10 Pros and 10 Cons of Religion and Judaism

Overview: Providing 10 pros for adherence to religion, 10 cons of it, and the compromising path to reap the positives and rectify the negatives.

A crucial factor in decision-making is evaluating the pros and cons of the specific decision being weighed. This is especially true when it comes to questions hard to answer and largely unknown to us. Unless one believes that the religion of Judaism is the direct, literal Word of God, then ultimately the decision to practice Judaism boils down to the practical pros and cons of it. A more nuanced approach of Judaism can even avoid the negatives by focusing on the positives and not acting on the negatives that traditional Judaism has (or can have). This sort of compromise is justified on the basis that Judaism and Torah cannot be said to be the literal Word of God, based on science, archaeology, and biblical scholarship.

There are many more positive and negative elements in Judaism, but here we will focus on the main ones. Of course, these elements are not present in every religious Jewish community and there may even be many exceptions to them. However, it can be argued that the general community at large experiences these positive and negative elements to some degree or another.

Many of these positive (and negative) elements can be found in many other religions as well. This is not to claim exclusiveness of Judaism as the only religion worth practicing. The arguments here are solely to compare/contrast religious Jewish community’s lifestyle to that of secular society. The pro of Judaism for Jewish people is that it is our heritage, and perhaps contains more positive elements than other mainstream religions.

PROS:

1. Morals and character development: The focus on self-refinement and high morals, based on a world mission and morally-perfect Fatherfigure features prominently in Judaism. Religion excels in compassion for others, forgiveness, gratitude for the positive elements in life, self-discipline from negative traits, meditation, and self-reflection. Secular philosophy, on the other hand, can often bring out our primal animal-instincts and our natural selfish tendencies, with many exceptions of course. Violent crime rates committed by religious Jews are significantly below average compared to secular society at large.[1] Charity also features prominently in religious Jewish culture in comparison to secular culture, with the deed often being considered the greatest virtue of all Judaism’s laws.[2]
2. Happiness: Study after study shows much higher levels of happiness in religious communities, the Orthodox Jewish community in particular.[3] The effects are also vividly clear when comparing the communities to the secular society; levels of drug addiction, depression, and suicide rates are indicative of this. The happiness index ranks lower for religious people with minimal belief (compared to those with stronger belief), but is still arguably higher than secular society, as the following metrics suggest.
3. Communities: Communities are created by a strong mutual culture shared by a common religion. Communities help each other out as well as giving a sense of belonging to the individual members of the community. Synagogues bring people together to socialize, organize, and meet. Communities also have the benefit of being extremely socially coherent, with the people sharing common goals, views, and moral systems, instead of the fractured moral and political nature of a secular culture.
4. Purposeful life: Religion gives purpose in life beyond the physical world, making life more meaningful and purposeful. The extent of this goal and its exact definitions vary by community and by level of adherence.
5. Family structure and stability: Marriages in Orthodox circles are much healthier and more stable than that secular society, thanks to a shared common culture and ethics between the spouses.[4] It’s also thanks to precautionary measures taken to prevent adultery, lust, and premarital relations. The focus on family structure is very positive in the long run, providing happiness and stability in one’s life.
6. Shabbat: Shabbat is an institution excelling in removing people from their day-to-day struggles to a family-based, community-based, holy, resting day. The separation from electronic devices is another very positive element of Shabbat, in an otherwise gadget-addicted society. Jewish holidays spice up the annual calendar with exciting, themed family celebrations. The secular holidays provide this on a smaller scale as well.
7. Prayer: Prayer (regardless of its efficiency) is very healthy in providing hope, or at the very least providing a way to express emotions locked inside of us. This is especially true for more emotional individuals.
8. Ritual: Ritual helps people cope with negative situations (e.g. the lost of a loved one). It also provides structure, regulatory, and predictability in our day-to-day lives or for specific events.
9. Raising the lowly: Religion provides hope and confidence to people who would otherwise feel depressed, desperate, insignificant, and unmotivated.
10. Heritage and culture: Judaism is the developing story of our nation, and the Jewish religion serves as the key feature in Jewish culture and identity. Practicing Judaism is a celebration of our national history and our rich culture.

CONS:

1. Doctrines limit freedom of thought: Religion usually entails mandatory doctrines required in order to be considered a member of that faith. In the case of Judaism, a popular set of doctrines are the 13 principles of faith put forward by Maimonides. The emphasis on doctrine limits the individual’s ability to think independently, as they are pressured into believing the community’s accepted doctrines.
2. Limiting action: Can sometimes lead to lack of freedom of action or create social taboos in the religious community. Examples of this include gay people acting on their homosexuality or, on a lesser level, the taboo against smartphones in some communities and listening to non-Jewish music.
3. Discrimination: Judaism often causes discrimination against homosexuals, women to some extent, as well as non-Jews, in many communities.
4. Rejection of science: An unhindered belief in Torah as the Word of God, can lead to a rejection of science and reality. The rejection of Evolution in many Orthodox communities is a great example of this.
5. Harmful guilt: Can cause harmful guilt for human-like actions. An example of this is the common extreme shame/guilt in religious circles about masturbation, based on several extreme statements on the matter in the Talmud and Zohar.
6. Hell and punishment: Can cause anxiety and fear in religious constructs like hell and earthly punishment. This is especially apparent in communities that focus on these fear-driven approaches to incentive.
7. Excessiveness: If religion is taken to the full extreme, it can cause a straining day-to-day life with endless stringencies and petty laws that often get in the way of enjoying and appreciating life. An example of this can be the laws of Niddah that can be excessive and even damaging in some cases.
8. Inflexibility in law: Fundamentalist adherence to an inflexible Halachic system can lead to fractured systems within the Law (e.g. the case of the agunah). This inability to adapt based on changing circumstances prevents us from maximizing the positivity in religion and from finding solutions to modern issues. The ability to rectify these issues are in the hands of the rabbis, who are sadly thus far afraid to make any changes to the established laws of the past.
9. Financially expensive: Can be financially expensive to provide for a large family, and for holidays like Passover, Purim, and Shabbat.
10. Superiority and elitism: Religion can make its adherers feel superior to non-adherers and treat them unfairly.

Can Judaism and the Halachic system be compromised on, in order to selectively pick and choose for a more positive society? Or is it a package-deal, an all-or-nothing system that we either fully accept or fully reject? Is a flexible system a slippery-slope or a built-in solution for problems that can arise? These are all great questions, with some sort of middle-path as the ideal choice. Defining that middle path is difficult. The extent of stability on one end and flexibility on the other, differs greatly between various Jewish communities. Regardless, it is good to know the positive and negative elements of Judaism and that a compromising approach is feasible.