How can religious conflict be resolved?

Question

I will offer you some background about me so you can better understand my question:

I am a physicist (23) who, whilst at school when I was not even a teenager, began to read about different religions. I have a lot of understanding about different religions in the world and understand why people believe in them. More to the point, I understand why the followers of each religion believe theirs to be true. I have the highest respect for anyone of Faith, whatever that Faith may be.

The most prominent evidence for the existance of a deity is in the existance of conciousness.

There are two possibilities:

* Conciousness is the result of nature
* Nature is the result of conciousness

Philosophically speaking, both possibilities are equally likely and both are unprovable either way. In this sense, atheism is also a religion. As there is no way to prove which possibility is correct, it is up to the individual to decide what they believe.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

By 'religious conflict' I mean the conflict between religion and science. I am sorry if I have caused any confusion.

Happkid: I don't think that metaphysics is required for religion.

Deathfromace: I tend to find that as many Atheists cause trouble about religion as 'religious' people do. I think it is unfair to say that, typically, atheists are 'better' or even 'right'. Atheism is, in my opinion, just another religion.

Aztec276: At the moment I am most satisfied with your answer. It holds true, irrespective of whether God exists or not. It doesn't, however, really answer my question.

Yes, conflict is something we can never avoid. I suppose I really just want to understand why people feel that it is necessary for them to disobey their own laws to try to prove they are right.

Jesus said that we should turn the other cheek. Jesus said that we should love those who hate us and do good to those who do wrong to us. So why do some Christians ignore these fundimental instructions and become abusive towards atheists?

Similarly, some Atheists are abusive towards Christians, even though according to Atheism the belief in God is something we naturally aquire due to our genetics and our upbringing. So why, then, are some Atheists abusive towards Christians who are merely acting according to the Atheist's commandments?

This is the type of conflict I mean. Unnecessary racism.

Answer 1

All human belief is by faith.

Atheism is based on materialism, the belief that the cosmos is an absolute and that science is truth (the standard by which all claims are to be judged valid or invalid), and thus is based on the tautology 1=1, which cannot be proven.

Most odd about atheism is that it logically justifies all anti-atheistic religions, since if the material world is an absolute then religion is actually an evolutionary mechanism, and belief in Jesus Christ is not a choice, but rather is caused by a state of brain physiology.

So if there is no God, a belief in God is still justified. And if there is no God, a belief in God has no real consequence.

-Aztec276

Answer 2

Easy - start a Crusade... ;)

Religious conflict can only end when:
a) there is only one religion left
b) there are no religions left
c) religions change so they are more tolerant of those not of their faith
d) a means is found to prove which religion (if any) is correct and everybody accepts the result
e) the Human race becomes extinct (which is pretty much covered by b)).
f) Humanity can grow up and learn to accept our differences.

None of which is going to happen any time soon...

I would like to question your belief that atheism is a religion. Your argument is that as it cannot be proven that there is no god, then atheism is a belief. As a belief, it is a religion.

I have to say that this is a very weak definition of a religion - to show this I have some counter examples...

1) I don't believe in Father Christmas. In fact I believe he doesn't exist. I cannot prove he doesn't exist. Does this mean I'm a member of a religion of people that doesn't believe in santa?

2) I believe the Earth orbits the sun; it circles it's axis and it rotates around a point between the Earth and the Moon. If I studied the evidence I might be able to prove this to be the case. However I haven't and I won't. But I believe it to be true.

I could list hundreds more examples using the same logic (an interesting example I feel like sharing - I used to believe water had no colour, but I found out yesterday I was wrong).

Answer 3

When you can get everyone in the world to enjoy the same flavour of ice cream, i'll tell you how you can get everyone to follow a particular faith. Everyone has their own reasoning for choosing their faith and once you have it most people are strong enough to follow it, that is what having faith is and to lose it and change would be to lose all faith so they need to continue believing in it and those that cannot choose or keep changing are a particular type also who require new stimulation to keep them interested and the problem is no two people are ever going to be the same so one religion is never going to fulfil everyone's needs. We all need to accept that and get on with our lives and stop arguing about religion and respect each other for the choices they have made and not ridicule or persecute them because they believe in something else. When everyone can be nice to each other will make the world a perfect place, not everyone believing in the same thing.

Answer 4

If only we could open our hearts, and listen and see, and turn and He would heal us.

There's only 1 Way boys and girls, and unless we get a bit more spiritual and connect to The One God and Creator of all, and stop starting political/religious wars and corruption, then we will be progressing forward rather than the way we have been going.

Love is Eternal, and Love is the only Way!

The Lord gave a Commandment to clarify everything : ' Love others as you love yourself'.

Think about this and delve as deep within as you are willing to, all the answers are there.

I pray that mankind can rise above the materialistic, corruptive, destructive distractions of the flesh and follow Spirit, and show RESPECT to each other so that WE may contribute to peace on Earth, rather than trying to avoid the mess WE have caused for ourselves.

Answer 5

Well if the belief is One God...and the assumed fact that only he made the world we live in and the universe. Then there should only be one religion. Jews, Christians, Muslims. (top 3 ) all proclaim to have one God so you think that it would be the same religion throughout the Earth. And another fact as you are aware I'm sure is that these 3 are also steamed from the same origins. So we should take the Human element out of it and just let there be ONE GOD, ONE EARTH, ONE UNIVERSE,ONE RELIGION.

Answer 6

The answer is NO to the question

The reason is there are those with faith in God who are willing to die for him, as long as there are, there will be conflict.

It's not complicated really, the religions of the world only continue because they are taught, to eliminate conflict you would have to start by stopping the teaching of various religions as each one has specific claims that are unwaverable therefore no agreement could ever be made only an agreement to disagree.

Answer 7

The same way civil conflict can be resolved: agreeing to disagree. We're all different, even Christianity branches off between Catholicism and Protestantism then trickles down to more denominations, and every person has their own, singular belief. We have to put these trivial things aside. I can't say for a fact, but it seems like we would coexist so much easier if we just stopped trying to prove our points with such wrath and anger and said "You know what, I don't agree with your beliefs, but I respect them." But it also seems like no one is willing to sit by and let people live the "wrong" life.

Answer 8

Religious conflict will never end...

It's the conflict between religious people.

The pope, for example, is obviously a religious person. The pope in past days led crusades to slaghter thousands of muslims to re-take the 'holy land'.

In other words, get more money.

I have a relationship with Jesus. Not with a religion.

So the fight between religious people will not end. It can only end if they see the truth of the matter: It's not about religion, it's about a relationship with jesus.

Answer 9

Religion is man made. Conflict is natures way of survival (look at it from an animals perspective...no religion there, just conflicts... in order to survive)

you can get rid of religion, but not conflict.

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins is good reading. Some good speeches on Youtube by him as well.

Answer 10

Yes this issue will never be resolved. Because people will not tolerate(exuse me if spelling is wrong) another religion over theirs. If no one has yet to notice the only people that dont have a religion (atheist) are also the only people that can stand every religion and not get in fights about it...