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atrocities, End of Faith, human-rights, islam, jihad, killing, Libya, politics, prophet mohammed, Prophet Mohhamed, religion, science
In the book “End of Faith” author Sam Harris puts religion as, “the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.” Sadly, this has to be accepted. To the human clan, which always had been fighting from its existence for one or other reason, religion has been a fuel.
Religion was originally created to provide social coherence, with people sharing common aims, values, and moral systems. It can bring a sense of hope and inspiration to people, who otherwise might feel despondent, or desperate. Scientifically, it distinguished us from our closest living relatives Chimpanzees and bonobos with an increased brain size in the noecortex region, the part of the brain which is involved in processing higher order cognitive functions that are connected with human religiosity.
But we have been clearly misusing the right tool for a wrong purpose. The tool created for bringing in harmony and peace is being used totally used against the purpose. When we voice against the development of threatening weapons in the fear that might be used against us instead of saving us, why don’t we, for a moment think we are doing the same with religion. Neither religion nor God ever teaches extremism or fanaticism.
There needs be an understanding that may be the divine Prophet Mohammed or the Allah himself, will never apologize the recent killing of the US Envoy to Libya along with 3 other Americans and the on going Jihad. No God ever demands a life. Killings in the name of sacrifices are never going to please any God if it is true it is Him who created what you killed.
Religion is just a tool. It depends on the person who uses it, if to be used to kill or create.
To know about the various atrocities in the name of religion, see these links:
http://listverse.com/2008/04/02/8-atrocities-committed-in-the-name-of-religion/
http://markhumphrys.com/islam.killings.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism
This was a nice read. But, I highly disagree with the part where you say “The divine Prophet Mohammed or the Allah himself, will never apologize the recent killing”. Reason : http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm
When it is present in their holy texts, they do it to please their ‘GOD’. They ultimately obey them to book a seat in ‘Heaven’.
The “killing” mentioned in the book is a spiritual meaning. It does not have any “physical” meaning like many people take it, this includes the majority!
Mr. Prabha, if you really wanted to understand the book, you wouldn’t “Google” any of the verses. Real understanding of the book means one’s own verification; one’s own research about it. The meaning in the website is out of context.
Did you even read Al Qur’an once?
And by the way, violence has been mentioned in a very direct, straight-forward manner in the Mahabharth, the Bible, The entire Mahabharath is about killing.
Its very easy to copy and paste the links from the internet.
Self research is a work of one who wishes to gain real “knowledge”
And let me tell you one thing, I worship HIM not for “booking any seat in the Heaven” for myself. But because He deserves all the praise, He is the Creator!
PERIOD
Hi Kisi. Thanks for giving my blog a read bud. Even I am against what Prabha said. That is the whole point of this post. So please calm down and do avoid mentioning of other religious books just because of the fact someone said about yours. This might spark off a fight here and the whole idea of trying to bring peace is destroyed. I am pretty sure there is no violence mentioned either in Quran, Mahabharata or the Bible. All the religions were created with the sole purpose of bringing in peace and harmony. But its the people who misunderstands it. Not muslims, but almost every religion people has done that either now or in the past. If you give the links in the post a read, you will know. I believe, I have not written a blog that is biased or blaming any particular religion. But just in case, if had I hurt your religious sentiments, I apologize.
Prabha, thanks for your review. But I’m sure that site you have mentioned is “bull-shit”. It should be from either someone who wants to tarnish the image of Islam or some maniac Islamic fanatic. I still strongly believe, no religion teaches violence and it is people who misquotes the religion and uses it for killing. these people who preys on their fellow beings just to please God will surely be punished. “yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham” I guess you know what it means.
This is indeed the work of the “ignorant”, who also make up the majority!
I never spoke for any religion. Be it Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Judaism or even Mitraism. No religion is innocent when it comes to being violent. I highly disagree with what you have said that what has been mentioned in the book is not of ‘physical’ meaning, but ‘spiritual’. Nowhere in the book it states so. I have never interfered in others beliefs. But, only when your belief affects others. One cannot pick and choose verses from their religious books and claim others to be out of context. You cannot deny the fact that these verses are present in the book, and cannot provide evidence for those being ‘out of context’ or mean only ‘spiritually’ and not ‘physically’.
And if they only mean ‘spiritualy’ why do most of them resort to ‘physical’ violence? I am not blaming only Islam. I can talk about the black side of Christianity and Hinduism too. But, since this article is about the recent events, I have quoted the Quran.
Peace.
Dude, I like to rephrase your second line. Its not every “religion” that is violent, but its the “people of every religion” that is violent. But even atheists are not spared in this. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html give this link a read. I do accept that religion is becoming a cause for violence these days. But again the blame has to be upon ourselves to have used religion as a cause to fight.
Man created religion. A man is not born a Hindu or Muslim or Christian. He is brought up into one. One cannot be born a ‘Hindu’ to a Muslim or Christian parents and vice- versa. A man’s religion depends on his geographic location. As you have said, there are already plenty of reasons men are fighting over. Religion is not being a helping hand in the cause. It is just adding fuel to the fire. You cannot kill people over fighting on whose religion is the most peaceful. The very fact of the existence of religion brings forth separation among us. When people claim ‘emmadhamum sammdham’, some do not accept other gods, but only the other religions for the sake of mutual co-existence. He will definitely believe inside, that his god is the true one and live with it. This is just a dormant volcano, which can erupt at any disturbance to their religion. This completely eradicates humanity, even if he doesn’t act on it physically.
Eg: Recent killing of Muslims in Burma by Buddhists. How many news agencies reported this incident? Why? Because the people who were getting killed were Muslims, and the world hates Muslims. They did not see them as human beings. They saw them as Muslims. It was done by the priests of the world’s most peaceful of all religions. This is what religion does to a human being.
And regarding my quote, they are provided with the verse numbers. Anyone can check it up. I can produce quotes from Christianity and Hinduism too. I strongly stand by the fact that all religions produce and cultivate hate.
Human beings don’t need a religion to tell them what is right and what is wrong. They just need common sense and humanity. And when their religion contradicts with values of modern society, they must be willing to change them. Dalai Llama recently said, “If science proves any one aspect of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism must accept it and change accordingly”.
Religion makes a man to ‘hope’ and ‘pray’ for something, rather than ‘doing’ something. Religion is just like a candle. It was acceptable to use one centuries ago, before the invention of electricity, to help us in the path. But, it is not sensible to neglect electricity and still stick to candles in the modern era. It only depicts the immaturity and unwillingness to accept change.
‘God’ is grown-up’s Santa Claus. Some get over it. Some don’t. End of discussion.
Peace.
indeed a good explanation for what is religion about from your view point. great. ya, end of discussion. one last thing, regarding the verses, you must take a look at this, http://islam.about.com/od/terrorism/f/terrorism.htm