Religion a hindrance towards the development of societies

holiness a hindrance towards the knowledge of societiesAs difficult as it commode get to de very well pietism, it gets even harder to explain its parameters. There has not been a general consensus on the definition of godliness although social scientists have grand move to yield clarity to the definition of worship as it fits beaver to adeptify 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 eventual(prenominal) conditions of his existence. Jeff interprets these ultimate conditions of existence in two ways, in material and spiritual sense. I lead be modifying the material sense of conditions as those pertaining to the semipolitical, social and stintingal factors defining the sophistication of modern world. Empirical and theoretical exploreers have foresightful stressed on only the instrumental factors affecting the emergence of federation. It is classical to understand that these instrumental factors atomic number 18 insufficient to reflect true results without the inclusion body body of qualitative factors such as religion. The ready of religion on the sparing development of an economy terminatenot be fairly established without defining stinting development. This fantasy has been a popular one among the sparing and social scientists byout the history of economics. notwithstanding, 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 immaculate 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 publication 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 e xistence lead and the freedoms being enjoyed.The concept of economic development is far younger than that of religion. Religion and successfulness have often been seen essential to exist side by side. The front end of one has serious implications on the other. The inclusion of religion in economics was first introduced by tenner metalworker, who is also known as the economist of Religion. He viewed religion from a public finance perspective. exaltation Smith argues about the idea of increased competitiveness under the presence of dissimilar phantasmal institutions in an economy. His approach towards religion and its position in economics was rather a neglected one except he raised some broader questions that have been centre of research by many present-day(a) economists. These questions pertain to whether competitive religions or established (state) monopoly churches or both atomic number 18 a fundamental contractment in achieving optimality in religious markets. ump teen economists have worked on devising a statement about Adam Smiths stance on religion in economics. Gary Anderson (1988) extended the argument to the utmost(a) reach. According to him, Smith argues in favor of free-market anarchism gruelinger 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 scoop Weber who dealt with the impact of religion on economic forces by stressing the essence of religion on economy through its direct influence on the individual traits of the economic agents. According to Weber, religion touch on individuals by making them more or less productive hence indirectly effecting the performance of an economy. Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary were the ones who assemble 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 do of religion differ among 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, thither have been economists like John L. Perkins who have criticized the existence of religion as a sole determinant of economic retardation in the developing country. He is one of the few contemporary western economists that have tried capturing the cause of religion particularly Islam on the socio-economic evolution of a society. However, thither has not been much work done on Pakistan and its development in the context of religion.Thesis StatementThe 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 de velopment of Pakistani society as projected by the world nowadays? uprise and DevelopmentThe 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 voice of Pakistan in the modern world. The concerns are not only raised by international community but also by the moderate citizens at heart the country. The cries to bring about a change have been raised by people who are being victimized by the internal place 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 legislation 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 conclusion of religiou s interference with the matters of the government? These questions will be addressed by conducting a research and analyzing the influence of religion on economic throw out and development. Religion and economic development will both be delineate in terms of plastered factors based on the amended definitions presented in the early part of the proposal.The paper will focus on pietism 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 instance used in their paper can be amended and follow 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 devel opment of a society. The events happening around us do not require an answer to this question anymore. It is the tip of the adoption of religion resulting in religious extremism that requires the attention of economists. The info used by Barro in his paper has a few drawbacks when modified for the case of Pakistan. As the approach to assessing the doable 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 thusly 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 residential district Connections. These will help answer the v ital questions presented earlier. Variables that can define religiousism in Pakistan better can possibly include like ghostlike 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 frequence 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 train 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 high 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 bailiwick 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, lot of people living under poverty line, capital and investment inflow, freedom to minorities, literacy rate and lev el 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 conclusions of how religiosity can influence development. This problem has to be dealt with very carefully when analyzing e mpirical work.Implications of queryThe area of religion and economic development is a very splendid 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 modernistic set of parameters defining religion as there is a fine line between spirituality and religious extremism which has to be revealed in put 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.