Leave Me Alone

I would like to start by explaining what this essay is not. This essay is not a whimsical attempt at justifying the academic study of religion by suggesting it is of higher moral worth to do so. I have no interest in saying that just because religion has no practical application, that should not stop me from studying it for my own interest. I will not try to spin the communication, writing or critical thinking skills that come with religious study, into generic qualifications that will open the world to the employment of my choice. Finally, this is not an essay explaining how everyone should mind their own business, though I sincerely wish that they would. To some extent I believe everything previously said, however these arguments are not good enough to serve my purpose. This essay is, first and foremost an attempt to free myself from the unteachable stupidity of the arrogant people that surround me. The range of comments, from the fairly innocent 'What will you do with that degree?' to the condescending laughter hinting that religious study is useless, has become such an intolerable annoyance that I am forced to waste my time writing this rebuttal. I can not even browse the internet without coming across articles that place religious study into a list of 13 useless degrees. In the following paragraphs, I hope to show that such a view is not only unjustified, it is unfathomably moronic. I'll start by giving a simple fact, according to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religous Life, 84% of the world's population is associated with a religion. Moreover, of the 16% that aren't, many hold a belief in God even if they don't associate that belief with a particular religion. So when you study religion, you have an insight into the beliefs, patterns, behavior and moral codes of 84% of the world's population. A religious scholar while walking down the street bumps into someone, there is an 84% chance that person is religious, which means the scholar will already