If religion is the cause of violence, would nonbelievers also blame it for success?

Question

I see many blame religion for the evils in the US and the world, murder, starvation, war, slavery, bigotry, and injustice in general.

We are the foremost nation in the wealth of its citizens, we have a very low hunger rate the average American throws away 450#'s of food every year, low birth mortality, high lifespan, even our homeless live better than about 90% of the worlds population, high literacy rate, huge number of people with post graduate degrees, not to mention the saftey of our citizens, our employment rate runs 4.5-5% almost constantly.

Many claim that we are the most religious country in the world and because of that we are also the most violent.

I've seen people on here say that our high prisoner rate is because we are too religious, could it be that we are just a society that doesn't tolerate evil in its midst?

My opinion, we are all of these things, both good and bad, because we are a very free society and as such we have people who are very good and very bad.

Answer 1

I am not a religious person, never really have been, mostly because I never really agreed with group think mentality which is prevalent in religion, and it's modern times cousin socialism/communism. I am more of an agnostic in my beliefs, but I beleive that Religion has been a double edged sword in society since the dawn of recorded human history. Sometimes a force for good, but also on occassion a force for great suffering and bloodshed. Lets just call it a necessary evil. Some may take this as an elitist viewpoint, but to me it is just simply fact that there are probably no more than 10% of all people on this entire planet that without restraints that could be relied upon to act on their best behavior all the time. Even with restraints imposed by law often founded on religious principles many people still often will naturally do what benefits them the most, even if it is dishonest or hurts others.
Western religion and the catholic church was almost solely responsible for the preservation of knowlege and written history after the fall of the Roman Empire, and without that preservation the world would most certainly taken alot longer to advance in technology and science than it did because of the rennaisance. So even though the whole idea of the rennaisance was diametrically opposed to the way of thought fostered by the church, it actually has the church to thank for the preservation of art, knowledge and written word that eventually fostered it. The same is true for Islamic scholars and also of Judaic scholars who's without influence the entire jewish people and identity would have passed into the pages of history.

So yes religion has had it's benefits to society, and nothing better has yet come along to replace it's function. Certainly not socialism/communism which has been responsible for an astonishing 100 million plus murders and deaths in the 20th century alone.

Answer 2

A lot of Americans have different denominational religions. How do you express that one religion is better than the other? Can't can you?. Religion can't simply be to blame. It's people's hearts that have the propensity to be both, evil and good. Which in turn makes it worse for people who try not to accept evil-wrongdoing into their lives. In a sense, there's a war out there. We know this because there are a lot of us that know there exist a separation between good and evil. Blaming the evil entity won't change anything, it is what it is. The only thing we can do as humans is win hearts (God asks us to do that as part of his plan), bring people to accept good over evil.

Answer 3

A good question. Religion is not the cause of violence in American society, although it has been and still is the cause of much violence elsewhere (think Iraq). Nor is it primarily the cause of success, although the civil precepts of some religions (e.g. Mormons) have led to much success in civil society (notwithstanding their theology, which is silly). Being a free society, where people can interact to the benefit of all, and where property rights are protected, is the major ingredient of success

Answer 4

Religion doesn't cause violence.


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqokB7j8Gv1YkBuSdmEECdbb7BR.?qid=20070322202422AAiRMqJ



The crusades happened because of the popes want for power. Proof is that the last crusade, instead of attacking Muslims, decided to sack The Capital of The Holy Roman Empire, Constantinople. Another example is the fact that when they did take Jerusalem in an earlier crusade, they killed everyone, even Christians and Jews.

The Inquisition was an excuse for the Pope to kill, capture, and discredit all who opposed him. An example of this type of thing, from before the inquisition, is when the English burnt Joan of Arc by calling her a witch. There is proof that this happened, not because of disbeliefs in religion, but only because the English wanted to get rid of the leader of the French.


Ok, None of those people do what they do because religion tells them to do it.

Nobody reads the Torah, New Testament, or Quran and says, "Hey, I didn't know that I have to kill people to get to Heaven. Well, I'd better obligate my duties."

No religion teaches killing.

For example, the Islamic suicide bombers who quote the Quran.

They want to kill, because their families were killed or because their friends were killed, not because of the Quran.

They just want to kill.

If they were Christian, they would just quote Jesus saying, "An Eye for an Eye, and a tooth for a tooth" adding on, a death for a death.

BUT Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all teach Mercy.

Be merciful, forgive.

None of the Crimes of Humanity have been because of a certain religion.

Hitler wanted to convert all christians into Hitler-worshippers.

Hitler burned crosses.

None of these wars have been religion based, but only greed based, or desperation based, etc.

I have many nonreligious friends who say, hey, I'm going to do good how I please and I'm not going to read any religion's books because there is a chance that they may inspire me to become evil and do bad things.

All religions are only GUIDANCE.

None of them says that you shouldn't do good as you please.


My nonreligious friends always tell me, "Yeah, I believe in one all powerfull being who is God, but.." then they tell me that they don't want to get caught up in that Jewish, Christian, Muslim thing.

Seriously, next time that you find a religious person whom you believe to be good, ask him to show you the good side of religion, the REAL side of religion.

I have always looked for advice from friends and teachers and family. The holy books are only universal books of advice from God (). That's all. They only advize you.

Being religious makes you no less, only more.

Good luck, Peace.

Answer 5

You did a good job in answering your own question. Religion has been the cause of just about every war. War is war, and violent things happen in war, but, the criminal activity an element in this, and most countries; that leads to violence, is generally because the people commiting these horible things have no religion or fear of the altenative to heaven

Answer 6

I disagree that religion is the cause for violence. I believe it is only the excuse given for violence. I don't see there being any less violence without religion. They would just find another reason. Anger and fear is the cause of violence. Violence is the nature of man. They have been fighting ever since they came down out of the trees. Man's closest relative the chimp actually have wars with apposing groups. It is very unlikely it has anything to do with religion. It is just fierce computation.

Answer 7

It's simple the reason that the U.S. is all those wonderful things, read them again, is because of SCIENCE not religion.

The percentile of prisoners who have God belief is much higher than those who do not. That's rather telling. Atheists are more law abiding than religious people according to the statistics. If religion really prevented people from being law breakers then one would have to find that most people in jail would be Atheists. That simply is not shown to be true.

The results of the Christians vs atheists
in prison investigation.
http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

Answer 8

America is not religious like the Islamic states are. We like to think so. But I don't see any Americans stopping traffic to pray! However, your point is well taken. Religion and violence certainly share the same bed in many places around the world.

Answer 9

I study one reaction that pronounced that Christianity might never sell violence. i'm jealous because of the fact I beneficial might prefer to stay in a international the place Christians did no longer sell violence yet regrettably interior of usa there are a number of loopy Christians. additionally the Klu Klux Klan is a Christian business enterprise that certainly promotes violence to those who're different.

Answer 10

The United States is a bit of an enigma. Typically, people cling to religion when things are bad, but Americans are very prosperous and are also very religious (European churches are empty.)

Also, for as powerful as the U.S. is, it is amazingly benevolent, compared to powerful civilizations that existed in the past.