Is there such thing as a peaceful religion ?.

[psychoslice]

Is there really a religion of peace, like many religions that seem to be peaceful, are in their own churches telling people that they are the true religion, and that all else are wrong, and its their job to preach their beliefs so that others will be saved as they believe they will be saved. I personally see this as being violent towards others who don't follow their beliefs, yes its all sugarcoated and sound wonderful, but behind the words is nothing more than arrogance and violence.

The Muslim faith believe they are a religion of peace, but I personally have a hard time believing that, which many others do also, the same with the Judaism be;lief system, fighting continually over a piece of land.

I personally try to find the best in all religions, but I am having a hard time doing so, I personally like the Buddhist faith, but even that isn't really perfect, of course nothing is perfect, but will these religions ever admit that .

I myself can never really adhere to any belief systems no matter what, how can I when truth cannot be held in an organization of any kind, once you organize truth it dies, it becomes a mere concept, and this is where the whole thing starts, my concept is better than your's, my concept is from the real god, my concept will get me into heaven, your's will get you into hell.................

Yes, I believe we all need to find our own way, not parroting others beliefs, they are not your's and can never be, I have my own way, it may not be your way, so what. If Jesus is your way then keep that to yourself, and live that way, not shoving it into anyone else's face as so many do.

Yes religion is a personal thing, I just hope we can write our own scriptures within our own heart, wouldn't that be beautiful ?.

 

[SpiritQuest]

Union of opposites

Sayings of Jesus

Jesus said, "When the outer has become as the inner, and the lower as the upper, then will this world find peace."

 

[Dawnofhope]

The Baha'i Faith s a peaceful religion IMHO.

 

[psychoslice]

Union of opposites

Sayings of Jesus

Jesus said, "When the outer has become as the inner, and the lower as the upper, then will this world find peace."

Yes that is beautiful and I understand just what you are saying, I wish there was many more like you.

 

[psychoslice]

The Baha'i Faith s a peaceful religion IMHO.

Yes I have to agree it is, and thank you for reminding me.

 

[idav]

Yes religions like Buddhism and Hinduism tend to be peaceful and happen to have problems here and there through history with their Muslim neighbors.

That isn't to say Muslims are necessarily violent but they do have some extremists due to a wrathful type of deity that can be pulled from their texts. OP mentions Islam and Judaism and those religions including Christianity tend to get a lot of flack.

The scripts no doubt can have a sort of wrathful type of God where people can easily misconstrue it as a right to inflict violence. However the real truth is most people don't have the will power to adhere to the peacefulness and the non-sinfulness that those religions really advocate.

That being said, I feel that any texts that can be misconstrued to be violent may not be the best thing to teach kids. It's not like if I read "little engine that could" and my kid is going to misconstrue thinking little engine was advocating violence. One huge problem is that most people don't know their own religions and that's a fact, though Jews for some reason tend to be the most educated at least in what their own religion has to say.

I should also add that the state that their religious theocracies are are a very good sign also. Israel for some odd reason tends to be very secular so it isn't that theocracy is a problem. What is a problem in my view is ignorance, not only science but ignorance of their own religion which can be dangerous.

Those are a lot of the aspects I take into cosideration with claims like that of the OP.

 

[psychoslice]

Yes religions like Buddhism and Hinduism tend to be peaceful and happen to have problems here and there through history with their Muslim neighbors.

That isn't to say Muslims are necessarily violent but they do have some extremists due to a wrathful type of deity that can be pulled from their texts. OP mentions Islam and Judaism and those religions including Christianity tend to get a lot of flack.

The scripts no doubt can have a sort of wrathful type of God where people can easily misconstrue it as a right to inflict violence. However the real truth is most people don't have the will power to adhere to the peacefulness and the non-sinfulness that those religions really advocate.

That being said, I feel that any texts that can be misconstrued to be violent may not be the best thing to teach kids. It's not like if I read "little engine that could" and my kid is going to misconstrue thinking little engine was advocating violence. One huge problem is that most people don't know their own religions and that's a fact, though Jews for some reason tend to be the most educated at least in what their own religion has to say.

I should also add that the state that their religious theocracies are are a very good sign also. Israel for some odd reason tends to be very secular so it isn't that theocracy is a problem. What is a problem in my view is ignorance, not only science but ignorance of their own religion which can be dangerous.

Those are a lot of the aspects I take into cosideration with claims like that of the OP.

Yes its certainly ignorance that is the problem, but still the scriptures of many religions are evil, have you ever read the Koran, my god it is full of evil, and have you ever read the hadith, its worse, and these very people call themselves a religion of peace, its mind boggling.

 

[Kapalika]

I wonder what religions describe themselves as a language of violence.

I mean, if people tend to say one thing, then do another... maybe I should start saying that my religion is one of all the bad stuff to get it out of my system. It's been said that getting praised for simply saying or talking about something gives the brain a similar reward to really doing it, and so it doesn't feel motivated to actually do that thing.

Maybe all the preaching about peace and love wears out the brain's ability to actually go out and do it, and people should just shut the **** up and actually do something nice.

But you don't really need religion for that? Do you? Maybe people should stop using religion for a substitute for morality. If there is any eternal truth, it's transcendent of any singular interpretation although I would not go so far as to say that all interpretations are accurate or true, but rather that there is a sliding scale and certain beliefs will be closer than others. Either way you won't find morality in religion alone, since it's source is essentially our inherent nature as cooperative and empathic beings.

 

[psychoslice]

I was a Seventh day Adventist for many years, they were wonderful people, but at the same time they were arrogant just like many other religions, they taught about Jesus and all the rest that most Christians teach, but just like many other religions they taught that they were god's chosen, and that they had the truth to spread to the world, again just like many other religions. This arrogance of religious bull**** turns my guts, no matter what religion.

I personally see religion as a cancer on the face of the earth, we need to get rid of it and hopefully people will mature and grow up and start using their brains for once, harsh words yes, but you have to be harsh, we are dealing with our future here, its no game.

 

[idav]

Yes its certainly ignorance that is the problem, but still the scriptures of many religions are evil, have you ever read the Koran, my god it is full of evil, and have you ever read the hadith, its worse, and these very people call themselves a religion of peace, its mind boggling.

No I don't read the Quran. Do you? One of my main points being violent individuals aren't religious and don't know their own religion. Even Jews who tend to be more knowledgeable towards their own religion tend to take the texts not so literal and tend to be more secular.

 

[psychoslice]

No I don't read the Quran. Do you? One of my main points being violent individuals aren't religious and don't know their own religion. Even Jews who tend to be more knowledgeable towards their own religion tend to take the texts not so literal and tend to be more secular.

Yes i have read the Koran, not very nice at all, and I did read it with an open mind hoping to get something from it. But then even the so called bible is full of evil, this so called god of the old testament was one hell of a psychotic dude, just as Muhammad was, why the hell do we need this crap, are we really going off our heads, I believe we are, I don't know what is causing it but there is something making us all stupid, and it has been happening in the last 20 years or so.

 

[Estro Felino]

Peace is a relative concept, and each culture has a personal interpretation of it.
As for my personal vision of the word peace, there is not even one theistic religion on Earth which I can consider peaceful.
Peacefulness can be attained only by erasing the concept of deity, which is a very dangerous and wrong concept, because it creates illusions such as the concepts of superiority and inferiority.

I believe that man has always known that he is the real creator and divine being on this Earth, since ancient times. But the burden of this big responsibility has induced him to shift this task to invented concepts, deities indeed. That's how religions were created. And they have begun to destroy the real divinity of man, by making humans sinners, inferior to nonexistent gods, by belittling them. This process has always led to wars, divisions...etc..across centuries.

Religions are full of meaninglessness. They are full of elements that dissuade humans from understanding themselves and understanding each other. Religions despise simplicity and like meaninglessness, as the book of Qohelet says.
The growing number of atheists is the real proof that humans are more and more aware of all this, so it is something very positive.

The problem with the growing number of atheists is that they tend to become indifferent to religions. This allows extreme religions to take advantage of this apathy allowing them to grow and become more extreme and demanding.

I wouldn't call it apathy. I think that they are not indifferent to religions, but they are simply aware that the concept of religion has become something so anachronistic, old, meaningless. I think it's a concept that needs to evolve, but unfortunately, as you said some religions are becoming more and more radical, and it's not because of atheists' attitude.

 

[Shem Ben Noah]

Shamanistic faiths are pretty peaceful. But nature is anything but peaceful, so depends on your definition.

 

[psychoslice]

Peace is a relative concept, and each culture has a personal interpretation of it.
As for my personal vision of the word peace, there is not even one theistic religion on Earth which I can consider peaceful.
Peacefulness can be attained only by erasing the concept of deity, which is a very dangerous and wrong concept, because it creates illusions such as the concepts of superiority and inferiority.

I believe that man has always known that he is the real creator and divine being on this Earth, since ancient times. But the burden of this big responsibility has induced him to shift this task to invented concepts, deities indeed. That's how religions were created. And they have begun to destroy the real divinity of man, by making humans sinners, inferior to nonexistent gods, by belittling them. This process has always led to wars, divisions...etc..across centuries.

Religions are full of meaninglessness. They are full of elements that dissuade humans from understanding themselves and understanding each other. Religions despise simplicity and like meaninglessness, as the book of Qohelet says.
The growing number of atheists is the real proof that humans are more and more aware of all this, so it is something very positive.

I have never meet you, but I want to say that what you said is full of wisdom and I believe truth, you think as I do, and its great to meet another kindred.

 

[psychoslice]

Shamanistic faiths are pretty peaceful. But nature is anything but peaceful, so depends on your definition.

Thank you, I think your own words is significant enough, you said what you said well.

 

[idav]

Yes i have read the Koran, not very nice at all, and I did read it with an open mind hoping to get something from it. But then even the so called bible is full of evil, this so called god of the old testament was one hell of a psychotic dude, just as Muhammad was, why the hell do we need this crap, are we really going off our heads, I believe we are, I don't know what is causing it but there is something making us all stupid, and it has been happening in the last 20 years or so.

It's actually in the sixties that violent crime saw a spike to double what it used to be before(prior to 60s) but has been going way down since the 90's in the US. For the 20 years you claims it's been the opposite.
Violent U.S. crime drops again, reaches 1970s level: FBI

 

[Notanumber]

Peace is a relative concept, and each culture has a personal interpretation of it.
As for my personal vision of the word peace, there is not even one theistic religion on Earth which I can consider peaceful.
Peacefulness can be attained only by erasing the concept of deity, which is a very dangerous and wrong concept, because it creates illusions such as the concepts of superiority and inferiority.

I believe that man has always known that he is the real creator and divine being on this Earth, since ancient times. But the burden of this big responsibility has induced him to shift this task to invented concepts, deities indeed. That's how religions were created. And they have begun to destroy the real divinity of man, by making humans sinners, inferior to nonexistent gods, by belittling them. This process has always led to wars, divisions...etc..across centuries.

Religions are full of meaninglessness. They are full of elements that dissuade humans from understanding themselves and understanding each other. Religions despise simplicity and like meaninglessness, as the book of Qohelet says.
The growing number of atheists is the real proof that humans are more and more aware of all this, so it is something very positive.

The problem with the growing number of atheists is that they tend to become indifferent to religions. This allows extreme religions to take advantage of this apathy allowing them to grow and become more extreme and demanding.

 

[Stevicus]

The problem with the growing number of atheists is that they tend to become indifferent to religions. This allows extreme religions to take advantage of this apathy allowing them to grow and become more extreme and demanding.

Perhaps, although it may also be that religion itself has become indifferent, as well as intransigent. Most religions have proven themselves woefully incapable of honest reflection and internal reform, and this is what atheists have often called them out for. You'd think that once atheists became more noticeable on the scene, religions would have looked within themselves, determined what was wrong with their message, and cleaned up their act. Religion's own indifference to its own shortcomings is what the problem is.

It might be similar with those who turn to more extreme religions, since they don't get any sort of fulfillment from the "moderate" religions which might seem more indifferent and apathetic to the needs of the people. Maybe some people don't want a religion that's "peaceful" or one that encourages passivity and obedience to the state.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Every generation has to rediscover the importance of peace; but lasting peace is a long term goal. We just haven't found out exactly how to ensure it yet. Sometimes wars come, and then its hard to forgive. Its hard to decide to calm down and turn the swords into farm tools, because you start to think you're going to need them.

 

[Notanumber]

The unpalatable truth is that extreme Muslims and moderate Muslims both follow the same Islamic texts.