By insisting on complete orthodoxy is society only hurting itself? I believe when a society demands orthodoxy it is asking for problems. Orthodoxy to a small extent can be helpful to society, but when it is required by the people, and they demand it to the fullest it can do nothing but cause problems. There is many reasons whey complete orthodoxy only hurts society. First off, it greatly diminishes all forms of creativity among the people and doesn’t allow for new ideas that can help benefit society. It also reduces the overall intelligence of the people. When it comes to orthodoxy and religion, it can weaken the quality of worship and the person’s relationship with God. In general, orthodoxy in a way sets limits to progress and development of society and doesn’t allow new ideas to become accepted or acknowledged.

Orthodoxy is defined as what is traditional or the established faith in society. It is following what is the commonly accepted, customs and beliefs. The one thing that orthodoxy almost completely wipes out and discourages is creativity and new ideas that can be beneficial to society. Only traditional beliefs are accepted in an orthodox society. So even if a brilliant idea is introduced, it won’t be accepted just because it is new and different. The rate of progress among orthodox society is slowed greatly because of this. If we never accepted new ideas or anything not of the traditional beliefs, we would not be even close to where we are today. Our knowledge of life in general would be nothing like it is today. We are where we are today because of people who came up with new and crazy ideas. All of the great intellectuals were anything but orthodox in their beliefs. Many people who have helped society the most by new ideas and inventions were looked at as crazy during their lifetime. If we are accepting of new ideas it is the only way we are going to progress.

Complete orthodoxy also lowers our intelligence and acceptance of other people. When someone is only taught one way to do things, they are not educated of other ways of life. No one can truly be considered educated if they have only been taught one side of the story. Imagine if we were taught all our life that blacks or Mexicans are bad, and no other belief was accepted. We would all grow up to be racists. Not all traditional beliefs are right and people need to realize this. Also when you are taught that one way is right, you tend see anyone different as wrong. Tolerance of other people and their beliefs almost disappears and is non-existent among orthodox societies.

The most important reason for having orthodox practices in religion is to help the person’s relationship with God, and help the person become a better person. Orthodoxy in religion has the opposite affect on people. People often become so involved and dedicated to following common tasks, practices, or rituals, they forget about God. People become so concerned about things they have to do to follow the orthodox beliefs. Religion then becomes repetitive. Worshiping God becomes more like taking a shower in the morning or sleeping, than something special. Religion should never just be a set or things that you have to do. Complete orthodoxy in religion also often leads to intolerance of other religions. Complete orthodoxy has no benefits in religion.

Complete orthodoxy does nothing but hurt society. It doesn’t allow people to express new or creative ideas. It decreases the education of the people. It reduces tolerance of people with different beliefs. Also most importantly, it actually hurts our relationship with God. Traditional beliefs should never be forced upon society. They may be stressed among the people, but forcing them upon the people will do more harm than good.