In your opinion, can religion contribute to world peace...?

Question

If it can, how should we fully use the potential of religion to maximize the peace in this world?
If it can't in your opinion, why is that so?

Answer 1

I honestly believe that only a few religions can ever contribute to peace in the slightest way. Those would be buddhism, hinduism, taoism, and similar religiong. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have one major problem: they don't accept that other religions might be as correct in belief as their religion. Hindus have a saying that goes along the lines of "though there is only one real truth, there are many different interpritations of that truth." basically, it's all right what you believe, because you might not be that far off the mark. Christianity is all about disproving other religions, calling them "Satanic" or "evil", while in Islam there are only three ways to deal with someone of a different religion:kill them, ensalve them, or convert them. As for Judaism, they are convinced they're the chosen people, and everyone else is going to hell. With religions like that, peace can never be acheived.
P.S. when talking about christianity, judaism, and islam, I am using fundamentalist ideals more than anything. I am not saying every person who follows those religions are like that, more that the extremists of those religions can be violent.

Answer 2

I think that if everyone respected everyone else's right to be religious, then yes there could be world peace, and I think that religion could help a lot with that. But I also think that because many people use religion to start wars and do evil things then in some respects religion, in a round about way, causes war. I think that as long as there are extremists on both ends of the spectrum who are willing to do anything in there power to make others believe the way they do, there will always be conflict.

Answer 3

Because in the end, religion is just ideas in which INDIVIDUALS believe in. Look at the history of the world. Christians, catholics, and jews are prominant throughout the entire world, mostly because they killed and slaughtered the other religions. (Holy wars anyone?). Im not saying any religion in particular is wrong, but some people do, and because of that confliction of ideas, the world will never be at peace. Only way to do this, is to completely kill off any religion that encourages killing, and burning all records of it. But that is impossible.

Answer 4

I do not think that Organised religion can help or teach us much, however I feel personal betterment and the development of morality (which can be based on the foundation of a religion or not) can help towards world peace. If people simply sat down and thought that "I will try to cut down and stop the bad things I do and try to increase the good, kind things I do" then for whatever reason they did it the world would be a better place :) Love and Kindness to all

Answer 5

Religion cannot make peace with its self. So, no I don't think that there is any religion that is going to bringing on world peace.

God Bless You

Answer 6

Any war I can think of, either in recent or ancient history, seems able to be boiled down to one of two things:

1) Border disputes
or
2) Religious differences

I would categorize the American Civil War as a 'border dispute' war, although religious differences certainly played a big part.

If religion were to provide peace to the world it sure has a funny way of showing it.

Answer 7

There are alot of different religions but if the ethics of Christianity,Judaism,Buddhism and such were really central to those who claim to be adherents,well, the world would be along way to peace inspite of our fallen condition because grace would be really moving.

Answer 8

Wars are fought over perceived resource shortages; food, land, gold, oil, etc. In a very real sense, heaven is just another resource. Everyone wants to claim it for their god. If your god owns heaven, then mine can't. The alternative is to let all gods share heaven evenly. But that's not acceptable to the faithful, since they believe... "know"... that their god is THE creator. Break that and you break religion. So, in summary, wars are fought over resources, heaven is a resource, and therefore religion can, in the end, only contribute to war, not end it.

Answer 9

No way in H E double hockeysticks can religion promote to world peace. Not as long as there are religions that say that they are the only way.

Answer 10

They've been trying ever since man decided to civilize themselves, without any success. Let's give the non-believers a try. We who know that there is nothing after life is through, cherish being alive more than religious people.