has any religion ever gone away peacefully?

Question

or has the end of a religion always been mark by violence?
does this speak for a peaceful god?

any thoughts--thanks in advance for any answers--smile and enjoy the night

Answer 1

I don't think so. Today's religion is based upon structure and divides! Anything which divides is against the spirituality!!

Answer 2

I guess you could make a case for Heaven's Gate and Jim Jones' group when they both quietly committed mass suicide. But seriously, you're pre-supposing that religions *do* end, and most of the big ones are still around --- I think there are even still some Sabeans somewhere around the Black Sea (and with 150,000, I don't know that the Zoroastrians are *that* close to quiet extinction). Religions can be *subsumed* peacefully --- for instance, contrary to Western press, most of the idolaters in Arabia were peacefully subsumed by Islam. For a lot of people, religion is bound up with cultural identity and a desire to find meaning in the world, so most won't just relinquish that without a good reason (eg, despite white incursion and attempts to repress Native American religion, many still practice traditional NA faiths). Historians like Toynbee saw civilization as something that rose and fell with its dominant (or what became its dominant) religion, and he felt that this cyclicity was the normal concomitant of the rise and fall of religion. Maybe if you gave an example of what you meant by the end of a religion being marked by violence, this would be an easier question to answer. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any faith that just *ended*, violently or otherwise, beyond the cults that just choose to commit mass suicide, and I don't think that's what you're asking. The early Christian church had near-genocidal pogroms against groups like the Arians once they started settling on doctrines and deciding what constituted heresy, but Christianity itself survived. Is this what you mean?

Answer 3

The Zoroastrians are in the process of doing just that. There are very few of them left, and within about another generation, they'll just slowly fade away.

For the end of a religion to make the history books, it probably has to be marked by violence. That doesn't mean that some religion hasn't just quietly been abandoned, without a strong mention in the annals of history.

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Answer 4

Shakers

Koreshanity (Followers of the first Koresh in American, Cyrus Reed Teed, dwindled down to a few followers; physical plant now a Florida tourist site near Ft. Myers)

But your point might be valid if a religion's following gets beyond a critical size.

Answer 5

Yes. Certain groups do... or are in the process of doing so.

The Shakers at one point had huge numbers of converts, then dwindled tremendously because they believe in strict celibacy and so they didn't reproduce enough people (or get enough converts after a while) to continue the faith.
Wikipedia reports that there are only four members left.

Answer 6

The winners write the history books. Some religions don't go away peacefully because they are fighting for their lives.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Best answer goes to the Shakers contributor. I lived in Shaker Heights for a while and can vouch that indeed their policy of celibacy caused them to peacefully go away!

Answer 9

Thousands of religions have gone away peacefully.
I don't what history books you have been reading. Persecuted faiths almost always endure.

Answer 10

I think it would be harder to find a religion that WAS eradicated by violence. Most of them simply fade away as a more successful meme replaces them, or a new emperor comes to power.