With Reference to other aspects of Human Experience explore the claim that there will always be conflict between Religion and State.

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With Reference to other aspects of Human Experience explore the claim that there will always be conflict between Religion and State.

On the one hand, I believe the above statement to be true, as events in history have shown the ineffaceable negative impact conflict has had on human experience. From as early as the time of Jesus, there has been much controversy, between religion and state, and even between religious beliefs. Jesus was known for his conflict with the religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees and the Sadducees because of their specific beliefs and traditions and minute regulations that needed to be strictly adhered to.

        Biblical texts show much evidence of conflict between Religion and State. In the Old Testament, a very well known example of this conflict was that between the people of Israel, and their oppression from the political rule of the Egyptians. This resulted in the establishment of the first covenant between God and the Jewish nation.  “So Moses said, "This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." After the Pharaoh found his son had died following the final plague, he said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me." Similarly in the New Testament there was much conflict between the Jewish Religious Leaders and the Roman political state due to some issues like the payment of taxes. Such conflict had resulted in much anger and hatred which has caused killings and punishments such as the notorious killings of Christians during the reign of Nero in first century Palestine. Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" He saw through their duplicity and said to them; "Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?" To which the spies replied “Caesar’s” He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” What Jesus meant here was that by using Roman coins the Romans were to be recognised as the state authority. In addition, however, there was the question of further allegiance owed to God.

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        The conflict between Religion and state cannot simply be thought of something of the past. On the contrary, in today’s society, there are many cases of conflict between the two, and in some cases, even between Religious denominations. There is a communist regime in China which prohibits Religion, therefore rendering the Dalai Lama in exile due to this conflict. In 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama was forced into exile by the Chinese government. In 1951 the Chinese military pressured the Dalai Lama to ratify a  which permitted the People's Republic of China to take control of Tibet. He fled through the ...

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