How do religious beliefs affect politics?

Seperation of religion and politics is said to be impossible, everyone is heavily affected by their beliefs towards their perceptions about politics. It is because religion was a part of our lives since ever. It is very hard to disregard religion and one's faith. Nowadays the relationship between the two is heavily felt here in our country because of the upcoming election. Candidates have platforms that include religion such as Aquino's. Kenneth Cauthen said that religious beliefs have moral and social implications and these can be reasons for the activities of citizens that have something to do with their religion and faith. A good example of this is a Catholic voting No agaisnt the legalization of abortion and divorce.

Religious beliefs can be used to create a cohesive bloc and this cohesive bloc can be used by politicians for their own gain. A good example is the bloc voting of Iglesia ni Cristo here in the Philippines, their leaders promote a candidate and they all vote for him. Politicians seek their side because they are big in numbers. Although, according to surveys bloc voting with regard to religious beliefs is not that successful because they do not really follow their leaders. Another example of disregarding religion for politics is in the United States when George W. Bush won. He is known to be a religious person and despite being conservative liberal America made him president. So, we really need to ask if religious beliefs can really affect politics.

It may be seen that religious beliefs is the source of the problem of wars, revolutions, or insurgencies like the one we have in Mindanao and the well-known Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not generally known but those conflicts did not really rose because of differences in faith. Again, we see that religious beliefs are not really big factors in politics. Sometimes, it is used to justify an action or push an ideology. The role of religious beliefs in politics can be studied further but as we now it is not a big deal unlike in the past eras where people are governed by their gods, goddesses, and religious doctrines.

Religious beliefs can affect politics but not in a big scale that can change the ways of politics. More than religious beliefs other factors will be consider first like the state, economics, and even globalization.