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Religious / Cultural Violence

[b]Religious / Cultural Violence

In this thread we shall analyse man's false concept that violence somehow solves issues that can be resolved by other means. The analysis should be based on if violence can be considered acceptable and other words used as a mean to guise aggression.

There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used.... Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they thought of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed.
-- Gil Bailie

Violence Cultural Religious

The use of violence through out history has been justified by mans belief of accomplishment by any means. The Romans claimed to be making the world a better place by bringing other nations under the flag of the Roman Empire. Violence used, human betterment was the excuse.

The Ottomon empire: Controlled by the Muslim world at the time, violence was used to spread Islam across the land. The Moors truly believed that by forced conversion, they would save the souls of everyone in the world. Their true meaning behind the violence was power, to unite the region into a empire that couldn't be challenged.

The Crusades: Rulers of Germany, France, and Britain banded together in the common cause of taking bake the holy land from the Moors. The stated objective was to take back the holy land from the heathen pagan hordes because the land belonged to God. But this was more of the case of wanting to assert their power over the Moors, to show them that the western world would not be conquered.

The Spanish Inquisition: In the name of God, thousands of people where put to death for being witches or unconverted heathens and pagans. The state reason for the inquisition was the purification of the land from evil in the name of God. The real reason was to use fear to control the people.

Violence can never be justified. In the end, using violence only profits those who desire power and control. In these four situations, the issue was not human benefit or purification or for anything Godly, it was all for power and control. Violence begets violence and therefore can never be beneficial to mankind.

In the case of Iraq, Saddams use of violence to control his people beget more violence by forcing the hand of outsiders to take him from power. Violence begets violence, always, without exception.