Why is there such animosity between religions?

Question

Animosity, according to Webster, is bitter feelings, emnity, and hatred. Is all this necessary? Why do these people hate each other? So what if we believe differently? Am I one of the only people who try to be civil to everyone else? Am I going to get nothing out of this question but a bunch of angry people who want to kill me?

Answer 1

Good question. I wonder myself. Every time I ask an innocent religious question, it turns into some sort of spiritual pissing match. Does nobody believe in "living" their religion, or only "fighting" for their religion?

Answer 2

Its the beauty of religion. They can't question faith, so it becomes in equality to a life versus death situation. They place so much stock in their religion, that to prove it wrong, would be like proving their entire existence wrong. Now, here comes someone else who has a different belief, saying that you are wrong and are going to "hell". Of course there will be animosity, even hatred, because everything they believe, is the opposite of your beliefs. How can you be wrong, when your whole life is based on a certain principle, and add into it that the other religions say you are wrong and they are right, so you try to prove that they are wrong, and than you have the arguments, even leading to wars. We have seen this since religion has been around, the crusades, muslims fighting each other and everyone else, the jews, and mix them together and we have nothing but hate between the groups. its kind of sad i believe, sorry for such a long winded answer, hope it makes sense.

As for me, i am not religious or affiliated to any religion.

Answer 3

the reason for this is very simple. imagine a very good product in the market, will you not find people who are suppose to patronise it trying to making imitations of same but nobody will give a second thought into making another fake that is already a fake. so the problem is that, we have a religion set out by the maker Himself in which He sought people while other religions are seeking God. therefore those who are ''God seeking'' will always feel they seek Him the best way and every other person is just fooling themselves. there is only one true God and therefore we must look to Him in only one way. so HE said through Jesus I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE - John 14:6. take time and study the words very well and you will understand why there is such animosity.

Answer 4

~~~camp,,,, Chronic Intolerance of Battling Superiority Complexes.

Answer 5

Because people have complete faith in their own religious beliefs, & look down on all the rest.

They may not necessarily **HATE** the adherents of other religions, but, disagree with the religions themselves.

Answer 6

Failure to respect other faiths and failure to know God is one,whatever religion you follow.

Answer 7

Do No Harm to anyone is a healthy principle to follow. It allows open lines of communication to take place. Some human beings have not yet learned how to humbly unconditionally love
all people. Once we learn how to love all people unconditionally, and as we function in this way, we ourselves acquire peace of mind, and happiness, otherwise if we do not, we suffer in our relationships with other human beings. *Please Patiently read this.*
Attachment {= Conditional Love).
Love {= Unconditional Love, without strings
attached.). Thanks for Reading.

*What in the world is the difference between loving a person, and being attached to them? Love is the sincere wish, for others to be happy and to be free from suffering. Having realistically realized other’s kindness, as well as their faults, Love is Always focused on the other person’s welfare. We have no ulterior intensions or motives to fulfill our own self-interests; or to fulfill our own desires, we love others, all people, simply because they exist. Attachment, on the other hand, exaggerates others’ good qualities, and makes us crave to be with them. When we’re with them, we are happy, but when we’re separated from them, we’re miserable. Attachments are always linked with expectations of what others should be, or what they should do for us. Is love, as it is understood in most societies, really love OR attachment ? Let us examine this a little more. Generally speaking, we are attracted {drawn to) people because they have qualities we value, or because they help us in some way. If we carefully observe, through introspection, our own thought processes we’ll notice that we very often look for specific qualities in others. Some of these qualities we are drawn to are qualities within our parents, or qualities which society values.
We examine someone’s looks, education, social status, financial status, and so forth. This is how Most of us decide on whether or not the person holds any true value, or not. In addition, we judge people as worthwhile according to how they relate to us. If they praise us, encourage us, help us, if they listen to what we have to say, if they make us feel secure, if they take care of us when were sick, unhappy or depressed, we consider them good, or sometimes righteous people, and these are the people we more drawn to, whom we are most likely attracted to, and the people we choose to be around with.
In all honesty, this is very biased, for we are judging them, only in terms of how they relate to us, as if we are the most important person in the world & thinking the world revolves around us! After we’ve judged certain people to be good for us, whenever we see them, it appears to us as if goodness is radiating out from within them, but as we are more mindfully aware, we realize that we have projected this goodness on to them.
Desiring to be the people who make us feel good, we become emotional yo-yo’s, when we’re with these people, we’re up, but when we’re not with them, we’re down. Furthermore, we form fixed concepts of what our relationships with these people will be, and thus have expectations of them. “When they do not live up to our expectations of them, we’re unhappy, disappointed or may even become angry. We want them to change so that they will match what we think they are. But our projections and expectations come from our own minds, not from other people. Our problems arise not because others aren’t who we thought they were, but because we mistakenly thought they were something they were not. We often use a type of Checklist also. Checklist: “I Love You IF ___________ !” This Love is Conditional and what we call love, is most often attachment. It is actually an attitude which overestimates the qualities of another person.
’Then we cling tightly to that person, thinking our peace and happiness depends on that person. We even often blame that person for our unhappiness.’ Love, on the other hand, is a very patient, calm, optimistic and relaxed attitude. We want others to be free from suffering and to be happy simply because they exist. While attachments are uncontrolled, and too emotionally sentimental, Love is Patient, powerful, and controlled(disciplined). Attachment obscures our judgment {our ability to make sound, wise decisions), and we become impatient, angry, and impartial – helping our dear ones, and those who do us no harm. Love clarifies our mind, & we access a situation by thinking of the greatest good for everyone. Attachment is based on selfishness, while love is founded on valuing, & cherishing others, even those who do not look very appealing to us. Love always looks beyond all the superficial appearances and dwells on the fact that they are just like us: they want peace of mind, happiness, and wish to avoid suffering. If we see an unattractive, or unintelligent people we most often feel repulsed, because our selfish minds want to find attractive, intelligent, and talented people. On the other hand, Love never evaluates others by theses superficial standards and looks much deeper into the person. Love recognizes that regardless of the others appearances, they’re experiences are they same as ours: they want inner mental peace, happiness, and wish to be from suffering. When we’re attached, we’re not mentally, emotionally, & spiritually free. For we overly depend on, and cling to another person, to fulfill our emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. We fear losing the person, fearing that we’d be incomplete without them.” This does Not mean that we should suppress all our emotional needs, or become aloof, and totally independent, for that too would not solve the problem. We must simply realize our unrealistic needs and slowly, gently and patiently – seek to eliminate them. If we try to suppress them, pretending they do not exist, we become insecure, anxious, or possibly depressed. In this case, we do our best to fulfill our needs, while simultaneously working gradually to subdue them. The core problem is that most of us seek to be loved, rather than to love. We yearn to be understood by others, rather than to understand them. Our sense of emotional insecurities comes from the selfish obscuring of our own minds. We develop confidence by recognizing our inner potential to become a Selfless human being, having many magnificent qualities, and then we’ll develop and have an accurate perception of ourselves, gaining self-confidence. We’ll seek to increase true unconditional love, to increase compassion, to cultivate patience, as well as generosity, right concentration and wisdom. Under the influence of attachment, we’re bound by our unstable emotional reactions to others. When they’re nice to us, we’re happy, but when they ignore us or speak sharply to us, we take it personally, and are unhappy. But pacifying attachment doesn’t mean we become hard-hearted, rather without attachments, there will be space in our hearts and minds for genuine affection and impartial love for them. And as a result, we’ll be more actively involved with them. As we learn to transform our minds & lives, through subduing our attachments, we can definitely have successful friendships, and personal relationships with others. These relationships will be richer, more meaningful because of the freedom and respect the relationships are based on. We’ll really care about the happiness and misery of all human beings equally, simply because everyone is the same inside: we all want inner peace of mind, Happiness, and to be from suffering.
However, of course, our lifestyles and interests may be a bit more compatible with some people. Our friendships and our personal relationships will be based on mutual interests, and to help other people. Having such an attitude, we’ll be much More Patient, & tolerant toward others; will remain mentally calm, having Peace of Mind and Happiness, and we’ll communicate successfully with others in life.*