person’s heritage,ethnicity, and cultural characteristics all stem from religion. These characteristics can connect millions— or even billions of people together. Likewise, it can create deep divisions between people of different religions sharing the same land. Major religions living alongside one another can cause horrible events such as wars, crusades, and conquests.
Although religion is generally viewed as a peaceful characteristic of any society, religion does have an active role in wars. Religion exists all over the world and religion represents the ideologies of a society. Different ideologies create strained relations, which can surely create a war within a country. In France, for example, there were a series of multiple wars …show more content…
The Bahai practitioners were persecuted by the Muslim hierarchy because the Bahai believed Muhammad was not the last prophet. Although their religion has expanded, they have been particularly persecuted in Iran. Although the Bahai faith was essentially the same as the Muslim faith, their contradicting beliefs is Muhammed led to their persecution. A country with a strong belief in Islam could not accept a differing ideology. Passionate religious practitioners have commonly believed that it is the will of “God” to wage war in order to spread their religion. Religious leaders have led wars ad have promised spiritual rewards for partakers. There are several instances in the Bible where God instructed his people to go to war. The first holy war occurred when Roman emperor Constantine saw a vision in the sky that signified he would win his war against the pagans. To continue, The Crusades occurred in order to regain sacred land from the Muslims and to avenge poor treatment of Christians. Pope Urban II led these Crusades and claimed “God” would support his people and absolve their sins. Christianity and Islam are major world religions, and because they share historical land, they have not been able to live peacefully alongside the other. Their history is brimming with wars and other violent …show more content…
There have even been Social Gospel movements and Progressive Movements that advocate eliminating social evils based on biblical principles. These groups are idealistic and utopian and have an unrealistic goal. Although religion advocates peaceful ideals, the presence of different ideals nearly always causes tension. It is, sadly, unavoidable. There will always be radicals in any religion that will zealously advocate for their beliefs and blindly cause violence— violence that contradicts their sole belief in peace. The role religion has in causing a war cannot be ignored. Globalization has actually increased tensions, since lands that have strictly believed in one religion are now being introduced to several other major religions. Although it appears medieval to cause violence based on differing religion, religion and ideology are so similar that they strongly influence the other. Many that find it difficult to believe that something as pure as religion could cause war, will easily believe that differing ideologies cause war. Ideology and religion are so strongly associated with the other, that any war caused by an “ideology” is arguably caused by religion. There have been justified wars and sanctified warfare throughout time, both based on the belief that advocating their beliefs is morally correct, even if it requires violence. Further, religious violence did not only occur in our
Although religion is generally viewed as a peaceful characteristic of any society, religion does have an active role in wars. Religion exists all over the world and religion represents the ideologies of a society. Different ideologies create strained relations, which can surely create a war within a country. In France, for example, there were a series of multiple wars …show more content…
The Bahai practitioners were persecuted by the Muslim hierarchy because the Bahai believed Muhammad was not the last prophet. Although their religion has expanded, they have been particularly persecuted in Iran. Although the Bahai faith was essentially the same as the Muslim faith, their contradicting beliefs is Muhammed led to their persecution. A country with a strong belief in Islam could not accept a differing ideology. Passionate religious practitioners have commonly believed that it is the will of “God” to wage war in order to spread their religion. Religious leaders have led wars ad have promised spiritual rewards for partakers. There are several instances in the Bible where God instructed his people to go to war. The first holy war occurred when Roman emperor Constantine saw a vision in the sky that signified he would win his war against the pagans. To continue, The Crusades occurred in order to regain sacred land from the Muslims and to avenge poor treatment of Christians. Pope Urban II led these Crusades and claimed “God” would support his people and absolve their sins. Christianity and Islam are major world religions, and because they share historical land, they have not been able to live peacefully alongside the other. Their history is brimming with wars and other violent …show more content…
There have even been Social Gospel movements and Progressive Movements that advocate eliminating social evils based on biblical principles. These groups are idealistic and utopian and have an unrealistic goal. Although religion advocates peaceful ideals, the presence of different ideals nearly always causes tension. It is, sadly, unavoidable. There will always be radicals in any religion that will zealously advocate for their beliefs and blindly cause violence— violence that contradicts their sole belief in peace. The role religion has in causing a war cannot be ignored. Globalization has actually increased tensions, since lands that have strictly believed in one religion are now being introduced to several other major religions. Although it appears medieval to cause violence based on differing religion, religion and ideology are so similar that they strongly influence the other. Many that find it difficult to believe that something as pure as religion could cause war, will easily believe that differing ideologies cause war. Ideology and religion are so strongly associated with the other, that any war caused by an “ideology” is arguably caused by religion. There have been justified wars and sanctified warfare throughout time, both based on the belief that advocating their beliefs is morally correct, even if it requires violence. Further, religious violence did not only occur in our