The world is full of terrible performances of violence and people in today’s society can’t escape. Everything broadcast on the news is, either a religious group burning down churches or claiming the most recent suicide bombing. One case of religious violence that will never be forgotten, are the attacks on the Pentagon and Twin Towers. The United Sates has been at war for over a decade because of these religious attacks. The government doesn’t seem to comprehend religious violence and religious groups don’t appreciate government. Humanity has lost the capability to relate to one another. Individuals are too focused on themselves and converting everyone to the way they believe. People all around the world are struggling for their religious beliefs. The news doesn’t have to be filled with terror campaigns and violence but with Tolerance. Tolerance could cure religious violence.
The only way to stop the killing of innocent life in the name of God is to learn tolerance. The first thing that needs to be learned is tolerance for one another. Every religious group has different beliefs and society needs to accept their different views on God(s) even if they don’t agree. Society needs to acknowledge and support that individuals have the right and freedom to their own beliefs and practices without oppression or discrimination. Second humanity needs to learn to understand. You must truly comprehend the culture and religious meaning behind the violence before peace can be reached. The solution may never be found until we learn more about the groups who commit these acts of terrorism.
In Juergensmyer’s book Terror in the Mind of God he approaches the question of solving religious violence in a slightly different way. In the book Juer...
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... just simple state it and move on to his conclusion. Learning more about how important soccer is in the Middle East could have made it easier to understand why he put that in the book. His five different solutions showed what has been done in the pass and how ineffective the solutions have been. His fifth solution seems to be the most promising but will it ever work. Will the problem be fixed with just the solution Juergensmeyer puts forth of understanding? That once people understand and begin to appreciate religion and policies peace will come. We shared a very similar view on the solution to religious violence, but maybe a combination of understanding and tolerance would be more affective in solving the problem.
Work Cited
Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California, 2000. Print.
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
Kreeft, Peter. (1988).“The Problem of Evil.” Chapter 7 in Fundamentals of the Faith. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Believers of the Old and New Testaments claim that violence is a sin and can only lead to more brutality and death; poet Tony Barnstone firmly agrees. In his poem “Parable in Praise of Violence” Barnstone lambastes the American obsession with violence-- that it is often triggered by inevitable events which could be handled in different manners. The speaker in “Parable in Praise of Violence” reflects on all parts of his “sinful” culture and comes to the realization that people often use violence as a way to deal with emotions of grief and anger caused by events and concepts they cannot explain.
Hanser, Matthew. “Killing,Letting Die And Preventing People From Being Saved.” Utilitas 11.3 (1999): 277. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 April 2014
In his essay, Rodriguez believes that the diplomatic affairs we see on the evening news are merely being disguised as a religious war. The fight over oil or land when in reality it is the fight between whose side God is on, the attacks under the control of Al Qaeda when perhaps it’s the greed for power or world domination. According to Richard, these religious wars are allowing terrorism to become prevalent; often times within the same culture (147).
Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World's Religions. 5th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 320-322. Print.
In our current society, we witness series of immorality practiced by adherents of religious virtues. Religious crisis, stealing and several other vices are perpetrated by religious adherents. We currently witness religious crisis by several religious sects like Islam and Christians. The current terrorist acts perpetrated by sects like Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and several other terrorist sects all proclaim religion as their foundation. These are extreme levels of immorality conducted by religious sects and do not go down well with the dictates of religious teachings (Anderson,
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Oxtopy, W., & Segal, A. (2007). A concise introduction to world religions. (1st ed., p. 258). New York: Oxford University press.
Most religions specify that violence is not allowed and yet extremists will cause major destruction in the name of their God. However, some people are too quick to blame religion on terrorism (Winchester, 2). In actuality, it is the nature of human beings to prove that their way is right, there way of doing that is using fear and destruction (Winchester, 3). It is not religion that causes the terr...
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
Religion can be viewed from many different perspectives. People throughout the world hold different religious values. One person’s religious value will not match the religious values of another person. Globalization as a whole has affected the way we view the different religions and our feelings towards them; it has moved towards a more symbolic representation of ideologies. Many have come to believe that the west is more superior to others. Martha Crenshaw argues that globalization is a key driver of terrorism because there is a comparison between countries having less access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Religious Fundamentalism is not a modern phenomenon, although, it has received a rise in the late twentieth century. It occurs differently in different parts of the world but arises in societies that are deeply troubled or going through a crisis (Heywood, 2012, p. 282). The rise in Religious Fundamentalism can be linked to the secularization thesis, which implies that victory of reason over religion follows modernization. Also, the moral protest of faiths such as Islam and Christianity can be linked to the rise of Religious Fundamentalism, as they protest the influence of corruption and pretence that infiltrate their beliefs from the spread of secularization (Heywood, 2012, p. 283). Religious Fundamentalists have followed a traditional political thought process, yet, have embraced a militant style of activity which often can turn violent (Heywood, 2012, p. 291).
Nelson, Jack. Is religion killing us?violence in the Bible and the Quran / Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.. 2003 Print.