I asked earlier why can't we all just get along...?

Question

...because the major religions of the world are pretty much the same except for insignificant details...and i got a lot of stuff like, "You're living in a dream world" and all that stuff. Am i? Besides that, i was looking for a real answer to the question - not an agreement that we should. My question is for real - what is stopping the world from embracing an inter-denominational religion that no one would go to war over? Fear? Stubbornness? All religions except for Judaism and Hinduism have a general founding date - therefore all people at some point were open to change. Why not now?

Answer 1

No offense, but if you think all religions are basically the same, you simply don't know enough religions. Even if you clump all the monotheists together, you'll have the polytheists to deal with.

Answer 2

most religions may have a founding base that is the same, but people who by nature sin, have taken over the religions and have changed it enough that we now have major differences. I am a Christian, so I am not bad mouthing religions. Look at the Christian religion, how many sub-religions are in the Christian religion, Mormon, Catholic, PRodestant, Nazarene, Baptist, I could go on and on. a lot of these have very different values, not about God, but about the way our lives should be ran. They take the 10 commandments and add 100 of their own. This causes arguments and distress. Then in each of those religions you have more sub religions, such as american catholic, Roman cathloic. You have a very good question. I wish I had a better answer for you

Answer 3

Because of the prophecies of the Big Three Monotheist religions. Jews are waiting for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. Muslims and Christians are looking for Judgement Day. In some Christian groups, the establishment of a world religion is seen as a sign of the reign of Satan, so these groups are very much against getting along. Rather self-defeating isn't it?

Answer 4

Because we either go along with and adopt the 'word' as it is given, or we interpret it for ourselves (and form a splinter group / religion), which is why we have the both the Catholic and Protestant churches, for two examples

What then 'can happen' is that these two groups are at some point pitted against each other for some reason (look at the history of Northern Ireland, for a simple example). Alternatively, we squash our personal beliefs and go along with the teachings of which ever religion we fall in with and accept the words and knuckle under (so to speak).

However, sorry, but this is not going to happen, ever.

Each religion has its splinter groups (as far as I am aware). Even the Mormons - who abandoned the practise of 'Polygamy' (having more than one wife) ...have those who practise both the Mormon religion and the practise of Polygamy.

Sash.

Answer 5

Greed, and pursuit and consolidation of power, unfortunately. Creating pain and hatred through war. Someone who has their child blown up by a land-mine or by another tool of war (including terrorism) becomes unable to think rationally... this is a tragic reality and is very sad.

It's the actions of a few, but these few are leading the world.

You'll notice on a personal level, people of different religions mostly get along. So it's not a population issue, but a goverment issue.

Answer 6

Hinduism was founded over 5000 years ago.
The Indus Valley Civilisation was based on the Vedic way of life.
Hinduism is based on the Vedas too.
The Hindus had been ruthlessly ruled by the Moguls.
The last rulers, the British, left without a war.
The maturity of Hinduism has helped it survive.
Perhaps the world can now learn something from it.

Answer 7

The problem is religion itself. By definition, it requires belief in the unsubstantiated. It is organised irrationality. A mind set that believes that snakes can talk and a dead guy called Jesus lives in the sky, and is capable of shutting out all the evidence that denies a belief that the earth is 6000 years old, is also going to accept without question that all other people who do not agree 100% with their dogma are not only wrong, but evil and deserving of eternal torture.
Until humanity outgrows the need for theism, there will always be this huge block to peace.

Answer 8

Unfortunately, there is a need in humans to define "otherness." They want to know who belongs to their group and who doesn't. In my own opinion, this is an evolutionary program hardwired into our brains. In prehistoric times, you needed to know who was part of your group and who wasn't for survival reasons. Now, unless there is a major evolutionary leap or a conscious choice to grow spiritually, we will continue to maintain that status quo unless there is some major outside (evolution) or inside (the conscious choice) event to push the change. Also, when people create a new religion, it is usually done because of disagreement in philosophy, dogma, ritual, etc., not because people were open to change. A sad reality, but one that in the coming centuries we may learn to conquer to become enlightened, loving individuals. Here's hoping!

Answer 9

Good question...I suppose its no single thing.

For instance there are vested interests in religion; do Bishops, Mullahs & Rabbis want to give up their influence ? They are mostly all convinced that their version of the Truth is the correct one.

And we always tend to group together where we feel safe; which usually means being surrounded by our own colour or creed or nationality. Even the idea of nation states is another way to split us all apart.

Answer 10

I guess we get bored, so we create conflict.

I think the conflict between religions is so old, that we don't know any better than to perpetuate it at this point.
Accepting a universal religion would be, to some extent, admitting that their old religion was flawed or wrong in some way. We all know how hard it can be to admit we are wrong, nevermind insinuating we've been wrong for 10,000 years.