Close Topic Options

The Most Violent Religion - Page 5

Interesting.

Well, the way I see it is that religion is all about life and death, the conflict between good and evil, freedom and subjugation, fear and acceptance - it's all about opposites. These create some very violent passions and emotions. The Buddah's great accomplishment was his insights and methods on how to subdue this conflict without resorting to violence and enslavement. The Egyptians knew of the law of opposites and their religion was rooted in controlling those elements and that now the same basic elements in the Judeo-Christian traditions. Yes - in its basic form, religion is a very violent enterprise. We can see the result of that every day.

Religion Violent The

I guess that I can agree with this, in that religion generally deals with very emotional subjects.

However, most religions that I am familiar with teach that the conflict should be internal, not external. Of course different sects of various religions deal with it differently.

Consider the Quakers and Mennonites in Christianity, and the Sufis in Islam for examples of those who seek peace and who seek to win the battle between good and evil within themselves. At the same time, there are the Wahabbi group within Sunni Islam who (apparently) seek world domination of Islam, through force and terror, and the Crusades and Inquisition within Christianity, which sought the same.

So, let's identify the peacemakers, and join with them.



NightHawk

The Most Violent Religion Beliefs Religious General

I don't fully understand how the Islam handles this because I know the Islam is a religion that teaches about peace and love I cannot fully comprehend why they do not do much in order to get rid of those so called 'Muslims' who wants to dominate the world through terrorism.

Page 5 Religion Violent The

Well, from what Jennifer had said in the Islam topic, it sounds like Muslims are generally reluctant to criticize other Muslims. However, I find that argument weak, because I see where the Wahhabists are very critical of Muslims who don't "toe the line" on fundamentalism.

NightHawk

Religion Violent The

Most of this thread has dealt with violence against offending religions, but what about within? Some religions have a strong belief in being brutal to its own membership or even seeing suicide as a means to some kind of heavenly bliss. What are your thoughts when you look at it from this angle?

The Most Violent Religion

To say that the Crusades was simply to take back land is grossly under stating what the whole of the crusades where about. There where, I believe, three separate crusades. These where not for the purpose of taking back land but spreading Christianity. History tells us the when the crusaders drove the Moors out of the Holy City of Jerusalem, they raped and killed both Moor and Jew in the name of taking the city. But the Crusades where not the only violent era brought to the table by the church. The Spanish Inquisition was in the name of God and spreading Christianity. They managed to wipe out two South American tribes and steal their gold after forcing them to convert. Make no mistake, more evil and violent acts have been done through out history in the name of the Christian Churches God than any other religion in documented history. Not that I think he approves of that at all! Remember also that Hitler used the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by the Jews as one of his excuses for exterminating them. The whole of Islam has neither been around long enough or been large enough until the last 100 years to be considered the most violent. If you need more evidence, in early American history, you can read about the Church burning hundreds of people at the stake for being witches. I'm pretty sure God didn't approve of that either, but it was in His name no the less. In my opinion, there is no way another religion even comes close.

The Violent Religion - Page 5

I think you also need to take a look at how religions have been spread historically. In that sense, the most violent religion would have to be Islam.

At one time, Islam had been a fairly isolated local religion in one small area near what is Israel today. It spread through the mid-east, into parts of Asia, and into Africa by means of means of hundreds of years of bloody warfare where whole communities were wiped out simply because they would not convert. If you go back and look at your history a little more, you will see that the Crusades were not intended to convert the area to Christianity, but to prevent the spread of militant Islam that had been spreading through that area for some time before the Crusades happened. Yes, the Crusades were bloody as well, but not even half so much as the initial spread of Islam. If you go looking for websites talking about the spread of Islam, you will find a large majority of Islamic run sites all saying the same thing, that Islam was not spread by the sword, but instead won out and spread because it was so superior to the other religions it displaced. In the few minutes I was looking, these seemed to be the two least biased sites; the one which actually seemed to look at the history from a balanced viewpoint and the other which uses historical information to refute the 'never spread by the sword' claim.

Here is a discussion on the spread of Islam and Jihad

Or look at this response to standard Islamic contention that Islam was never spread by the sword.

I myself know some great people who are Islamic. I am not saying that following Islam means that you are violent in any way. I am merely pointing out that Islam managed to conquer a large portion of the world at one point while, when all was said and done, the Crusaders went back home and let the peoples rule themselves.

Edited: Snerd on 15th Jan, 2005 - 8:53pm

The Violent Religion General Religious Beliefs - Page 5

After reading through the sites you listed, I feel that I am now more knowledgable than before. I thank you very much for you input and insight. That being said, the sites you list are not completely right, nor are they completely wrong. When I read the Koran, I view the violence in it like I do the Old Testament of the Bible, something needed then, but not now. Remember the God had Israel completely destroy nations viewed as evil, even down to the last woman and child.

The crusades where to stop the spread of Islam to an extent. The majority of the crusades where solly for the purpose of taking back the "holy land" from the muslims. At one point, even a treaty was made and a deal to split up the "holy city" of Jerusalem which contained the Holy Sepulchre. With the violence created through the taking of Jerusalem, the Spanish Inquisition, and the burning of witches just 150-200 years ago, I still feel that Christianity has historically been the most violent. Here is one more site, this one is just known fact, no speculation on the crusades as I have found most sights have.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/html/C/Crusades.asp

JB, you mentioned religions being violent against there own kind. I don't know who is the most violent in that regard, but the Turkish Ottoman Empire was made up of Muslims, they conquered mostly their own people, uniting the Muslim world into one.

If I had enough posts, I would up your charisma for that last post! Good Job!