List of worst religions in the world

[squall321]

behead those who say islam is violent

 

[FX Bandit]

behead those who say islam is violent

LMAO

 

[dick_dastardly]

Tis the season to blow up passenger airliners
Tra la la la lar la la la lar...... arty:


dd

 

[FX Bandit]

Regardless, they are responsible for approx 800m deaths in the last 2000 years.

I think one needs to qualify this oft-cited claim.

Many wars have been fought in the name of religion, but that does not mean that they are religious wars, nor does it mean that the religions concerned would condone them.

And by the same token, how many millions have been killed by wars and other events started by those who are expressly anti-religious in just the last 100 years, never mind 2000?

Those killed in both World Wars for example, or the numberless victims of communism?

 

[robster970]

Take a look at the link in the original post dude. About 200m for Stalin and about 70m for ww2.

 

[FX Bandit]

Take a look at the link in the original post dude. About 200m for Stalin and about 70m for ww2.

That's not bad though in just a century is it? Plus that doesn't cover a great many other victims. The wars of, for example, Genghis Khan, Caesar and Alexander were not religious. Many wars are simply tribal, or wars of naked conquest, and many of these are given spurious religious justification by their originators.

How many have been killed by the anti-Christian practice of abortion? How many have needlessly died from malaria due to the flawed scientific conviction that DDT should be banned? On and on.

Man kills, not religion.

 

[FX Bandit]

Take a look at the link in the original post dude. About 200m for Stalin and about 70m for ww2.

This is an interesting and I feel pertinent comment from the link you provide:

Hang on! You are comparing two completely separate values there. The 800,000,000 figure quoted is the religeous total throughout history. Surely the only sensible comparative figure would be the number of religeous deaths that occurred during the same time frame as communism and Hitler. Alternatively, compare the total number of religeous war deaths throughout history to the total number of non-religeous war deaths throughout history. If ou do that, according to the Google Answers reference you cite, there are MUCH FEWER religeous war deaths than non-religeous war deaths.

 

[arabianights]

You can make a good case that both communism and naziism are just like religion in a certain way that explains lulzy violence... they value ideology over objecative reality...

This has much in common with many other situations where man seems to have chose suffering over compromise... almost all that come off the top of my head, in fact.

 

[FX Bandit]

You can make a good case that both communism and naziism are just like religion in a certain way...

Indeed they are, and that is one of the reasons that they are so hostile to existing religions - they cannot tolerate an alternative focus of loyalty and source of morality and authority.

However, they are expressly anti-theist, and so are different to religions in the most fundamental sense.

I think one should also distinguish between different religions - he moral equivalence demonstrated in this (as in so much in the modern world) is beyond absurd.

 

[robster970]

Death for an ideology. Religion and politics are interchangeable in my opinion. The difference between the two for me is that politics acknowledges its roots in a human originated ideal whereas a religious one purports to be from a higher authority. Which do you think is crazier? Embracing an attempt to self organise even though this is often flawed or blindly following a faith?

 

[FX Bandit]

Death for an ideology. Religion and politics are interchangeable in my opinion. The difference between the two for me is that politics acknowledges its roots in a human originated ideal whereas a religious one purports to be from a higher authority. Which do you think is crazier? Embracing an attempt to self organise even though this is often flawed or blindly following a faith?

Well, I can see a great number of differences. Christian doctrine seems to me to be very different - in practice it is about self-sacrifice and doing good for others amongst other things. I am not sure that politics is very frequently the same.

Which religion has death as an ideology? Are you referring to Islam? Whilst this is so for some adherents, many other Moslems would not accept this.

 

[Dommo]

The only reason* I'm a deist rather than an atheist is what is known as the hard problem of consciousness. Even then you could argue I'm an atheist, depending upon ones precise definition of the term... although I call myself a deist.

Anyone wanna have a go at solving that problem? The literature around the subject is fascinating btw. Indeed some don't believe taht there even is such a problem.

(*Actualy, tbh, creation is a bit of a bitch too... but as others have said inviting any kind of "god" for it is in no way a solution, for who creates god? kinda what a god means... it's fascinating really and again it all ultimately boils down to "don't have a ****ing clue"... nontheless, any known religions are obvious bull****!)

Have you read Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design, or, better, John Gribbin's In Search of the Multiverse (as a survey of current cosmological theory, Hawking's book is like a lite version of Gribbin)?

 

[robster970]

I was referring to people fighting and dying because of an ideology, political or religious. As you correctly assert, no ideology promotes murder itself.

I am tapping these replies on a phone. Will pick up tomorrow when near a real keyboard.

 

[FX Bandit]

I was referring to people fighting and dying because of an ideology, political or religious. As you correctly assert, no ideology promotes murder itself.

I am tapping these replies on a phone. Will pick up tomorrow when near a real keyboard.

Replying to T2W on a phone? Sounds like you're in the grip of some kind of religious mania .

I hope to be able to carry on, but I'll be back on the booze and smack tomorrow.

 

[rathcoole_exile]

It's much worse than this.

I do ****loads of charitiable work.

me too, I always seems to contributing towards Thailand's single moms :whistling

 

[arabianights]

Have you read Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design, or, better, John Gribbin's In Search of the Multiverse (as a survey of current cosmological theory, Hawking's book is like a lite version of Gribbin)?

Sorry, I can't read...

 

[Pat494]

We can see valuable lessons from the past imho. Everyone understands the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc.that have been commited. Can read about the thousands slaughtered here and there in religious wars etc.

The problems of the past have been and gone. They have left a nasty smell but it is todays and future problems that should excercise the mind and be roundly condemned before they engulf the world in yet another bloody World War.

 

[Dommo]

Sorry, I can't read...

No probs - the DVD comes out in 2011

 

[Pat494]

Don Quixote had his windmills to fight and we also must be fearless warriors in our battles too :-
to condemn corruption
to pacify the violent
to rectify incompetence
to defeat injustice
etc.

( phew rant over ) :innocent:

 

[robster970]

Replying to T2W on a phone? Sounds like you're in the grip of some kind of religious mania .

I hope to be able to carry on, but I'll be back on the booze and smack tomorrow.

Right. Am back in front of a real keyboard instead of a Mickey Mouse Android/tap-tap thing.

So I asserted that religion is bad and then cited some numbers to support death tolls between religious and non-religious wars.

You then pointed out that it is difficult to associate a war purely to a religious or non-religious basis. I agree and I will now publicly back peddle on the numbers I cited in the link - it is all too ambiguous to classify.

I then moved the argument to the premise that death in support of an ideology is bad (political or religious). You then came back and said religions are largely benign and as you so eloquently put it, "Man kills, not religion. ".

This is the piece I struggle with - the displacement of behaviour from one of a benign, collective moral code to the collective behaviour that results in war and ultimately death in support of the ideology whether that be political or religious.

I believe individuals are culpable for allowing this to happen. The fact that I am a Capitalist that chooses to live a non-secular liberal lifestyle does not mean I am not cupable for allowing the Government I choose to vote for to go to war in the name of 'freedom' or 'democracy'. Blaming others implies I have no control. I do have control and can use my vote, protest peacefully or choose other more aggresive forms of direct action should I feel strongly enough.

Now you may well say, what has this got to do with religion - surely this is about a political ideology and in the last 100 years, most death has been caused by political ideology rather than religious differences.

Let's take Northern Ireland. Do you think the struggle was entirely nationalistic and not in part fuelled by a religious difference? I know it would be impossible to quantify the proportions but to deny its contribution would be foolish also.

What I also know is that religious differences through their long term assimilation into cultural identities plays a key role in the shaping of political ideologies to this day and creating further differences and resentment.

So on that premise, I still assert that all religions play a key role in creating conflict through ideological difference as a consequence of the long term assimilation of their respective and benign moral codes.

The question I cannot answer is whether mankind would continue to find reasons to kill each other in the absence of religion. Unfortunately I suspect the answer is a resounding 'Yes' - murdering each other is unfortunately in our nature.