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Can someone answer this?

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
People have imaginations, and are capable of deduction. If I know that some person's ideologies and ways of life conflict so badly with my own that if we were to live in the same place there would be some significant problems, I have every reason to be leery of such people regardless of whether or not they actually live in my area at the present time. That's just basic survival instinct. Am I going to concern myself overmuch with it? No. That's also just basic survival instinct - humans respond poorly to threats that are not immediate. That does not mean they are not still a threat would there to be a geographical overlap with mutually opposed ways of life.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
I think a lot of it is lack of education of these other religions. All they see is what has been presented to them on the news or by word of mouth. If you hear that a Muslim group was responsible for a bombing then that means all Muslims are the same as those doing the bombing. A picture is painted for us about these groups/religions and that's what we choose to go by instead of doing the research and educating ourselves about them. I was raised as a Christian and was blind towards other religions and I was very judgmental towards towards them until I did some research on my own. Never in a million years would I have thought that Hinduism would be a religion that would fit me like it does until I found out more about it. Just last night I was talking to my sister about my choice to pursue Hinduism and just seeing how she reacted to the news was astounding. She acted as if I was making the biggest mistake of my life because, you know, Hinduism is not Christianity. I asked what she knew about the religion and she said she really didn't know much at all. So her action of being completely against Hinduism was because of her lack of knowledge. That's what creates hatred and prejudices against people of other religions/groups.

I 'converted' about 45 years ago. It's really amazing how little people know about Hinduism. My neighbour, who is a nice guy, great neighbour, just the other day said something about Allah in relation to my very Hindu tenant. It's fairly typical. The dual thinkers only have two world views: mine, and 'not mine'. Here, in my multi-ethnic city, about 50 fairly distinct groups get labelled as ______ s. (a racial slur) With luck, your sister will sit down, and ask you some real questions. My brothers and sisters have never done that, though, in 45 years. I'm not insulted, it's just not relevant to their lives.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
More then once i have experienced that people express fear or hate toward someone or groups they have not met or experienced them self in life. How can it be that a person show so much hate toward someone who has not harmed this person who show hate?

And some people show hate toward religious groups they have not been harmed by them self?

Its usually indoctrination and peer pressure, while growing up a child will absorb the mores of its parents and friends.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Thank you for your good answer :)
Thank you for going through the trouble of listening to it!

I do not say all muslims are good or that they do not do wrong.

Clearly, a very high percentage of Muslims are good people, and most are in fact remarkable for their sincere and deep efort at being good people.

And of course it is ok to make critique of those who do wrong. But what i do not agree in is that we can take every muslim under same umbrella and say everyone is bad. Because that is not a right view.

Very much not a right view. Not even arguably right.


Personally i do not fear any muslim or any other religious individ or religion. Ofcourse we should not go around killing those who are not agree with our own views.

So true. Unfortunately, it is just as true that historically we have, far too often.

IMO it is also true that very often we simply have not learned better ways of dealing with differences in culture, belief, and political opinion. If I read today's political trends even roughly accurately, there is a very frequent and strong undercurrent of expectation that attaining political power "should" be a license for refusing attention and even basic respect for others.

Clearly enough, such a mindset is a sure-fire recipe for ever growing waves of resentment, authoritarianism and insecurity, as there is not even the willingness to allow other people to attain one's respect and good will.

Worse still, being consistently treated as unworthy and untrustworthy encourages people to play the part and perhaps to enjoy it even.

A lot of cultural issues has been mixed in to many religions and maybe this is where things go wrong? I do not know.

I don't think that religion and culture can or should be separated. But I do think that there is a lot of internal challenge and self-imposed hardship in certain beliefs, including what I can only describe as arrogance and victimization.

Very often people expect to be spared from facing difficult truths and from the need to achieve personal growth due to their beliefs. I do not find that a reasonable expectation.

But it is the constant negative view of islam that i wish we can end. Personally i have both met and been friends with many muslims both in Norway, but also in other parts of the world.

I am sure that you have, as have many, many other people.

Alas, I am considerably less certain that Islaam as a whole can be dealt with constructively without a considerable element of confrontation and direct challenge. At its root it has certain political and dogmatical traits that can not really be appeased in a constructive way.

Of course, the random Muslim will not necessarily be even aware of those, although I for one wish they were and had functional awareness of the implications.

I do not have all the answers to what we can do. But maybe we can start with seeing each others as human beings and not Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist?

That is certainly a good step. And one that may easily itself turn out to be a challenge to Islaam.
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
More then once i have experienced that people express fear or hate toward someone or groups they have not met or experienced them self in life. How can it be that a person show so much hate toward someone who has not harmed this person who show hate?

And some people show hate toward religious groups they have not been harmed by them self?

All you need to do is have a differing opinion of some people and they Hate you. If you belong to a group that has a differing opinion they'll hate you as well if you identify as such. The group or you don't even need to have a differing opinion they just need to believe you do and they will hate you. People are strange.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
All you need to do is have a differing opinion of some people and they Hate you. If you belong to a group that has a differing opinion they'll hate you as well if you identify as such. The group or you don't even need to have a differing opinion they just need to believe you do and they will hate you. People are strange.
But then a question arises. If someone hate us, or say bad about us or have different opinion then we have, should be take it personal? I would say no we should not take it personal because it is the person who say it toward us that is say they hate us. So its kind of them who has the problem, is it not?
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
More then once i have experienced that people express fear or hate toward someone or groups they have not met or experienced them self in life. How can it be that a person show so much hate toward someone who has not harmed this person who show hate? And some people show hate toward religious groups they have not been harmed by them self?
We have a saying in Hinduism that there are three types of learners. 1. Who learn by the experience of others, 2. Who learn when they encounter a situation, and 3. Who do not learn even after encountering the situation; and type 1. learner is the best.

So, if a group has a history of harming others, one should be cautious even if the person has not yet encountered them. Like a hyena in jungle. I have seen hyenas only at National Geographic, but I fear them without ever having encountered them.
 

RESOLUTION

Active Member
More then once i have experienced that people express fear or hate toward someone or groups they have not met or experienced them self in life. How can it be that a person show so much hate toward someone who has not harmed this person who show hate?

And some people show hate toward religious groups they have not been harmed by them self?
Do you believe the incident of 9/11 and other actions of terrorist groups aimed at the innocent does not incite fear of what men are capable of doing?
All people are harmed by such acts because it shows those groups you defend don't care about right and wrong.
They have no guilt of the innocent victims who die. The very acts explain people hate or express fear of such groups.
When you attack an innocent world and innocent people you harm those innocent people who have to live with the knowledge such people do not care who gets hurt.

Maybe you should look at it through the eyes which understand hatred and murder of the innocent breeds fear and wanting to protect themselves and others./
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
We have a saying in Hinduism that there are three types of learners. 1. Who learn by the experience of others, 2. Who learn when they encounter a situation, and 3. who do not learn even after encountering the situation; and type 1. learner is the best.

So, if a group has a history of harming others, one should be cautious even if the person has not yet encountered them. Like a hyena in jungle. I have seen hyenas only at National Geographic, but I fear them without ever having encountered them.
We do not have hyenas in Norway :) But we do have wolf, So many are afriad of the wolf here, Personally i have encounted wolf 3-4 times, and honestly even when it was a small group of wolfs, they are more afraid of me then i was of them. But ofcourse if i had shown aggressivness toward them they would be really dangeroues to me. So i think it has a lot to do with how we react to each situation that occure, But yes i do understand your viewpoint too :)
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
Do you believe the incident of 9/11 and other actions of terrorist groups aimed at the innocent does not incite fear of what men are capable of doing?
All people are harmed by such acts because it shows those groups you defend don't care about right and wrong.
They have no guilt of the innocent victims who die. The very acts explain people hate or express fear of such groups.
When you attack an innocent world and innocent people you harm those innocent people who have to live with the knowledge such people do not care who gets hurt.

Maybe you should look at it through the eyes which understand hatred and murder of the innocent breeds fear and wanting to protect themselves and others./
9/11 was one of the worsed terror acts that has happend since second world war, and yes ofcourse an act like that will make people fear terrorists. But if i remember correctly less then an hour after the crash, they was sure it was Bin laden??? How is that even possible? in other cases it takes long time to deside who was behind.

I do not know who was guilty of acting out that act. So i have no need to put a blame on anyone, that is not up to me to deside.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
@LuisDantas I modified your post to reflect something I see as more accurate: [Political] groups, however, are often very motivated and not always in a respectable way. It does not make sense to wait until one has become a direct victim of any misguidances that they may present before forming an opinion and perhaps acting on it.

So anyone can pretty much interpret the scriptures as they want, at least that is how I understood the overall issue with Islam vs Christianity. Also why every muslim, can call another muslim a non muslim, if they don't follow the scriptures as they think they should. It obviously also allow for all the nut cases who uses the scriptures to cause harm to others.

But the same thing could be said about the bible, if people really wanted, they could use it to preach hate as well, there are countless of examples of that, but it rarely gets passed cult status.

We saw that in the US Civil War, Protestant vs Catholic violence and so forth. And we see it in Christianity today with one group calling another group non-Christian for this and that theological reason.

The dual thinkers only have two world views: mine, and 'not mine'.

I see it that way as well.
 

The Reverend Bob

Fart Machine and Beastmaster
Let us say you are out in the African savannah and a lion tries to eat you, it is a terrible and bad experience and in the end because of it you are not going to think that lions are friendly and you are going to try to avoid them and probably dislike lions because of the trauma one caused you. We are wired this way.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
9/11 was one of the worsed terror acts that has happend since second world war, and yes ofcourse an act like that will make people fear terrorists. But if i remember correctly less then an hour after the crash, they was sure it was Bin laden??? How is that even possible? in other cases it takes long time to deside who was behind.

I do not know who was guilty of acting out that act. So i have no need to put a blame on anyone, that is not up to me to deside.
In this case the guilty people bragged about it so that closes the case.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
Let us say you are out in the African savannah and a lion tries to eat you, it is a terrible and bad experience and in the end because of it you are not going to think that lions are friendly and you are going to try to avoid them and probably dislike lions because of the trauma one caused you. We are wired this way.
If that was the case, it would be my self to blame for getting in the path of the lion. A lion only act out of search for food, or if it feels treated. but also out of teritorial view
 

The Reverend Bob

Fart Machine and Beastmaster
If that was the case, it would be my self to blame for getting in the path of the lion. A lion only act out of search for food, or if it feels treated. but also out of teritorial view
So now a person can't walk peacefully in the savannah because some lions have mark it out as their gang-terrority like a bunch of thuggish brutes?! I hate lions even more now! I dare they restrict my freedom when all I want to be is left alone and peacefully go on my way.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
So now a person can't walk peacefully in the savannah because some lions have mark it out as their gang-terrority like a bunch of thuggish brutes?! I hate lions even more now! I dare they restrict my freedom when all I want to be is left alone and peacefully go on my way.
Both humans and animals live on this planet together. so why get angry because a lion walk side by side?
If you wish to be left alone, is it wise to walk where others may be?
 

The Reverend Bob

Fart Machine and Beastmaster
Both humans and animals live on this planet together. so why get angry because a lion walk side by side?
If you wish to be left alone, is it wise to walk where others may be?
So now you are blaming the victim? Doesn't a person have a right to walk freely and not be subject to thuggish brutality? And it said person is victimized by these doesn't he have the right to feel violated and traumatized? And given that he was made subject to such brutality and therefore traumatized isn't it understandable that he might come to dislike the group that victimized him? You only made me hate the lions even more; when will their selfish brutality end so I can walk freely in the savannah?
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
More then once i have experienced that people express fear or hate toward someone or groups they have not met or experienced them self in life. How can it be that a person show so much hate toward someone who has not harmed this person who show hate?

And some people show hate toward religious groups they have not been harmed by them self?

I'd suspect different moral values or at least a perceived threat to moral values held by the individual/group.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
Ancient world views like Judaism, Christianity and Islam are grounded in the tribalism of the cultural designation of there founding scripture, as well as the necessary specific cultural interpretation of their language. This creates an us versus them, and everyone else that does not believes as they do are the enemy and often described as evil. In Christianity the Book of Revelation is a classic example of an us versus them, and a black and white good versus evil
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
So now you are blaming the victim? Doesn't a person have a right to walk freely and not be subject to thuggish brutality? And it said person is victimized by these doesn't he have the right to feel violated and traumatized? And given that he was made subject to such brutality and therefore traumatized isn't it understandable that he might come to dislike the group that victimized him? You only made me hate the lions even more; when will their selfish brutality end so I can walk freely in the savannah?
So you say animals who live in the savannah must get away because you want the place for you self?
Why can you not live in harmony with the species that live on earth?
When you choose to walk in an area with wild animals there are times we as human beings must be aware of where we are and respect the species that live there.
When you asked about the lion i understood it as a question toward how I would react. And i answer to your question.
 
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