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Religion and violence
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I cant seem to make up my mind.
Do religion per definition create violent people or do violent people us religion to do violent acts?
"We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat."
Personal observation is that people use religion to perpetrate violent acts and so absolve themselves of any guilt.
PERSONAL OPINION mind you "The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
 RE: Religion and violence
February 1, 2012 at 8:12 am
(This post was last modified: February 1, 2012 at 9:01 am by Rokcet Scientist.)
(February 1, 2012 at 2:08 am)Of_Tomato Wrote: I cant seem to make up my mind. It is not either/or, it is both: if a religion is tolerant – like Buddhism – it does not create violent people. Unfortunately most religions are intolerant. And violent people use religion as a fig leaf/excuse/justification to commit their violence. Correction: Buddhism is not really a religion, there are no gods in Buddhism. It is rather a way of life without gods. But the similarity with religion is close. 
We just need to look at history for a bit to answer this one. Popes started wars like the Crusades which killed vast numbers of people and then continued with inquisitions that killed plenty of people in Europe too. No doubt this was due to the need for the popes to retain their authority through fear.
Islam started its career peacefully enough until it had enough support to start fighting. Mo seems to have like power more than anything else and did not worry about who died to enable him to keep it. Nothing much different today really. I rather think that the religion gets peaceful people more violent and also the more power-hungry people seek offices in religion to have the authority to do violence. Really both ideas are probably right, RE: Religion and violence
February 1, 2012 at 11:03 am
(This post was last modified: February 1, 2012 at 1:00 pm by Of_Tomato.)
What im wondering is, will/can religion turn an non-violent person into a violent one or does that person turn violence because of other variables, politics, social differances etc. Do religion alone, turn non-violent people, violent?
"We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat."
I have to agree with Rokcet Scientist. I think a little of both. Look at Christian terrorists in America for example. One can clearly see that Eric Rudolph was probably a violent person who used his religion to bomb abortion clinics & set one off at the Olympic games.
Shelly Shannon, on the other hand, was just an ordinary but fundie housewife who probably wasn't a violent person, but was driven by her religion to shoot Dr. George Tiller in both arms because he performed abortions. Scott Roeder is a tossup. It's possible that he was violent to begin with, but it was definitely religion which caused him to kill Dr. Tiller, and he probably to this day justifies it in his mind because he saved all those innocent babies.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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