There have been disagreements all over the world that have led to many wars about various doctrines by different religions. In fact, many war leaders claim that God, meaning that God is always on their side in the wars they fight, supports their arguments. On the records, many wars all over the world occur due to religious matters. Many religious doctrines conflict each other regarding their religious kerygma and faith direction. However, a believer should remain in his or her way of worship, and practice and people avoid the feeling to impose the same on other persons (Esposito 24). This will be the sure way to restore peace, something that if not done the best way then the world would witness regrettable behaviours in the name of religion. Moreover, various religious figures in every religion do not embrace the others in other faiths (Nepstad 33). What is more painful is that many innocent people perish in such wars, yet nothing is done to help in correcting such outrageous situations. Generations after generations have fought different wars instigated by religious differences. Referring to many religious scriptures, many accounts demonstrate how some of the founders had to fight with other parallel challenges to establishing their fame. Outstandingly, many religions look at each other as rivals who do not deserve to live.
Various reasons cause war on religion. Many religions believe that their teachings are the best and communicate the true will of God while others are misleading the people into adopting false teachings. For instance, Christians believe in spiritual teachings of Jesus and do not allow anything that disregards him in that line. In the Hebrew prophetic messages, a lot of history about the expected Messiah that would liberate the world from various kinds of pain and suffering is well explicated. When Christianity was born during the time of Jesus, his f followers communicated with him like the king that the world had been expecting. This threatened the authority of the day that had to look for ways of exterminating him. After his death, the orthodox community took the responsibility of spreading his teachings and messages. These apostles faced many challenges of martyrdoms and persecutions. In the Christian scriptures, they never acknowledge Muhammad as one of the prophets the way Muslims take it, making Muslims have a feeling that Christians look down upon a very significant figure in their faith.
On the other hand, Muslims believe in the prophetic Role of Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him. They maintain that the word of Allah came to the prophet as the main messenger to speak it to people. In fact, in their scripture, they say that the prophet was given the word, and ate it. He later communicated it to people from inside, and nobody should challenge his assertions (Esposito 43). In their creedal statement, they say that Allah is the supreme God while Muhammad is his messenger, Koran is his source of authority, Jihad is the way, and that dying for the sake of Allah is an inspiration. This means that anybody who goes against the will of Allah deserves to die. This tells more about the way doctrines differ and have led to many wars in the world. Furthermore, within the Islamic faith, Jesus is just a prophet, but not the messiah as maintained by the Christians. This has always made Christians to feel that Muslims despise their spiritual master, terming them enemies of their faith.
In other words, many wars have been fought basing on these grounds that one particular group is trying to safeguard their faith (Stedman 33). For example, the crusades were series of campaigns that were marred with violence during the period of eleventh to the periods of the thirteenth century. Christians believed that they were fighting to restore the purity of the holy land that the pagan religions had taken. There were also wars during the period of the sixteenth century where the Catholics fought the protestant Huguenots whom they believed were defiling the noble truth that they were advocating for and looking forward to achieving. Another war of thirty years followed between Christians and the Protestants in the land of the present day Germany. It is clear from these accounts that there have been many wars due to the safeguarding of a particular doctrine.
On the other hand, Islam with the famous holy war known as jihad that tries to protect the Islamic faith and teachings. The fighters believe that the land that Allah has given to his people must remain holy and uncontaminated by the people who proclaim the opposing religion. There has been an unending war in the Middle East blamed on Islamic movements. In fact, the groups always admit responsibility, while using statements that show celebrations (Stedman 54). This shows clearly that many of the wars are taking place due to religious intolerance and conflicts. There have been so many deaths and killings all over the world in the name of religion. Today, various religious movements are threatening the world peace. For example, the Islamic state is a threat to the western economy and stability.
Looking the world history, the twentieth century took the world with the grief of wars had less to do with religion. However, many religious reasons interplayed to reach some interests (McCormick 12). During the period of the Second World War, six million Jews were exterminated by deaths in the entire camps of poisonous gas. Adolf Hitler claimed that he was killing them since they persecuted Jesus. On the other hand, the communist revolution in Russia and China claimed many lives. Even though Hitler killed the Jews on the ground of accusing them of being the killers of Jesus, it was because of racism, where the Nazi regime wanted to destroy the minor races. Therefore, it is worth noting that the world has gone through several wars but in majority line instigated by religious reasons.
There have been anti-war movements that try to create peace in the world. History has it that the results of the Vietnam War enlightened the world to pursue ways of averting wars with its fatalistic consequences. Many leaders are against the war since it derails moral structure of the society while deprives the society its economic growth. During the war, many innocent people died, giving an impression that when the war is on, many innocent people suffer, yet they never began it. Every world power has always remained in the verge of pursuing sustaining peace (McCormick 43). However, it is so outrageous that the peace that they seek is never realised. This means that much needs to be done in the religious minds so that people would see each other as entities of value, rather than an enemy to destroy. Therefore, it is a concern that the disagreements based on religion be looked into with a positive mind. Many scholars and leaders should consider advising the society in the best way to live in peace and harmony rather than bloodshed. The state must ensure to remain in the fore front if peace seeking, than using their different ideologies to destroy humanity.
Buddhism is an outstanding advocate for morality and is against any killing of a living thing. In datum, they repent every day for having killed some creatures without knowing when they are walking. They prohibit their members from eating meat and stick to vegetables. Moreover, some groups justify their positions in the war feeling that God supports their side in the war (Wuthnow 22). In fact, when they win, meaning they kill many, they claim that it is the victory of God. Many young people have been recruited into various programs that stage the war in one way or another. The primary intention is to fight against a particular religion (William and Segal 44). Others have taken suicide bombs claiming to fight for the sake of God. It is so ironical that every religion teaches people to do well, and prohibits people from any activity that harm other people. This demonstrates clearly that many people proclaim what they do not understand their faiths. This leads to concern, which calls for the scrutiny of the kind of belief systems and moral choices that people develop in their religious gatherings. They teach morality and contain moral laws min their religious scripture, but now, the sheer wonder is why people fail to maintain and keep their moral responsibility.
In looking at all these, the religious leaders have a bigger role to play in restoring the peace and stability in the world. Whatever they teach must communicate peace and tolerance. It is morose that humanity has done tremendous discovery in different fields, yet have failed in establishing peace (McCormick 46). The government agencies should encourage religious masters to communicate with their members the information that unites the society rather than dividing it. The fact that people proclaim different doctrines and teachings should not imply that people must be enemies. A believer should remain in his or her way of worship and practice and avoid the feeling to impose the same on other people. This will be the sure way to restore peace, something that if not done the best way then the world is still staged to witness regrettable behaviours in the name of religion.
All these can be achieved through religious dialogues, where various religious leaders can frequently meet to share the peace-seeking mission. Denoting many religious scriptures, many accounts demonstrate how some of the founders had to fight with other parallel challenges to establishing their fame (Waley 340). Exceptionally, many religions look at each other as rivals who do not deserve to live. They should also exchange experiences to understand different faiths and their applications. They should learn to respect and adore other faith beliefs that do not belong to them. However, the religious leaders should avoid proselytization during the talks. They should exchange their understanding about different dogmas but refrain from influencing the other group to cross the floor towards their side (McCormick 33). They should also ensure that they understand that every religion has the absolute right to exercise their practices without any form of hindrance. Doing this will help with the general knowledge in understanding the practice of other religions, and why the people practice them. Nobody should test another religion in the basis of truth. Since the justification of truth in that, matter is not universal.
In supporting different ideologies, every realm should remain to its laws without infringing to the other realm. For instance, science has always been perceived to stay in constant war with religion. In the same note, people who do not understand the difference between science and religion effectively try to use the scientific mind in comprehending religious matters. This is very wrong and can only lead to chaos. The best things to understand are that science appeals to empirical facts that depend on practical justification. On the other hand, religion appeal to the matters of the spirit and the facts go through the test because of faith, not science. In fact taking a religious book and reading it as a scientific book will lead to a total mess. Looking for a scientific reason in a book of faith is unwise and creates chaos (Stedman 4). Therefore, matters of religion must remain as such with no interference of science. The notion that religion opposes science should not be the case as science talks of empirical facts while religion sees things through the lenses of faith.
Besides, monotheistic religions like Muslims and Christians have realised internal wrangles that need to be addressed. Many churches keep on separating from each other because of leadership problems. Many people are hungry for power and never give space for others to lead them. Another reason is that many people do not have the skills to interpret the scriptures, leading to the difference in ideologies. For example, Christianity that began on catholic has divided into many mainstream churches that communicate Christianity, but in their different ways. This shows clearly that many of the wars are taking place due to religious intolerance and conflicts. There have been so many deaths and killings all over the world in the name of religion (Stedman 58). On the other hand, Islamic religion has separated to Sunni and Shia Muslims premised on the position of a caliphate. This leads to fights from within, contributing to the war on religion.
In other respects, there is the relationship between the state and religion. This relationship must be cordial so that the state and religion unite people for the betterment of peace. In the history of the Byzantine – Ottoman conquests, the approach was militarily and the strength could only tested within the skills of killing many people. Outrageously, in 1204, the city of Constantinople was attacked leading to the erecting of the monument of East-west Christian schism that happened on the year 1054. The schism came about after a series of debates about the personal figure of Jesus. There were the conflicting issues about the position of Jesus as divine and as a human being. The rival debaters wanted to know where to give more weight on Jesus as a human being or as God. The question of greatness was also to determine the position of Mary as the mother and God being great. These led to numerous ecumenical councils with numerous heresies. From the year, 312 spiralling over to the progressive years, something that remains a mystery today. In other words, many wars have been fought basing on these grounds that one particular group is trying to safeguard their faith (Stedman 33). For example, the crusades were series of campaigns that were marred with violence during the period of eleventh to the periods of the thirteenth century. Many churches keep on separating from each other because of ideological differences. The government agencies should work in peaceful relationship with the religious leaders to communicate with their members the information that unites the society rather than dividing it. The fact that people proclaim different dogmas and traditions do not imply that people need to live in adversaries. A believer should remain in his or her way of worship and practice and avoid the feeling to impose the same on other people. This will be the sure way to restore peace, something that if not done the best way then the world would see deplorable deeds in the name of faith.
In conclusion, there have been incongruities all over the world that have resulted in many conflicts between various doctrines by different faiths. In fact, many war leaders claim that God, meaning that God is always on their side in the wars they fight, supports their fights. On the records, many wars all over the world occur due to religious matters. Many religious doctrines conflict each other regarding their religious kerygma and faith direction. However, a believer should remain in his or her way of worship, and practice and people avoid the feeling to impose the same on other people. This will be the sure way to restore peace, something that if not done the best way then the world would witness regrettable behaviours in the name of religion. Moreover, various religious figures in every religion do not embrace the others in other faiths.
What is more painful is that many innocent people perish during such wars, yet little are in place to help in correcting such outrageous situations. Generations after generations have fought different wars instigated by religious differences. Referring to many religious scriptures, many accounts demonstrate how some of the founders had to fight with other parallel challenges to establishing their fame. Terrifically, many religions look at each other as rivals who do not deserve to live. Many churches keep on separating from each other because of leadership problems. Many people are hungry for power and never give space for others to lead them. Another reason is that many people do not have the skills to interpret the scriptures, leading to the difference in ideologies. For example, Christianity that began on catholic has divided into many mainstream churches that communicate Christianity, but in their different ways. This shows clearly that many of the wars are taking place due to religious intolerance and conflicts.
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