Why Do People Take A Few Bad Seeds And Justify It As Actions of An Entire Religion?

Question

for example, atheists say religion kills. muslims hijack some planes and they think Allah condones killing. Christian extremists bomb abortion clinics, God condones the bombing. Or if a Hindu burns is wife in the back yard, the Hindu Gods condone it. This is not normal behavior...I dont kill and never would. Do they not understand that "religious" people who are intent with murder hate and misery are evil and do not represent their faith? It is almost as if they are passing judgement on everyone else of the religion. These militants are giving their religion a bad name and need to be locked away in asylum away from the public especially little children.

One of the key words I used here is extremists. These criminals misinterpret scripture for their own gain and use it for justification of their actions. Such as Christians bombing clinics. God doesn’t say to kill anyone and especially babies.

Answer 1

It seems to be part of the whole tribal "Us" vs "Them" mentality that often plagues humans when they start getting into groups.

People who strongly identify themselves with one group of people are always looking for evidence that they chose their group correctly (even if it's just because they were born into it), and everyone else chose wrong.

It doesn't just happen with religions, it happens with nations (unquestioning patriotism), and even 'loyalty' to cities, regions, ethnic identities, even really stupid things like high schools or sports franchises.

The tendency to condemn the actions of those who are not on your 'team', while ignoring any unpleasant actions of your own team tends to build group cohesiveness, but it's an incredibly destructive impulse, and probably the true source of almost all truly evil actions that have occurred in human history (including all the ones you mentioned as well as atrocities such as the Rwandan genocides, enslavement of other peoples, the Nazi holocausts and many, many others).

The strongest, most powerful, and I think, most true teaching of Christ's ministry was an attempt to combat this tribal mentality. The whole 'Love your neighbour' philosophy that many people, even some who call themselves devout Christians seem to have so much trouble with.

Everything else in every religion is just window dressing and accessories. All you really need is that one message and we can all make the world a better place.

Answer 2

It's human nature to do so. You're right - it's not fair, but it is normal.

Part of the problem is that the people doing these things insist that they ARE representing their faith, though. Suppose I - a non-Catholic - were to say "The anti-abortion movement does not represent Catholicism, and good Catholics have nothing to do with that kind of thing". For every Catholic who stands up for that statement there'll be a hundred who passionately deny it. In light of that, what DOES it mean for a religion to be represented by the violent extremists? Or for a religion not to?

I believe that on the balance, religion does about as much good as it does evil, and if I had the power to eradicate religion, I'm not at all sure that I'd do so.

Answer 3

Because religious people have been killing people and crusading pretty much since religion was created. Think about how many people have died in the name of god, of course the real numbers will never be known it could quite possibly be in the billions. All the genocides, not just Hitler, pretty much every war The Inquisition, and etc. Just think about all the gay people that have been beaten to death because the bible says it is a sin. This still continues to this day, even George W seems to think this is gods plan and the US has killed possibly 1/2 million Muslims again the real numbers are unknown

So until people figure this out it will continue, and until this stops you will all continued to be grouped as so, just like any other group of people in the world that is judged by their history.

Answer 4

This is a logical fallacy. It happens with all kinds of groups, and not just religions. Choose one: race, gender, gender-orientation, socioeconomic class, neighborhood, nationality, etc. I'm sure you have some misconceptions about various groups based on a few individuals.
But we're only human. I think the world would be a lot better without religion. People would have to face reality and not have hope of some proofless afterlife. It would eradicate many people's reasons and justifications for killing or behaving barbarically. This is the year 2006, yet people still base their life perspectives on ancient conceptions of the world.

Answer 5

Given your examples,

Muslims - hijacking planes - flying them into the Twin Towers,

Christians - bombing abortion clinics.

Hindus - burning their wives,

Do you not see how all of these examples are idiosyncratic of the specific religion? You cannot separate the action from the source. That being the case...

Would it not be better to sponge away the offending aspects of the specific sources? Then the trouble would stop and we would have no reason to discriminate based on religion.

Answer 6

NO NO NO, Religion was they first type of government that promoted Good & Evil. At times it is Good when the people of certian faiths band togather and their followers agree then war is GOOD. The people that are being attacted see this as BAD and retaliate as best they can and that is seen as good.
Religion was made for mans use and it worked as they do evil, the belivers unknoenly approve.

Answer 7

Agreed. God or not, human beings have an INFINITE ability to justify anything. This is why I choose not to believe in any religion and accept personal responsibility for all that I do in life. I am not penitent, I am not forgiven, and I do not attempt to pass off my actions to any higher power to take care of.

Whatever you believe, just remember your own question and live well.

Answer 8

I have full confidence in saying that organized religion as a whole has done more harm than good; it is and has always been a tool for controlling people and training them to avoid thinking for themselves or questioning authority.

Spirituality without hierarchy is fine.

Answer 9

It doesn't matter whether it is a few or many, religion is still the cause of death for people. It still leads to killing. It doesn't matter if these people are representative of religion or not. They are still killing in the name of religion. Thus, religion kills. And it kills (has killed) a LOT.

Answer 10

The bigotries preached by all religions cause evil things to happen.
Tammi Dee