Why do "religions" often lead to violence?

[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?

[Confused Ape]

I think that it's fanaticism which leads to violence and it's not confined to religion. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia were Communists and their fanaticism resulted in genocide.

The Ideology

The Genocide

[Anomalocaris]

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:

Blah, blah.

I don't think religion is "at the heart" of "most" large scale violence. For example, religion is IHMO incidental to Napoleonic War, American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, Russo-Japanese war, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Cambodean Pol Pot holocaust, the Hutu-Tutsi genocide.

Religion in many cases become involved in large scale violence only as a incidental trait of the participants of the violence, ie Religionist group A fought religionist group B not because religions A and B. Rather group A fought group B and in the endeavor each enlisted their respective religions.

[Brian37]

Politics can be a religion too. But religion is inherently divisive. I is our species anthropomorphic way of slapping a label on ourselves to make ourselves feel special. The problem in doing this, while it may create safety in numbers, it also creates "in group" vs "out group".

[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:

Blah, blah.

I don't think religion is "at the heart" of "most" large scale violence. For example, religion is IHMO incidental to Napoleonic War, American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, Russo-Japanese war, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Cambodean Pol Pot holocaust, the Hutu-Tutsi genocide.

Religion in many cases become involved in large scale violence only as a incidental trait of the participants of the violence, ie Religionist group A fought religionist group B not because religions A and B. Rather group A fought group B and in the endeavor each enlisted their respective religions.

I made too broad of a statement. However there were definitely religious elements to some of the conflicts you talk about.

Here is a link to "Religion in the Vietnam War". The primary religions in Vietnam were Catholicism and Buddhism. North Vietnam was primarily Catholic and South Vietnam was primarily Buddhist.

And different religious groups jockeying for power are the source of the Middle Eastern conflict. The Jews, Christians, Muslims..

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I guess what I am really asking and musing about is if there is a connection between restrictive beliefs and crime. For example the Catholic priests who take a vow of celibacy -- also have a problem with molesting boys.

And the argument that overly repressive beliefs -- lead to rebellious behavior -- doesn't seem to be totally false. Take a look at the number of violent crimes towards women, and the number rapes committed in Utah. Arguably these are "power trips" and the Mormon religion is a VERY controlling religion. Utah also has the highest porn sales per population, and the oldest whorehouse in the country is "Donna's" in Wells Nevada -- which gets most of its business from Salt Lake City. The customers are almost all married with wives and families in Utah.

Are people more respectful of one another when they personally have more liberty and freedom in their lives??

[RichardP]

When I was younger I was very religious and very "conservative". I was going to wait until marriage to have sex, I was not going to drink any alcohol, and I certainly was not going to try any illegal drugs.

Well I am older now, and I'm not religious anymore. I'm not a virgin, I drink alcohol, and when I was younger I actually did try marijuana -- I just don't take it now because it could jeopardize my job.

Do I regret loosing my virginity before marriage? To be honest, no. It made me feel more human, more alive, and more comfortable with women and sex in general. But still I have been lucky that I have not gotten any of the women pregnant that I slept with. I haven't always used a condom, and the women were not all on birth control. If I had gotten one or more of the women pregnant than my view would probably be different. There would be the emotional dilemma to deal with if she got an abortion, and there would be the financial problem to deal with if she had the baby and wanted child support. Or the huge responsibility that I would have had to assume if I chose to raise the child instead. So I would hesitate to recommend even following my example. I've known girls who decided to start having sex -- and they swore that they would always have "safe" sex -- but they ended up pregnant.

And when it comes to alcohol and drugs, people often do end up with problems..

So I would be afraid to preach in either direction. Any thoughts any feelings?

[Minimalist]

Why do "religions" often lead to violence?

Because people suck and any excuse will do.

[paulpablo]

Because all these cults arent proper religions.
People think of christianity and Islam as these all powerful all mighty religions, they arent, theres about a thousand different types of belief within each of these religions, they all hate each other and believe that everyone else is bound to hell.
Ontop of that theres the violence loopholes within religion. "allah loves peace, but if they attack you, or if a muslim stops believing in islam fucking cut their throats open and kill them all" and so on.
Ontop of that the belief that you should love one another but theres devils and witches out there who arent human so its ok to torture them, burn them drown them and fuck them over completely.
Basically they are cult members who litterally have shit for brains
especially the fucking mormons, im surprised you have to ask about why they are fucked up if you know about what they believe in.

[catfish]

Why do "religions" often lead to violence?

Because people suck and any excuse will do.

So, do both of you guys make the other wear a condom when you suck???
.

[Christian]

Religion does not lead to violence, people do!