Globalization and Religion: Analysing the Impact

Globalization is the interconnectedness of people and ideas across the globe. It involves the scaling of borders and the creation of a global society where events in far-flung areas reverberate uninhibited across great distances and geographical locations. Its agents are the information and communication technology (ICT), and the revolution in the modern transportation system. Globalization has affected everything and everybody and changed the traditional ways of doing things such that no region of the world can again boast of impermeability. Accompanying it are the values now known as modernism which includes a preference for change rather than continuity, freedom rather than restriction. This has led to the development of a secular culture which religious enthusiasts view as crude, sacrilegious, unacceptable and socially dangerous, and as threatening the very existence of traditional religious values.  This paper attempts an analysis of the interplay between religion and globalization. It uses the cause-effects theory, which discusses the impact of social systems as a result of their causes. The paper concludes that globalization as a socio-economic system should have nothing to do with religion which is solely concerned with the moulding of morality for the spiritual upliftment of man, his peace, and fulfilment in life.