Why do "religions" often lead to violence?
January 27, 2013 at 5:24 pm
(This post was last modified: January 27, 2013 at 5:25 pm by RichardP.)
It seems that religion is at the heart of most of the large scale violence and vigilantism around the world. Why? The rules that the religions profess seem to be pretty good. Take the Ten Commandments as an example:
Thou shall not kill, malign your neighbor, steal, lie, cheat on your wife, etc. Not bad, except that people who claim to hold these beliefs kill, malign, cheat, and steal -- in the name of their religion!
Perhaps the most recent "religion" -- if I dare call it that -- is the "Straight Edge" movement. Supposedly they don't drink, use drugs, or have sex before marriage, are opposed to violence against women, and are vegans. Which seems fine to me. I mean that is great. There is nothing wrong with them living that way if they want to. How could that hurt anybody?
But then I read the newspaper stories about Straight Edgers burning down McDonalds, beating people to death, and using brass knuckles and baseball bats to "punish" people who they did not feel were living the right way. Mormon Straight Edgers in Utah beat a Hispanic kid to death, and there were rumors that they had also beaten two different girls to death.
In the case in Utah they argued that they thought that the Hispanic kid was a gang member -- and that it was just a simple case of mistaken identity. As it turned out he wasn't a gang member and he had not provoked anybody. Even if he was a gang member would that justify beating him to death?
What is it that leads to the vigilantism? What is it that makes them feel that they have to enforce their set of principles on other people? Are they frustrated because they are repressing certain desires and urges in themselves and jealous of other people who are not? Is it the nature of the group -- are they a frustrated group of misfits? Is that why they join? Do their strict beliefs keep them from fitting in socially? Why go and burn down a McDonalds? They don't like that other people can eat Big Macs?
Thou shall not kill, malign your neighbor, steal, lie, cheat on your wife, etc. Not bad, except that people who claim to hold these beliefs kill, malign, cheat, and steal -- in the name of their religion!
Perhaps the most recent "religion" -- if I dare call it that -- is the "Straight Edge" movement. Supposedly they don't drink, use drugs, or have sex before marriage, are opposed to violence against women, and are vegans. Which seems fine to me. I mean that is great. There is nothing wrong with them living that way if they want to. How could that hurt anybody?
But then I read the newspaper stories about Straight Edgers burning down McDonalds, beating people to death, and using brass knuckles and baseball bats to "punish" people who they did not feel were living the right way. Mormon Straight Edgers in Utah beat a Hispanic kid to death, and there were rumors that they had also beaten two different girls to death.
In the case in Utah they argued that they thought that the Hispanic kid was a gang member -- and that it was just a simple case of mistaken identity. As it turned out he wasn't a gang member and he had not provoked anybody. Even if he was a gang member would that justify beating him to death?
What is it that leads to the vigilantism? What is it that makes them feel that they have to enforce their set of principles on other people? Are they frustrated because they are repressing certain desires and urges in themselves and jealous of other people who are not? Is it the nature of the group -- are they a frustrated group of misfits? Is that why they join? Do their strict beliefs keep them from fitting in socially? Why go and burn down a McDonalds? They don't like that other people can eat Big Macs?
