Date: 8/9/2004 3:40:00 PM
From Authorid: 62682
What a very interesting post. I think some religions can be destructive sure. Perhaps every religion has some sort of destructivness. I cant speak for others, and Im not real up to date on how religion has played roles in wars (Im gonna have to do some research) but I can speak for myself. I am a Christian, and my faith has been a huge asset to my life and I can truelly say that I would be lost with out it. I am blessed.
~~~Humming Bird  |
Date: 8/9/2004 3:43:00 PM
From Authorid: 30229
I am a Christian, I believe in God, and I love my belief, ... I could never EVER see me getting violent... but I have seen where there ARE some in the "name" of religion have become VERY violent...  |
Date: 8/9/2004 3:46:00 PM
From Authorid: 37101
Religion is harmless and beneficial to those who accept it. The fanatics of a religion, the people add the dangerous element of it. People all have potential to be dangerous. The concept, which is all religion really is, is harmless. The human element is not. -  |
Date: 8/9/2004 3:52:00 PM
From Authorid: 55967
I have an idea that most religions are a perverse twist on the Spiritual Truth. Many may have started out right, but were corrupted by man in his want for power, and also in that curious phenomenon of social ethos whereby people of a certain belief, society, culture, race, country, what have you (and in ancient days all were usually one and the same), would all feel they were right and kind people in and of themselves, but that anyone else outside their circle was wrong or inferior or somehow "subhuman." Those are the two main reasons as I see it that religion has gone the route it has. The phenomenon still exists today. It does not, however, take away from the original Truth for which that man has always reached.  |
Date: 8/9/2004 3:53:00 PM
From Authorid: 7574
I was actually thinking about this the other day...in church, ironically. I think religions are beneficial in some ways as in they give people something to believe in and something to trust in, that won't give in and crumble as some things in our superficial world today. But then again, what if throughout the years, people slowly drift away from religion and it becomes extinct? It seems as though people these days are more independent and self-sufficient on themselves and technology and religion is taking a backseat to that. Maybe further on down the line, there will be no religion...Hmm, I'm leaning both ways on this. Some religions help keep people in line while others spawn wars because of differences...Ah, I'm torn...Too much thinking...I may be back.  |
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Date: 8/9/2004 3:56:00 PM
From Authorid: 7574
I think that the ideas behind religion are beneficial but as time goes on the evolution of religion is becoming more destructive. |
Date: 8/9/2004 5:59:00 PM
From Authorid: 15228
Like anything else, it depends on how it's used. Religion has the possibility of being twisted or being used for great good. While I suppose Communism looks very attractive on paper, (a workers paradise, everyone equal, makes the same amount of money, etc.,) it has never worked anywhere in the world without atrocities taking place..but socialism seems to be somewhat succesful in Europe, so there is always a danger in any system of beliefs going to the extreme.  |
Date: 8/9/2004 8:17:00 PM
From Authorid: 62728
Wow. Deep questions, but yes, any religious or political dogma can be used toward destructive ends whether it be widespread destruction or limited in its scope to those involved in its practice (like cults and the such). That's not to say that the the beliefs themselves are destructive by nature, but that man can and will find a way to bend beliefs to their own will and their own means by using them to subvert others if they can. -DeltaRebel  |
Date: 8/9/2004 10:52:00 PM
From Authorid: 16671
I think that anything can be destructive. It depends on the person/people and the agenda behind their beliefs, religion or political. God tells us to be wary of Wolf's in Sheep clothing, meaning that now all that profess to be religiouse or have a knowledge of God really believes it in their heart and walk in love but use that pretence to get a lot of people to follow them and get them stirred up because of some personal agenda. I think as long as people that have faith in God, believe in God, if they read his word, if they seek God in the Spirit and not try to use God as a means to a political end or to further some off base agenda, then religion as well a politics have their place in this world. Its only when those things are used as harm, when they use people, that the destructive things happen.  |
Date: 8/9/2004 11:02:00 PM
From Authorid: 12341
Religion and "church going" and faith are different for people. Some keep it close and persoanal and some don't. Some would like to pound their religion into others. It isn't that like that. Live a good life, and let others do the same.  |
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Date: 8/9/2004 11:09:00 PM
From Authorid: 12341
Believing is good, but is being good better that? Atrocities commmitted for the sake of or in the name of religion, are nothing I would ever want to be part of and so I will stand alone, hopefully that will be enough. If not, so be it, I would rather stand on MY own acts than on those of anyone else. |
Date: 8/10/2004 8:54:00 AM
From Authorid: 51173
Power is the corrupting influence, here, not religion. To use the Spanish Inquisition as the example, the notion the Inquisition was when the Church murdered millions of innocent people for the crime of not being Christian simply isn't true. The Inquisition was State law equivalent to current Saudi law that requires citizens in Saudi Arabia to be Muslim, and was far more civilized as it simply exiled those who refused to comply instead of beheading them. The Inquisition was caused by the fact that Spain was still in the process of expelling the Moorish invaders in completing La Reconquista - the Spanish Inquisition began in 1478 while the Ten Years War for the final piece of the Reconquest, Granada, did not even start until 1481 - and many Moors and Jews not loyal to the Spanish throne were making false conversions to the state religion rather than face expulsion. The Inquisition was a serious State matter of settling past scores and quelling internal insurrection. While other Inquisitions focused on heretics, the Spanish Inquisition was far more concerned with hunting down conversos. The uprisings of the Mudejares in 1500-1502 and the Moriscos in 1568-1571 indicates that these royal concerns were not unfounded. The fact that religion was involved was only on the perifories of the matter, while State power consolidation was what the Inquisition was truely about.
Jewish history is rather more sober on the entire subject than the later Protestant propaganda, as it tends to concentrate more on the expulsion of their people from Queen Isabella's Andalusia (1483) and the rest of Spain (1492), and admits that many of the Jews who remained did make false conversions.  |
Date: 8/10/2004 5:50:00 PM ( From Author )
From Authorid: 1225
So, what I gather from reading all the replies so far is that religion is beneficial per se, but when adopted as a wider dogma or made to be something other than the private beliefs of the individual it can be most destructive. I would say that my base point has been made: that organized religion is destructive, ultimately, to its own end. Take, for example, the Catholic church. Without a doubt one of the largest and most powerful churches there is. I think anyone would agree that any randomly selected Catholic person, in and of theirself, is a kind, gentle, and all-together nice person. Now take that nice person, and put them with a larger group of people like themself, say 20 people in all. Now we have a small church. Still reflective of the members: nice, caring, honest. Take that group and put it in among other similarly-sized groups of nice people, lets say 20 groups. Now we have 400 nice people, but the church is now somewhat formal; no one person really knows everybody. Now take that larger group of 400 and put it in with other groups like it, and still larger and larger groups. With each level of groups a degree of faith is last and is replaced by a corporate mentality. The Roman Catholic Church is a multi-billion dollar corporation. The Catholic family down the street is just the same as your family and the Jewish family next door, and the Muslim family a block over, and the Buddhist family accross town. All religions, when examined at the basic level, are essentially the same, it's the details that change.  |
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Date: 8/10/2004 6:07:00 PM
From Authorid: 62728
It's not religion (on a personal or world-wide level) that's the destructive force. It may be the catalyst in the examples you give, but the destructive force is the power wielded by the man leading the others to destrcutive actions. It's the individual who leads the others to do something in the name of religion, or naziism or facism or communism or democracy. Religion on a larger scale is a beautiful thing as well...to see so many people worshipping together and bonded by a faith in something greater than themselves is beautiful. At least that's my opinion. -DeltaRebel |
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Date: 8/11/2004 6:53:00 AM
From Authorid: 62843
almost anything can be used towards destructive ends. religion may find its way to the top of the list possibly because there is a God. i think people only use religion as an excuse for war, to better thier own demons,or whatever you want to call it. to hide the real truth. then again, what do i know.. |
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Date: 8/16/2004 5:05:00 PM ( From Author )
From Authorid: 1225
62728, would you, therefore, equate some Popes with Adolf Hitler? It's a historical fact that many ancient Popes weren't very Pope-like. Would you agree that the religion reflects the leader and that when a leader is evil, the religion may follow? |
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Date: 8/17/2004 11:59:00 AM
From Authorid: 62728
Well, I guess it depends on what actions you were talking about specifically. I don't know that I would say they were of the same cloth, but any similarity would be from the stance that they were a man in a position of power who led people to do something to achieve their goals. But I would not agree that religion reflects its leader if you mean that the religion is whatever the Pope dictates it to be. I think religion reflects what Christ and God said they want it to be. I think the true fabric of the religion lies in what it is outlined to be originally, but not necessarily what a human twists it to be to fit his own agenda. I'll try to clear that up for you if it doesn't make sense. -DeltaRebel |
