Does anyone still believe in religion, and why?

Question

Think about the millions and millions of people who have been killed over the centuries in the name of religion. So many people in the world think that your religion is wrong and their religion is right and they will kill you for thinking differently. How can that possibly be justified?

Answer 1

Religion did not kill people....people killed people. And to be more accurate....people who vying for power manipulated religion so as to kill other people.

The only religions that believe that their religion is the only "true" religion is Christianity and Islam. Judaism says that they have a special relationship with God, but that the God they worship is the same God everyone else worships, too. They just have a special relationship. Hindus believe that all the religions in the world are more like different denominations in a religion. That everyone is worshipping the same God, they just call it by different names and are understanding God from different perspectives. Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Taoists, Confucianists, Shintoists all believe this, too. If you look at the vast majority of religions practiced in the world very few have been the cause of warfare. There have never been any wars in the name of Buddhism or Hinduism or Taoism. Sikhs defended themselves when it was necessary, but otherwise have always advocated harmonious living. There has been no war in the name of Jainism, nor any Native Americans who went to war over religion. And if we actually look more deeply at the wars "in the name of" Christianity and Islam, what we find is that the wars themselves were NEVER about the religion. The wars were about economic interests and power and it was those in power who manipulated religion so that they could gain wider support for their own selfish interests towards power and wealth. And today religion is still manipulated by those that desire power and wealth (ironically the things the great many religions tell us we should not desire because they are impernant and do not lead to happiness, but lead to suffering). To simplify warfare that eventually was considered in the name of a religion is to grossly misunderstand the entire set of events that occurred and to not actually learn from our past. Is it wrong to manipulate religion just to gain wider support for a war? Yes. Is it wrong that religion and other aspects (such as ethnicity, race, etc) get used and manipulated just to gain wider support for a war and to gain more fighters for the war? Yes. To demonize religion for warfare is just as stupid as demonizing ethnicity or race for warfare? These are things that had nothing to do with the deeper aspects of the war that have since been overlooked and forgotten. It's easy to remember that the propaganda for the war used ethnicity, race, religion, etc....but it's often harder for people to remember the real reasons behind the conflict itself. Dig deeper into history and you'll find the reasons and you'll realize that the conflicts and wars weren't started because of ethnicity, race, religion, etc. It was often over control of land, over resources, over power over land and people, and/or over wealth (either stealing it through colonization or occupation or fighting for it and taking it throughout the course of the war while the enemy was distracted).

Answer 2

I believe we must first analyze the word religion, most standard dictionaries state that religion means; a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion ect.
Most wars that have been fought in the name of religion exploited their religion to do the dirty deeds of greedy and evil men to fight without guilt. The majority of religions are watered down and adulterated from its original doctrine to suite the taste of the people and their traditions as time moves on. If you are including the ancient Holy Bible wars, these wars were fought to eliminate a specific evil and if you are not familiar with the Bible then it would take too long or just wouldn’t make sense to explain. I can tell you, believing in religion might not get you anywhere but the belief in the spirit that sponsored it you might find some enlightenment, but don’t forget, just because you hear the word religion that doesn’t necessary mean its spiritually a good thing.

Answer 3

initially, look at it this way. Buddhists and different religions are serving non-residing gods. Christianity is the only faith with a real and residing God. As for discerning between JW's, Methodists, Baptists, and so on...you're gonna ought to examine the Bible and be sure that your self. John 3:sixteen - For God so enjoyed the international that He gave his purely begotten Son that whoever believes in Him won't perish, yet particularly have eternal existence. Basement cat: how are you able to assert actual everyone seems to be authentic? there is not any such element as absolute reality. How can one individual be proper and the different individual incorrect. once I say 2+2 is 4. this is 4! purely because of the fact my 5 twelve months previous nephew says the respond is 5 would not make us the two maximum staggering! There must be a proper and incorrect answer!

Answer 4

Traditional religion can be transformed into a more updated version, with the best in fresh spiritual ideas and training techniques, as well as a more reasonable picture of God. Science will never have all the answers, and technology needs a good moral religion to direct it in a better direction for all of humanity. We tend to get more religious in times of trouble. A lot of people are not really facing the struggle of life hard enough, to understand the need to mobilize all our spiritual resources within ourself, in order to deal with what will happen, if we do not face the serious problems we now have in this world.

Answer 5

Killing in the name of religion can't be justified.

But whether or not some people do bad things in the name of religion has no bearing on whether the core teachings of one or more religions are true.

Answer 6

People have been tortured and killed for thinking things like, "the world is round." What can I say, people are barbaric.

Have you ever gotten angry when you know you have the right answer, and someone proceeds to argue that it's wrong? Have you ever had the incorrect answer, and you were sure it was right and got into a fight over it?

A belief may be correct, but people are flawed (in a BIG way) Likewise, a belief may be incorrect, and people remain flawed ...fighting ensues... people get hurt.... God looks down and shakes His head wondering why we still don't get it...

Answer 7

It isn't justified. It isn't right. I am Christian, I would never kill anyone. Even over difference in religion. In the bible (probably other holy books too) it says to not murder anyone. I believe that what some people do to others because of difference in religion really goes against their faith.

Answer 8

If there wasn't religion, don't you think people would still kill in the name of ethnicity, or politics, or anything else they could think up??? What about all the people who have fed the hungry in the name of religion? What about people who fought to free slaves in the US civil war, in the name of religion? What about people who hid Jews from the Nazis in the name of religion? Anyone can use whatever excuse they want to do good or evil, it's silly to think that religion is the cause of the bad things people do.

Answer 9

Most people have been killed by athiests than anyone else, , apart from the abortionists , they have killed millions of people in the span of a few years Mao Tsetung, Stalin, Lenin the french revolution the mexican revolution, ... these anti-God movements have billions of deaths to their discredit. these evil people make hittler look like a part timer

Answer 10

Im my opinion, religion is a way to control the actions of a large population. If they can get people to think that certain things are sins then that will deter them from doing them and then that submits them to the will of the religious leaders.
Is there a higher power out there? I can't tell you, but if there is, I dont really need a religion to tell me what to believe.