If More People Believed This Would There Still Be Wars?

Question

Why do so many different religions claim to be God's 'chosen' people?

Why so little tolerance for other people's belief systems?

Here is my answer:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[e-mail]/detail?.dir=/83d4re2&.dnm=903dre2.jpg&.src=ph

Your imput, please? And, please, no hate spewing answers.

The name of the painting is 'One God Fits All.'

Answer 1

Think it through:

* You have an imaginary friend, and want others to believe in him too.
* In order to get other people to believe in your imaginary friend, you have to convince them that it is to their benefit.
* Not all people will believe in your imaginary friend, or that it is beneficial for them to do so.
* In order to get others to believe in your imaginary friend, you must find people who are likely to believe in him.
* No matter what group you target to convince that your imaginary friend is real, no one will want to believe in an imaginary friend that doesn't like them.

Query: How much credence do you think the Jews would have given Moses imaginary friend if he (Moses) had told the Jews that his imaginary friend was all-powerful, all-knowing, and that the Midianites were his imaginary friends "chosen people" who would get all the preferential treatment?

-SD-

Answer 2

People never wanted to die or their loved ones to die and saw stars in the sky... So all the explainig began there is a life beyond this one and who created all the stars must be some type of "God". I have always believed all major religions should get together to format a one true faith a culmination of all the best ideas and interpretations from each religion and science info to end this ridiculous battle between the people. It started as a question and turned into a form of control over the masses. There should be no we are save you are not, we are chosen you are not. The majority of people are basically dumb it seems and have stopped asking questions. So, yes less wars because less confused frustrated and angry people.

Answer 3

That is why I no longer believe in religions since they have done a beautiful job of dividing the peoples of the earth instead of uniting them. I'm neither a believer or non-believer but am spiritual and if people possesed just a few of these traits, this world might be a better place to live in;
understanding, honesty, openmindedness, willingness, kindness.

Answer 4

Wars aren't caused directly by religions. Wars are caused by people who want something that somebody else has. Religion might be a factor in the circumstances leading to war, but in the end all wars can be reduced to those "without" fighting for the things that those "with" possess.

Forget all the flag waving, propagandistic nonsense.
People fight wars to take things from other people. And that's all.

Answer 5

Wow, is that a quilt? I LOVE IT!!!!!! I want one....
Theres a buddist saying that religion is a finger pointing up (ok imagine a finger pointing up not the bird)
People argue over the finger and they do not get the POINT...

One tool in organized religions is for the religion to carry on, they use fear, they want money, and they tolerate no other way so people dont convert for fear of burning in eternal hell.

Answer 6

The answer is simple.
When religion is put as number one before God it breaks the 1st commandment. Thou shalt not have Any other gods before Me.
Its strange that the people don't catch on to this till its too late. Some never catch on.><>

Answer 7

Yes, religion is man-made with the concept of honoring God. All of these things are related to only one God, whether we call Him Allah, God the Father. The difference is to know which is false and which is true.

Answer 8

my dear, people only use religion as an excuse to wage war.

we wage war to acquire resources others own; starting a war in the name of the big G is just a ploy, a recruitment tool. of course silly people fall for it all the time.

God bless.

Answer 9

the gods of one reigion are the devils of another or the next religion that captures peopls attenion as to sounding more to there liking.

Answer 10

Hindus (and many eastern religions) do not make such a claim. In fact the concept is foreign and goes against their theology that God would have chosen or selected a group of people over all others. The reason is that Hindus say that God manifested the entire universe from Itself. Thus, if everything came out of God and everything retains the divine spark within it, how can it be seperated from God and why would God choose any one manifestation over all the others when all equally manifested from God?

Hindus, like many eastern religions and UUs, are very tolerant of other religions. This is primarily because they believe that other religions are just different perspectives on the same God. Hindus believe there is one God. That one God is vast, big, infinite. We all exist in finite bodies with finite minds and thus so long as we are contained in the finite mass then we can never fully grasp the whole of the infinite.

In fact Hindus have a story that relates to this very subject. It is a view that other eastern religions share. You will find that they don't have an "absolute" view on God or believe that their religions are the only right one. They have a lot of respect and tolerance for other perspectives and viewpoints. The Hindu story goes as follows:

There are six blind men who each leave their respective villages one day to go for a walk in the woods. Each of them comes across an elephant while walking, something no one in their village has ever seen. The first blind man reaches out and is able to quickly touch the trunk of the elephant as it passes by. The second reaches out and touches a tusk. The third reaches out and touches a flapping ear. The fourth reaches out and touches a leg. The fifth reaches out and touches it's tail. The sixt reaches out and touches it's body. Each of the blind men goes back to their villages and tells the villagers about their experience. So which blind man's experience was the right experience? Which one has the truth about an elephant?

Hindus say that each of us are like those blind men and God is like that elephant. Each of us are reaching out and touching a different part of God, that's why each religion seems so different. However, in the end we are all talking about the exact same thing. Hindus say that all religions show the way for those who dare to go deep enough to discover the universal truths of the innate nature of the inner Self and that this is the first deep step towards realizing God. This is why Hindus call their religion Sanatana Dharma or Eternal Religion, because they believe that the core of their religion is the same core as all other religions...it's the outter layers that change. They often point to Rumi from Islam, St. Terese in Christianity, and Ramakrishna in Hinduism as examples because all three (and others from other religions) in their writings talk about God and the inner Self, etc, in the exact same ways...and yet all are from different time periods, different geographical locations, and different religions.

Hindus say that religion is a tool that people use to achieve spiritual goals. That said, a folksinger Ani DiFranco said it best when she said "Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right." And Hindus tend to agree. Hindus don't believe that evil exists, instead it is ignorance. We act out of ignorance and do harm to one another in the name of religion or whatever not because we are evil beings but because we are ignorant of how interconnected we all are and we are ignorant of our divine spark that dwells in us and ignorant of the fact that we should respect each other's beliefs and perspectives on God because they are just merely different perspectives, different angles, of the exact same thing. If we'd just remember that we are all very much interconnected, that we are not seperated from God, that we are all looking and worshipping the same God but from different perspectives, then with that ignorance shed we could live more harmoniously and peacefully with one another.

As a Hindu one of my daily goals in life is to strive to see God in all people and to treat everyone and everything with the same respect that I give to God.

I like the picture, it reminds me of some of the things I have seen at the UU church I attend (as a Hindu it is always nice to belong to an interfaith community like the UU church I go to). However, not all belief systems are intolerant of other's belief systems nor do they all claim to be the chosen people of God or the only true path, etc.

As for wars. I am convinced that there may have been wars in the name of religion but that they were not truly religious wars. I am convinced that shrewd politicians simply used the deeply personal nature of religion to be able to justify their wars as well as to encourage more people to join the fight. From what I can tell all wars have been for political reasons, not religious reasons. Religion seems to just have been abused by the politicians (be they Popes, Kings, Queens, Presidents, etc) for their own political ambitions and aims in war. Thus I do not truly believe there has ever really been a war simply based upon religious motivations. And based upon all the really wonderful people I know, my friends, my co-workers, acquaintances, etc who are all from so many different religions...I find that most people strive to leave peacefully and harmoniously with others because they believe that it was their religious teaches them and it is their religion that helps them to stay focused on living peacefully and harmoniously with others. Thus, again, I am convinced that it is only when shrewd leaders/politicians abuse religion that people act violently "in the name of religion", otherwise it seems that a lot more people do a lot of good in the world "in the name of religion" than they do bad (it just goes unnoticed a lot...the good that all the many religions do).