain his mental sanity by keeping busy. His religious rituals allow him to feel a sense of calmness and give him the will to go on. â€Å"They brought me comfort, that is certain. But it was hard, oh, it was hard. Faith in God is  an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love- but sometimes it was so hard to love.† (page 231) Pi admits that it was hard to put his trust in God when it seemed like He wasn’t listening, but continues praying, staying faithful and practising his religious rituals throughout the entire 227 days. On a superficial level, Pi’s faith contributes to his survival by providing daily rituals. On a deeper level, Pi’s faith contributes to his survival through answered prayers. Several times during his experience on the life boat Pi calls to deities during life threatening situations. â€Å"My heart stopped and then beat triple speed. I turned. â€Å"Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu!† I saw a sight that will stay with me for the rest of my days. Richard Parker had risen and emerged. He was not fifteen feet from me. Oh, the size of him! The hyena’s end had come, and mine.’† Here, Pi who is on the point of death. Richard Parker, a deadly animal, could have easily killed Pi. However, due to Pi’s prayer, he is saved. A rat â€Å"appeared out of nowhere† and Pi is able to fling at Richard Parker who accepts the rat as an â€Å"offering† and flops back down on the bottom of the lifeboat. Pi’s prayer along with many others had been answered due to the immense amount of faith and dedication Pi shows throughout the novel. Pi has the faith to go on. Even in the most difficult situations, he realizes that in order to survive or even have the will to survive he must put his trust in God and have faith that things will get better. Pi stays strong and courageous and never has the attitude of defeat, he believes that he will get off the lifeboat eventually. Pi has faith in everything around him, giving him more motivation to continue on with his daily life on the boat.   Throughout the course of this entire novel, Pi’s faith is put to the test. At the beginning of the novel, an older Pi states that he can tell a story that will make the author believe in God, which is true in many ways. Yann Martel creates two stories on Pi’s survival in the Pacific while talking to the Japanese insurance investors. One story involving the zoo animals that was very long, fantastical and elaborate and the other that was incredibly brutal and deals directly with issues such as human brutality and  cannibalis m. The story with Richard Parker and the zoo animals is told in great depth for 318 pages of the novel, but after the insurance investigators flat out tell Pi â€Å"We do not believe your story† Pi recreates another more believable, yet more gruesome story. In Pi’s second story he retells the first one but using humans instead. He hints that the zebra is the Japanese sailor (innocent and defeated), Pi’s mother is the orang-utan,(motherly and caring) the hyena is the cook (pure example of evil in humans) and Pi is Richard Parker. In his second story, the cook is a pure example of evil in humans, which is something that many choose to believe that such a thing does not exist. The first story Pi tells is a much more powerful, inspiring story but the second is more believable in many ways. So where does God come in? How can this story make someone believe in God? In a way, Richard Parker represents God. At the end of the novel, when Pi has told his long story to two Japanese insurance investigators but they refuse to believe him, Pi tells a shorter, ugly version that is much more believable, but many hate to believe. Then Pi asks the investigators which story they prefer. Many want to believe in the story where Richard Parker existed because it’s a better story than the one of madness, murder and cannibalism but that is where faith comes in. Faith that Pi was telling the truth the whole time. So what about the prediction at the beginning, that the story will make anyone believe in God? Yann Martel uses the desire to believe in Richard Parker as a stand in for God, creating an analogy, that the readers and audience must make on their own. Pi desperately wants to believe in God. The whole point of the novel is to trick the reader into the question, which is the better story?. Of course everyone prefers Richard Parker to be real. The theme is to accept that belief in God is the better story, just how Richard Parker is hoped to be real. Yann Martel states people prefer religion over reality because the story of God is a better story than reality.The novel is an elaborate metaphor to explain why people believe in God. It doesn’t say that God exists. It just says people prefer to belief in God because it’s a better story than how we see reality directly. Conclusion: During the course of life of Pi, the theme of faith occurs often. Whether it is keeping Pi educated, alive or even kept in the back of  people’s minds long after the novel ends. Faith gives Pi the power to go on, even when he feels as if everything is hopeless. So, without Pi’s faith in God that he developed near the beginning he would not have made it through the 227 long, hard days as sea. And whichever story is right, the better story will always be the one with Richard Parker because faith is God and God is faith.

Football Workouts And Band Practices - 1651 Words

Football workouts! Choir practice! and band practices are a lot to handle for a student athlete. It is 6am football training starts in 45minutes. As Latrell Arrington gets out off bed he stops for a moment say a prayer, and gets ready for his long day ahead. He knew the day would consist of him running from place to place, but he is prepared. His motto â€Å"Nothing comes to sleeper but a dream.† Throughout his collegiate experience he juggled multiple activities without a complaint in sight. â€Å"As hard as it may have seen, being a part of all three organizations was somewhat of an easy task. While the band and choir director understood that football was the most time consuming, they were able to work some type of plan out for me that allowed†¦show more content†¦The adaption was one that was not hard because I was used to it; I did it high school. Honestly a college life that would’ve been easy would’ve been a life I didn’t want. As far as all three going on at the same time, I found it easy to manage. I knew I had football every day at a certain time, choir on a certain two days before football, and band on the other two days. Time management was key. Being a student-athlete requires a lot from practicing long hours to maintaining grades to keep scholarships. The hard work, which it takes to be a student- athlete, is second to none. The mere fact juggling one sport takes a toll, and one can only imagine balancing multiple sports would be harder. There are only 12 hours in a day, and sometimes task that need to done become undone. In Arrington case with all the extracurricular activities going on something was going to fall by the waste side, and it was his grades. Honestly my grades took a hit once I started playing football. During the transition of me getting back into football I became more lackadaisical to my school, and what was important. I remember after that semester was done I rejoiced because I didn’t have to deal that transition again. At the beginning I actually dropped a class putting me at the minimum 12 hours. Truth be told, I almost FA in a class during this time as well. It was a hard time and it didn’t stop there I never again throughout the rest

DLL and ActiveX Controls From a Delphi Application

A popular feature of Delphi  is the project deployment of an application with an executable file (exe).   However, if the DLL or ActiveX controls in your project are not registered on the users’ machines, an â€Å"EOleSysError† will be displayed in response to running the exe file.  To avoid this, use the regsvr32.exe command-line tool. RegSvr32.exe Command Manually using regsvr32.exe (Windows.Start - Run) will register and unregister self-registerable   DLL and ActiveX controls on a system. Regsvr32.exe instructs the system to attempt to load the component and call its DLLSelfRegister function. If this attempt is successful, Regsvr32.exe displays a dialog indicating success. RegSvr32.exe has the following command-line options:   Regsvr32 [/u] [/s] [/n] [/i[:cmdline]] dllname /s - Silent; display no message boxes /u - Unregister server /i - Call DllInstall passing it an optional [cmdline]; when used with /u calls dll uninstall /n - do not call DllRegisterServer; this option must  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   be used with /i   Call RegSvr32.exe Within Delphi code To call the regsvr32 tool within Delphi code, use the â€Å"RegisterOCX† function to execute a file and wait for the execution to finish. This is how the RegisterOCX procedure could look: procedure RegisterOCX; type TRegFunc function : HResult; stdcall; var ARegFunc : TRegFunc; aHandle : THandle; ocxPath : string; begin try ocxPath : ExtractFilePath(Application.ExeName) Flash.ocx; aHandle : LoadLibrary(PChar(ocxPath)); if aHandle 0 then begin ARegFunc : GetProcAddress(aHandle,DllRegisterServer); if Assigned(ARegFunc) then begin ExecAndWait(regsvr32,/s ocxPath); end; FreeLibrary(aHandle); end; except ShowMessage(Format(Unable to register %s, [ocxPath])); end; end; Note: the ocxPath variable points to the Flash.ocx Macromedia OCX. To be able to register itself, an OCX must implement the DllRegisterServer function to create registry entries for all the classes inside the control. Do not worry about the DllRegisterServer function, just make sure it is there. For the sake of simplicity, it is presumed that the OCX is located in the same folder as where the application is. The ExecAndWait line in the above code calls the regsvr32 tool by passing the /s switch along with the full path to the OCX. The function is ExecAndWait. uses shellapi; ... function ExecAndWait(const ExecuteFile, ParamString : string): boolean; var SEInfo: TShellExecuteInfo; ExitCode: DWORD; begin FillChar(SEInfo, SizeOf(SEInfo), 0); SEInfo.cbSize : SizeOf(TShellExecuteInfo); with SEInfo do begin fMask : SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS; Wnd : Application.Handle; lpFile : PChar(ExecuteFile); lpParameters : PChar(ParamString); nShow : SW_HIDE; end; if ShellExecuteEx(SEInfo) then begin repeat Application.ProcessMessages; GetExitCodeProcess(SEInfo.hProcess, ExitCode); until (ExitCode STILL_ACTIVE) or Application.Terminated; Result:True; end else Result:False; end; The ExecAndWait function uses the ShellExecuteEx API call to execute a file on a system. For more examples of executing any file from Delphi, check out how to execute and run applications and files from Delphi code. Flash.ocx Inside Delphi Exe If there is a need to register an ActiveX control on ​the user’s machine, then make sure the user has the OCX the program requires by placing the entire ActiveX (or DLL) inside the application’s exe as a resource. When the OCX is stored inside the exe, it is easy to extract, save to disk, and call the RegisterOCX procedure.