But don't forget in early human history, predominately western and middle east religions play a great part of population control and unnecessary wars,
^ LOL, what were these western and middle eastern religions in early human history. i've forgotten so you'll have to remind me.
religion dosnt cause violence. it is the false beliefs that ppl hold and believe which will cause the violence
^ basically opinion may causes division which may lead to violence if a violent person is involved. opinion in: religion Fav football team Skin Pigment Who bought the best present Whos the fav child height weight Favourite computer game choice of ISP choice of clothing etc,etc....etc, ANYTHING can cause violence. imo those who say "Meh religion is the cause of violence", they are prolly just reiterating what they heard and have obviously not thought about it, possibly because they are incapable of doing so, like uvio
The problem is what some believers do in the name of religion. Their practice has no connection with the teachings of their religion. Take for example the Christian Crusades and the terrible things they did in the name of Christianity and compare that with the teachings of Jesus. Man will always look for an excuse to justify their actions and unfortunately they will use religion as a cover. The problem is not with religion but with the inherent evil nature of man.
As we can see in the world's society people are divided in different groups according to their religious background and beliefs. When the world change and develope the groups will change and develope too which mean there will be changes in religious teaching and beliefs after how the world is changing. As individual, you can choose to follow in any of the groups, making new group, believe in your own vision or dont believe at anything at all. Afterall we all are humans and we all need to follow our laws and justices, thats why I think it will be better if we all can be respected and treat all human evenly.
In general, most religion preach good values. But at times, religion is like a tool used to inflict violence on others. I think the problem of religion nowadays is that it disable individuals to use their own conscience on issues they may find conflicting, and hold these individuals to accept things as the ultimate truth. Its just misguided and most of that can just be directed to our human-nature.
any dogma is bad, weather it be from religion or science. its peoples ignorance/stupidity that causes violence, hatred, war. which is all bad.. but funny about the irony of this, man's technological advancements are often made during war.. so in some way, it helps mankind
I don't think religion creates violence. It's people that use religion to their own ends to create violence. For example, Major Hassan. Although I am not Muslim, I am sure that Islam does not encourage violent terrorist acts such as his.
Religion guides people to the way of life, it's intention are usually swayed to the good and not bads However language is a very complex mechanism that the human can use and religions are opened to interpretation. Which means the guidelines can be interpretted differently by different people, like some other posts say, it is down to human nature.
I believe one effect of religions is that it creates superficial distinctions that further divide humans. I don't believe that division (or equally diversity) is inherently bad, but like others have said, religion can often be used as a tool to manipulate people into acts of violence or cruelty because of how this division is made. Many religions are exclusive, they do not permit any possibility of other religions existing, and it is this fundamental division that can be manipulated. I do think that religion has facilitated more violence than it has been able to prevent. The root problem is that those that interpret religion, such as leaders of various religions, are given the power to interpret how they wish and that there is no accountability to hold to these interpreters, for they are dealing with the supernatural. The lack of accountability or transparency in their interpretations can lead to easy abuses of power, such as influencing their congregation in a certain way to profit a certain entity (leader, group, etc). One note that I'd like to point out is that master_g has said that there are other causes of violence, such as sports and other personal preferences. However, there is a significant difference b/w personal preferences and religion in that religions can encourage martyrdom. Religions can promise reward not in this physical world, but in another 'afterworld', and this motivation is very different from motivation used to cause violence based on personal preferences.
^ sure there are different motivations, i agree, but does that make one source of violence any better or worse than the other? of course not!!! violence is violence.
I think the view that religion is the cause of violence is misplaced because some of the world's greatest atrocities are caused by leaders who are aetheist such as Stalin and Mao who collectively have been estimated to have caused the death of 60 million people through their policies. The problem is the evil of man and not religion which unfortunately is used as a vehicle for their means.
