Why do people discriminate towards other people's religion??

Question

I am doing a paper for class... I wanted to know people's ideas for why this might happen... and if their raising as a child has anything to do with it.

I am doing a paper for class... I want to know people' s opinions on this topic: Why do people discriminate other people's religion? Do you think it is a big deal to people what religion you are? Do you think that wars are the factor of this? Is it because of their strict raising as a child? what is your opinion? Please!.... If you do not agree with any of please say so.. BUT NO DON"T SAY ANYONES RELIGION IS STUPID BECAUSE THAT IS IGNORANT AND SHOWS A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE!

Answer 1

There are two types of discrimination: public and private.
Public discrimination against religious beliefs is illegal in most advanced societies. As governments cannot dictate what a person should believe in private, your question should have been framed as: Why do people like or dislike other religious beliefs.

Answer 2

I think the answer is twofold. The first part stems from religion's tendency to sometimes brand those not of the same faith as evil or somehow below those who do follow the faith. The second is just ignorance.

Our school actually hosted an interfaith dinner, and it's surprising how many misconceptions that I had about other faiths, as well as people of other faiths about my own. Yet it was wonderful to see how open people were to being enlightened to the truth, and I personally was glad to have my own misconceptions cleared up and to learn a bit how other people approach God. As far as I'm concerned, all religions are just different paths to the same final goal.

Answer 3

Because people tend to reject what they don't know. And as you have probably seen, religion has been contorted into so many sects, so that it FITS what is familiar and attainable in ones life. Who has the same problems as you? Who caters to your own beliefs? And that's what makes the choice.Take it from me EVERYONE wants another "team" member, these days religous leaders are no different know why? Because they are human too.And all though all religions teach you to love your fellow man, they need money to survive, EVERY religion has a bad seed dear, and sometimes the seed takes root.

Answer 4

Sorry I wrote so much

I think that people have a tendency to put people in groups. It goes back to our most primitive pasts.

-We see someone with red tattoos all over there body and they throw a spear at us. Okay, maybe a fluke, but then the second time we meet a guy with red tattoos all over, he throws a spear too! That’s it! I’m staying away from people w/ red tattoos!

It’s a survival instinct gone terribly wrong.

As far as children go, they listen to everything their parents say because they can’t afford not to. Again, a natural instinct because if mom says that there are sharks in the water and not to go swimming, you can’t afford to question that.

Answer 5

I think some of it does have to do with what they were taught directly or indirectly as a child, but I think that most of it stems from their idea that by putting such and such religion down, that it lifts them up. Poor self esteem or too much self esteem are usually the culprits; 'make them look worse than me.'

Answer 6

no problem with buddhism but neither do Wiccans claim to be the only religion both have a wealth of knowledge to teach

Christians are not brought up they are dragged they are taught to only believe in the book and not have the power to think for themselves everything is a sin

Answer 7

well, of course much of it has to do with how the child was raised. if their parents who were told by their parents who were told by their parents, etc. that their religion is the only right one....the only one to bring salvation...that people of other faiths are evil and products of the devil...that without the ''word of god'' (or whichever phrase they please) people are not accepted into heaven and will burn in hell....anything along that track....well, of course most people will discriminate.

then, the next kind of hate comes from experience----from encountering one of those people who automatically discriminates against your or other faiths. I know a friend who is a Christian. i am catholic. i never thought anything bad about any other Christian faith (or any other non-Christian faith for that matter). i didn’t even know the differences really (and still don’t see the point on how those differences matter all that much). her parents converted from Catholicism. they have told her, in a sense, ''horror stories'' about Catholics. they painted the faith as badly as possible. then she reads in history class the horrors of the church. (i am not btw denying anything about that....the church was horrible...there is no excuse). she hears the words of other anti-Catholics. she hears the stereotypes. she reads about priests who molest little boys (without reading similar stories with Christian ministers....like the minister who molested his three daughters or something like that...i remember watching something about that on tv). and she ''hates'' Catholics.....she doesn’t realize it so much. i don’t even think she knows how much she angers everyone, whether catholic or not, with her ''preaching''. She believes that people of all other faiths will go to hell if she doesn’t come along as a missionary and teach them about God. She has made me more discriminatory. I try to fight the feeling. I try to tell myself that most of the people I met were normal. And that I shouldn’t judge her faith. That it was just the circumstances and how she was raised.

and so then, other people begin disliking her religion. she pisses the hell out of everyone, making them associate her religion with preachers and hypocrites. there are a lot of Christians who act the same way....i read it ALL THE TIME on this site. trying to force their religion on you. saying things like ‘’bring the word of God into your life and you will be saved’’ or ˝accept Jesus as your savior’’ to atheists and non-Christians when they are perfectly comfortable with their lives and their chosen religion or no religion. Nobody wants to be told that they are wrong and that they will be punished for their faith.

Then there is just plain ignorance—people learning their own faith and never taking the time to examine other people’s practices. It is easier to just label these people as ignorant or savages than to accept them….because then it would mean that they might be wrong. If other people are free to believe what they want, and they believe a different religion, it means that you might be following the wrong religion.

Plus, it has always been easier to discriminate….its one of the easiest things in the world….that and generalization. And it seems to come naturally in all human beings. What is different….what is not clear….scares people—especially when considering religions. Especially when each tells you a different way of salvation. When each has its own set of principles. When each preaches differently. When stories and virtues and parables and rules are different. People don’t know which to choose. They usually keep what they were given at birth—the faith of their parents, without a second thought. They accept what they are told as children, and find it hard to question what they have learned to be truth. They don’t have the energy to care. What was right when they were five is right always. Most don’t consider the idea that if they had been born into a different faith, they would think differently—they take this idea for granted.

Answer 8

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE and parental guidance to discriminate toward spirituality.

Answer 9

I think that's against other people's religion...

But isn't it obvious? Religion is uniquely divisive. Each religion (except Buddhism) claims to be an exclusive source of truth, and the monotheisms further assert that nonbelievers (or people who believer something else) are going to hell. Many Christians believe that nonbelievers are in fact tools of Satan!

How could that not stir up religious division?

Answer 10

Most people are born into a religion and from infancy they are trained to believe that religion. So when they are confronted with another religion, their first reaction is to defend their religion, whether their religion is true or false.

I was born as a Catholic and most of my life I believed I had the true religion, until I started studying the Bible.

I couldn't understand why some organized religions prevented people reading the Bible and even had Bible translators burned to the stake as heretics. Bible burnings in church squares multiplied after the end of the 16th century. In the minds of the people in general, the Scriptures became a book of the heretics, and that image is still very much alive. Almost all Bibles and Bible commentaries in public and private libraries were destroyed, and for the next 200 years, no Catholic would translate a Bible into certain languages.

Here is a good example..................Villages were razed, and inhabitants were imprisoned or killed. Cruel atrocities were perpetrated by brutal soldiers in a massacre that caused Europe to shudder. Some 2,700 men met death, and 600 were sent to work on the galleys, not to speak of the suffering experienced by women and children. The military commander who carried out this sanguinary campaign was lauded by the French king and by the pope.

The Reformation had already torn Germany apart when Catholic King Francis I of France, concerned about the spread of Protestantism, made inquiries about so-called heretics in his kingdom. Instead of finding a few isolated cases of heresy, authorities in Provence discovered whole villages of religious dissidents. The edict to wipe out this heresy was passed and was eventually carried out in the massacre of 1545.

Who were these heretics? And why were they objects of violent religious intolerance?

From Riches to Rags

Those killed in the massacre belonged to a religious movement dating back to the 12th century and covering a wide area of Europe. The way it spread and survived for several centuries makes it unique in the annals of religious dissidence. Most historians agree that the movement had its start about the year 1170. In the French city of Lyons, a wealthy merchant named Vaudès became deeply interested in learning how to please God. Apparently moved by Jesus Christ’s admonition that a certain rich man sell his belongings and give to the poor, Vaudès made financial provision for his family and then gave up his riches to preach the Gospel. (Matthew 19:16-22) He soon had followers who later became known as the Waldenses.

Poverty, preaching, and the Bible were at the heart of Vaudès’ life. Protest against clerical opulence was not new. For some time, a number of clerical dissenters had denounced the church’s corrupt practices and abuses. But Vaudès was a layman, as were the majority of his followers. This no doubt explains why he felt it necessary to have the Bible in the vernacular, the language of the people. Since the church’s Latin version of the Bible was accessible only to the clergy, Vaudès commissioned a translation of the Gospels and other Bible books into Franco-Provençal, the language understood by the common people in eastern central France. Acting on Jesus’ command to preach, the Poor of Lyons took to the streets with their message. (Matthew 28:19, 20) Historian Gabriel Audisio explains that their insistence on public preaching became the decisive issue in the church’s attitude toward the Waldenses.

From Catholics to Heretics

In those days, preaching was restricted to the clergy, and the church assumed the right to grant authority to preach. The clergy considered the Waldenses ignorant and illiterate, but in 1179, Vaudès sought official authorization for his preaching from Pope Alexander III. Permission was given—but on the condition that the local priests approve. Historian Malcolm Lambert notes that this “was the near-equivalent of total refusal.” Indeed, Archbishop Jean Bellesmains of Lyons formally forbade lay preaching. Vaudès responded by quoting Acts 5:29: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” Failing to comply with the ban, Vaudès was excommunicated from the church in 1184.

Although the Waldenses were banished from the diocese of Lyons and hounded out of the city, it seems that the initial condemnation was to some extent theoretical. Many ordinary people admired the Waldenses for their sincerity and way of life, and even bishops continued to speak with them.

According to historian Euan Cameron, it appears that the Waldensian preachers did not “oppose the Roman Church simply for the sake of it.” They merely “wished to preach and teach.” Historians say that the movement was virtually driven into heresy by a series of decrees that progressively and lastingly marginalized them. Church condemnations culminated in the anathema that the Fourth Lateran Council issued against the Waldenses in 1215.