Religion freedom - Term Paper Example

Different nations of the world starting with the Western democracies have further enacted powerful laws protecting the general public against any form of religion discrimination (Johnson, 2012). The Western democracies have a great influence on political, social and even economic well being of most other nations of the world. Expansion of religious freedom in US and other European nations has led to expansion of the same in other states of the world. This has a vital implication on the development of universal rights and development of a global code of ethics.

The history of religion can be traced way back to the Neolithic period. This is approximately 11,000 years ago. Some scholars of the world believe that religion evolved from a certain region- Near East and later spread to the rest of the world something that has brought about strong debates and arguments in the field of religion. Some scholars tend to believe that the religion did not evolve from a single region but rather evolved independently in different regions of the world (Barbara, 2007).

According to this theory, the invention of religion was brought about by the consequences of the Neolithic revolution that had resulted into increase of the population of the world as well as the growth, development and advancement of the world’s technology (Barbara, 2007). During this era, the different communities of the world faced a transition from the foraging bands to empires and then into the states existing today. As the different communities transformed from foraging bands and tribe that comprised of fewer individuals into empires, more developed and specialized forms of regions emerged.

These are the same religions reflected in today’s social and political environment. However, different religions have different beliefs, norms and codes of ethics which are partially applicable to the entire world (Barbara, 2007). According to Mark (2009), religion is a very organized system of