Religion: cause and effect.

Mar 08, 2008 - 12:44 PM PST

When you look at the world, the dominant influence over the minds of the common people is not a man, but an idea behind what one man and his birth and death represented. In the biblical cannon, there is a great prophet, the son of god, who was without "sin". This prophet Yahweh, or translated into English as "Jesus" taught lessons that can make a person stronger spiritually, and gave them promise of a better place in the afterlife, and all you have to do is accept him with all your heart. I do not discourage his characteristics, but the cause of faith in him creates the effect of many acts of great violence against people of other faiths.


Acts of violence, over time, have occurred quite frequently. In recent history, on group of religious fundamentalist stand above all others. The Nazi's of Germany, sought not only world domination, but a religious fascism that is only comparable to the dark ages. A result of their actions was the near genocide of an ancient people. The Jews who have occupied the area of the world that is now the middle east, have been here since the beginning of literature, and in a matter of a few years, where almost killed off completely, for no reason other than their beliefs. But this however isn't the only example. This has been occurring over time, as is shown in a multitude of examples.


The great crusades, which occurred for years, where a time of religious persecution. Weather you were Muslim or Jewish, you were a heretic in the eyes of the crusaders. The holy knights, or gods army, fought to preserve the ideas of Christ, which in itself is a contradiction. What Christ sought to set as a belief was that acceptance should come regardless to belief, in essence, judge not lest ye be judged. This however was not the highlight of the biblical cannon. Regardless of his message, those who saw Christ as their savior never thought about that when they were slaughtering villages in the name of god.


However, this was not the only other example. The Spanish Inquisition was a horrific time period. All of the people of secular or naturalistic beliefs where burn at the stake, or decapitated by a horrible machine called a guillotine, people were dubbed a witch for no reason other than being suspected of doing witchcraft or sorcery. Heretics, or mis-judged Christians were killed for no reason other than their opposition of the church, or of their god. Reflection of these actions cause people to think that it was okay back then, but I must ask why not now?


Religious fundamentalism is the effect of a cause that stands for something, that i can only hope will be used as guidelines, but not literal words of life.