Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION IV-A CALABARZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF BATANGAS
Taysan Senior High School
Mahanadiong, Taysan, Batangas
LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET 3
INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS
Influences of Religion to Culture and Society
Name of Learner: ______________________________________
Grade Level: ______________________________________
Strand/Track: ______________________________________
Section: ______________________________________
Date: ______________________________________
A. Background Information for Learners
We live in a world where society and culture have now changed, and it is a great
thing to see how we have grown. One of the factors that are influencing the way we live is
religion. Our religious beliefs, values and ideas have made, and continue to make,
substantial shares to the development of human societies and cultures.
This Learning Activity Sheet tackles about the influences, both positive and negative,
of religion to culture and society.
B. Learning Competency with code
MELC 3: Analyze the influences of religion to culture and society
C. Directions/ Instructions
After going through with this unit, you are expected to:
1. Read and follow each direction carefully.
2. Accomplish each activity for the mastery of competency.
3. Use the Learning Activity Sheets with care.
4. Record your points for each activity.
5. Always aim to get at least 80% of the total number of given items.
6. If you have any questions, contact your teacher through Messenger or cell
phone number.
D. Exercises/Activities D.
1. INTRODUCTION
a. What I Need to Know?
After going through with this activity sheet, you are expected to:
1. identify the positive effects or influences of religions to culture and
society;
2. determine the negative effects or influences of religions to culture and
society; and
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3. know the belief and rituals being practiced by some religions.
b. What’s New?
ACTIVITY 1: “Poem Analysis”
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the poem below and answer the corresponding
questions. (Rubric to be used for checking your answer is available in Letter F)
Religion Is...
by Derrick Feinman
Religion is a striving of the finite to reach out to the infinite.
Religion is a source from which to obtain moral discipline
Religion is a meeting place to find those on the same path.
Religion is a common reference point for moral and ethical discourse.
Religion is a social tool to bring remembrance and deliberate actions into our daily life.
Religion is a description of actions, not a title.
Religion is action, not declarations.
Religion is a more perfect person, not a more perfect doctrine.
Religion is a tool, not an idol.
Religion is a means, not an end.
Religion is a path to God, not a god in itself.
Guide Questions:
1. What can you say about the poem?
2. How does the author describe or define religion? Give your explanation to
some of his description or definition.
3. Do you believe in author’s point of view about religion? Why?
4. What would a society look like without religion? Explain your answer.
MY SCORE:
ACTIVITY 2: “Religion: A Solution”
DIRECTIONS: Identify the best solutions on how religion could alleviate the
following societal problems. (Rubric to be used for checking your answer is
available in Letter F)
Example: Extreme Poverty
My religion has taught me to share and to be
grateful of what I have. To value generosity is
how we respond to people with dire need of
help. It reminds me of the story of Mother
Teresa when she fought poverty by serving
underprivileged people in India. She gave up
all of her material goods and physical
comfort.
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1. Academic Illiteracy
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2. Child Malnutrition
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3. Gender Discrimination
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MY SCORE:
D. 2. DEVELOPMENT
a. What I Know?
ACTIVITY 3: “Match It!”
DIRECTIONS: Classify each statement whether it is a Positive or Negative
effect of religion. Write your answer before each number.
1. Religion provides moral values.
2. Religion affirms social hierarchy.
3. Religion obstructs the use of reason.
4. Religion provides social change.
5. Religion promotes social harmony.
6. Religion causes discrimination.
7. Religion gives positive goal in life.
8. Religion explains the unknown.
9. Religion triggers conflicts and fights.
10. Religion impedes scientific success.
11. Religion gives a sense of belonging.
12. Religion serves as an economic tool for controlling the masses.
MY SCORE:
b. What is It?
DISCUSSION: Influences of Religion to Culture and Society
Undeniably, religion influences culture and society in various ways, they
are interrelated to each other. The growth and spread of world religions had a
great impact on culture and society. Extensive researches have emerged over
the past years that establishes the fact that religious practices and beliefs have
the vast potential to make or break one’s society.
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In the book, “Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems” written by
Jerome A. Ong and Mary Dorothy dL. Jose (2016), states the positive and
negative effects of religion to culture and society.
Positive Effects of Religion
1. Promotes Social Harmony
Religion believes in supernatural beings and powers. Religion practices a
set of rituals and ceremonious rites of passage and intensification. It also
regards religious leaders in high esteem. These characteristics help advance
social harmony by assimilating and stabilizing cultures and nations. Religion
provides divine authority to ethical and moral principles which also help promote
unity among people. Common participation in rituals together with basic
uniformity of beliefs help promote social cohesiveness.
2. Provides Moral Values
This is one of the most significant functions of religion. It provides a
systematic model of the universe, which in effect determines organized human
behavior. By providing moral values, one is able to distinguish right from wrong,
good from evil. It also provides a system of reward and punishment that
administers and standardizes people’s behavior in society.
3. Provides Social Change
Since religion is a source of moral values, it provides social change. It can
be very effective in lobbying and campaigning for certain social issues using its
own moral teachings as the basis for argument.
4. Reduces the Fear of the Unknown
Religion was developed from man’s need to have a sense of origin and
destination; to discover where they came from and where they are bound to go
when they die. Religion provides answers for phenomena and questions that
science or reason cannot explain. Myths about creation abound but more
importantly, religion has provided assurances as to where spirits will go when
people die, reducing people’s fear of death as something undesirable.
5. Gives Positive Goals in Life
People were inspired by the stories of different prophets from their own
religious affiliations like that of Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. These people
showed how ordinary people like them were given important missions in life, and
how they struggled to carry out their respective missions. Their narratives
(known to us because of religion) may give people a sense of meaning in life;
that they are not placed in this world without a purpose, that each has a mission
to fulfill and it is up to them to fathom what their missions in life are.
6. Gives People a Sense of Belonging
For some, religion provides people with personal identity as part of a group
with similar worldviews, beliefs, values, practices, and lifestyles. Belonging to a
particular religion – whose members share the same beliefs, practices the same
rituals and worship the same god – gives individuals a sense of being in the right
place with the right people. It also provides them a sense of security because
other people who belong to the same group tend to support and help each other
in times of crisis. People can also rejoice with them in times of success.
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Negative Effects of Religion
1. Affirms Social Hierarchy
Some religions often favor men and as a result, perpetuate the notions of
class or gender discrimination or oppression.
2. Causes Discrimination
Religion can be a source of discrimination or the prejudicial treatment of
different categories of people or things. Some people do not tolerate religious
ideologies different from the one they follow. Religious fanaticism can lead to
feelings of hatred, which could lead to racism and eventually violence.
3. Triggers Conflict and Fight
Wars have been fought in the name of religion. Numerous lives were
sacrificed and lost and this phenomenon continues up to the present time.
4. As an Economic Tool for Exploiting the Masses
Karl Marx said “Religion is the opium of the masses.” he believes that
religion maintains social inequality by propagating a worldview that justifies
oppression. People will not complain of being poor or being in the lower ranks
because “the kingdom of Heaven is waiting for them”
5. Impedes Scientific Success and Development
Catholic church claimed that the earth was flat and that it is the center of
the solar system and so when Copernicus stated his theory that the sun is the
center of the solar system, he was banned from the church and his book was
banned for more than 200 years.
6. Obstruct the Use of Reason
Many question the sustainability of religious doctrines to the needs of the
present and future generations. Ancient religious beliefs and practices which
have proven to be inhuman should be replaced with sensible ones.
Religious Belief and Rituals of Some Religions Around the World
Wearing Venomous Ant-filled Gloves
Rituals that mark the transition from boyhood to manhood exist all around
the world. In the Amazon, male teenagers must enter adulthood by plunging
their hands into gloves filled with hundreds of venomous ants. Bullet ants, the
largest ant on the planet and with one of the most painful bites, said to be 30
times more painful than a wasp sting, are woven into the ritual gloves and used
as part of the initiation ceremony for the region’s youth. The Brazilian indigenous
tribe, the Satere-Mawe, believe that experiencing this intense level of pain and
suffering will make young men into braver, tougher, and better warriors, and that
the ritual will protect them from disease.
The boys are expected to keep the gloves on for ten minutes, letting the
ants attack their hands. The initial bites are painful enough, but that is only the
beginning of the ordeal. When the neurotoxins from the ants kick in, participants
suffer symptoms that can last for hours or even days, ranging from gradually
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intensifying pain, paralysis, fever, hallucinations, shaking, convulsions, and loss
of muscle control. Those who endure the torment become men. (bootsnall.com)
Celebrating in the Cemetery
As Americans and Canadians are decorating for Halloween and choosing
costumes for parties and trick-or-treating, Mexicans prepare to honor their dead
on All Souls’ Day by celebrating Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Families
spend months making cookies, candies, and cakes in the shapes of skeletons,
skulls, internal organs, coffins, crosses, altars, and flowers and gathering
appropriate items to take to the cemetery on the night of the celebration. Whole
families visit the graves of their loved ones to clean and maintain the gravesites,
place candles, flowers, and gifts around the tombstones and to celebrate the
memory of their ancestors. Then the families gather for an all-night party in the
cemeteries, bringing the favorite food and drink of the deceased, photos and
other mementos, as well as flowers and decorations.
Gifts for the dead may include toys (for children who have passed away),
bottles of alcohol, food, pillows and blankets (so that the dead may rest
comfortably), marigolds, or even CDs of the deceased’s favorite music. Family
members gather to tell funny stories, sing songs, drink, eat, and celebrate both
life and death. The holiday is all about appreciating the cycle of life and death,
not to mention enticing the spirits of the dearly departed back to earth for a night
in order to hear the prayers and grant the wishes of the living. (bootsnall.com)
Baby-Tossing
For more than 700 years, at Grishneshwar Temple in western India’s
Maharashtra state, parents have asked clerics to drop their infants from a 50-
foot tower. The parents believe that the free-fall will make their children more
intelligent, braver, luckier, and healthier. Children between the ages of one and
two are carefully dropped from the tower, and caught a sheet held by men
below, then are quickly passed into the arms of their waiting parents.
Many Westerners and secular Indians who have witnessed the spectacle
are horrified by this ceremony, but it’s traditional in rural parts of India and is
practiced both by Muslims and Hindus. Although religious officials are quick to
declare that no children have been injured in the ritual, state officials are
currently working to ban the practice. Supporters of the ban state the trauma and
danger to the children, who are understandably terrified and visibly shaken by
the ordeal, but those opposed to the ban feel strongly that practitioners should
be allowed religious freedom.
Digambaras
Digambar also spelled Digambara is one of the two main sects of Jainism.
Senior Digambar monks wear no clothes, following the practice of Lord
Mahavira. They do not consider themselves to be nude — they are wearing the
environment. Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal to give
in to the body’s demands for comfort and private property — only Digambara
ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara ascetics have only two
possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd. (listverse.com)
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Sati Pratha
It was mainly practiced in ancient India, but some recent cases of Sati
shocked the nation. Under this ritual, the widow used to sit on the dead body of
their deceased male partner which in turn used to be burnt alive. This ritual was
very dominant during the time of British rule. British records from the early 19th
century stated that over 500 incidents of Sati took place each year between
1813 to 1828. (icytales.com)
D. 3. ENGAGEMENT
b. What I Can Do?
ACTIVITY 4: “Essay about Religious Practices”
DIRECTIONS: Write a literary essay with minimum of 20 sentences about your
own religion’s belief and/or practices that you are very much proud of. Put a
catchy title to your work. (Rubric to be used for checking your answer is
available in Letter F)
MY SCORE:
b. Assessment/What I Can Show?
ACTIVITY 5: “Identification”
DIRECTIONS: Identify the positive and negative effects of religions that are
being asked in the statement.
CHOICES
A. Causes Discrimination
B. Affirms Social Hierarchy
C. Provides Social Change
D. Obstruct the Use of Reason
E. Promotes Social Harmony
F. Provides Moral Values
G. Reduces the Fear of the Unknown
H. Gives People a Sense of Belonging
I. Triggers Conflict and Fight
J. Gives Positive Goals in Life
K. Impedes Scientific Success and Development
L. As an Economic Tool for Exploiting the Masses
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_____ 1. Religion provides answers for phenomena and questions that science
or reason cannot explain.
_____ 2. Religion can be very effective in lobbying and campaigning for certain
social issues using its own moral teachings as the basis for argument.
_____ 3. Ancient religious beliefs and practices which have proven to be
inhuman should be replaced with sensible ones.
_____ 4. Some religions often favor men and as a result, perpetuate the notions
of class or oppression.
_____ 5. Karl Marx said “Religion is the opium of the masses.” he believes that
religion maintains social inequality by propagating a worldview that
justifies oppression.
_____ 6. Religion can be a source of the prejudicial treatment of different
categories of people or things.
_____ 7. Common participation in rituals together with basic uniformity of beliefs
help promote social cohesiveness.
_____ 8. One is able to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil.
_____ 9. For some, religion provides people with personal identity as part of a
group with similar worldviews, beliefs, values, practices, and lifestyles.
_____ 10. Wars have been fought in the name of religion.
F. Rubric for Scoring
G. Reflection (Yellow Paper)
• I understand that_________________________________________________.
• I realized that ___________________________________________________.
H. References for Learners
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Books
Ong, Jerome A. and Jose, Mary Dorothy dL. (2016), Introduction to World
Religions and Belief Systems, Vibal Group
Electronic Sources
De Bastardo, Simone Cannon. Unique (And Sometimes Dangerous) Religious Rituals Around the World.
Retrieved from https://www.bootsnall.com/articles/unusual-religious-rituals-around-the-world.html
Feinman, Derrick (2015). Religion Is.... Retrieved from https://hellopoetry.com/words/religion/
Frater, Jamie (2007). 10 Weird Religious Practices. Retrieved from https://listverse.com/2007/08/13/10-
weird-religious-practices/
Rawat, Pankaj (2016). 10 Bizarre Religious Beliefs Across the World. Retrieved from
https://www.icytales.com/religious-beliefs-and-practices-in-the-world/
Photos
https://grandmageri422.me/2015/10/31/when-unity-is-evil-one-world-religion-being-ushered-in-by-pope-
francis/
https://international.la-croix.com/news/world/illiteracy-and-poverty-go-hand-in-hand-in-bangladesh/10829 https://providencemag.com/2017/09/past-religious-conflict-still-haunts-middle-east-iraq-syria-iran/
https://rappler.com/nation/doh-calabarzon-eyes-malnutrition-wards-hospitals-2019
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Dhaka,-Buddhist-monks-help-Muslims-celebrate-Ramadan-thanks-to-
Mother-Teresa-37874.html https://www.cosmo.ph/news/metro-manila-pride-march-2020-a4572-20200126 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/world/asia/setting-a-high-bar-for-poverty-in-india.html
https://www.s-ge.com/en/article/news/20201-c2-corruption-perceptions-index
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