The pillar of religion forms one of the essential cornerstones of societal living that provides doctrines and guiding principles about how people should live and interact. The command of virtually all religions is often inclined on the preservation of peace so that every human being can live amicably next to their neighbor. The message of peace is often preached during the eruption of wars and conflicts where the existence of this virtue is nearly negligible. The numerous religions that exist globally refer to the scriptures that justify the maintenance of peace in a situation where fights and battles are experienced. This paper discusses the importance of religious values when it comes to the subject of war and peace.
The common
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Religions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are totally against killing an innocent human being, murdering them, or even subjecting them to torturous conditions that can eventually lead to their death. It is only exceptional and rare cases where the use of force to kill is justified, and this is one in a very specified circumstance.
The process of carrying out a comparative view of different scriptures of the various religions when it comes to the topic of war demonstrates that there is one central rule that applies when it comes to killing and the repercussions that comes with it. For instance, the followers of the Buddhist religion firmly believe that people who participate in war or any form of violence often end up trembling because life is sacred and it is supposed to be revered by every individual. This teaching is well stated in the book of Dhammapada, which explains that, “A person should put themselves in the shoes of their other counterpart, so that they can understand that killing is in total violation of the law” (Hogan 957). Furthermore, these scriptures clarify the fact that a person should not compel another individual to take part in an activity that will end up killing and taking away innocent lives.
The same concept is elaborated in the Christian scriptures that hold a lot of disregard
In the case of military ethics, Killing is justifiable. “From a faithful perspective, while islam accepts war as a fact of life in this world, an armed conflict is also likely to result in human casualties” (Sekar). Therefore, war will have an outcome of death, but not exactly wanting death. “During war our moral duties do not disappear: Actions deliberately contrary
Humanity is constantly searching for inclusion. Everyone has an innate and incurable desire to feel like, to feel wanted, to feel needed. For many people, religion is a tool to achieving that goal. Religion is like an open door to a group of peers who are often accepting and loving all all strangers who seek embrace. However, the problem of religion arises when it becomes too self serving and the original purpose of religion is forgotten, the morality and kindness that God embodies. Illuminating the undeniable similarities between all forms of religion, religious wars become insignificant, proving the human desire to achieve superiority and dominance with their social group.
In the book, World Religions and Norms of War, religion and war are characterized by one of the books authors, Vesselin Popovski, as, “[always coexisting]: loved or hated, studied or ignored – they are part of human life... The people of religion and the people of war are two clearly identifiable, uniform-wearing groups, characterized by high respect for hierarchy and discipline, adherence to rules and traditions, and compliance with the orders of superiors…” (11). Popovski also continues to say that both those in religion and war endure hardships and make sacrifices (sometimes even going as far as to commit suicide) for a higher purpose. This closeness of religion and war has been one of the world’s largest problems for
Throughout the whole world there are world leaders that lead their respected countries into a peaceful era. Presidents, dictators, tsars, monarchs, Kings and queens have been some political leaders that people tend to elect and also look up to for advice and even protection. Even though these figures are known to be very influential in everyday lives, by making decisions that change the face of the world, there are also others that have been known to bring peace to places that others couldn’t do. These are religious leaders such as the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and also God figures have been known throughout history to be the solution of problems where the military, and money cannot solve. This essay will go through some of the similarities and differences between the religions,
She explains how academic studies consistently challenge the link between religion and war and rarely find a connection. Some of the reports that she showed in her articles found that having less religion in a country doesn’t make it more peaceful. In fact, some countries with the highest levels of atheism such as North Korea and Russia are one of the top ten least peaceful counties in the world. The most important question in her article is why does religion so often rise to the surface during wars and conflicts? And she argues even during the so called ‘wars of religion’ during the 16th and the 17th century religion is an important factor, but if you dig beneath the surface, issues like dynastic influence, power, and economics are a big
There should not be any reason that find it necessary to kill another human because of their beliefs. People should learn how to coexist with people who are different than them. After all of the fighting the countries have done in the past it seems like maybe people would have came up with a more peaceful solution. Its seems pointless to have many young soldiers die fighting for a cause when people could just leave eachother alone. War uses a lot of the country's resources along with the fact that it comes with a very big price
The Christian view of capital punishment is believed that Jesus requires them to oppose capital punishment. Many Christians believe and argue that God commanded "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 21:13), and that this is a clear instruction with no exceptions that Christians should not support the death penalty. Mistreatment and torture of individuals by governments for any purpose violates Christian instruction and must be condemned by Christians and churches where and when it occurs. God intends for life to be fixed.
As a citizen of the United States, I am part of an institution that has been, and is currently, killing people. Whether or not all or some of these killings are ethically defensible is a difficult question to answer and most people simply never confront the issue. I will evaluate literature on the topic, identify the different justifications for killing in time of war and decide if they legitimize our actions. After describing some compelling arguments, I will defend my own position that pacifism is the only ideal which mankind should embrace.
A Buddhist practitioner can go to war. The justification for hurting an individual who has crossed one’s path or boundary is to imagine that they are not human. It requires a conceptual imagination that suggests that the practice of Buddhism is valid or invalid depending on the given circumstance. Jarod Whitaker (2012) takes a look at the study of Warfare in Buddism and finds out that there are scenarios when Buddhist scriptures can be tailored to fit a clear-cut situation. For example, if one needs to terminate someone absolutely because they are in the face of adversity with no other option than to kill, the troubled being internally has to make a decision with regards to the reason they are terminating that victim. The Buddhist soldier at War trains in such a way that they do not have to justify their violent actions. Sri Lanka specifically trains its Buddhist soldiers with an understanding that they need to focus on reducing negative energy. The negative energy arises from negative forces of Karma that
Since the dawn of humanity the practice of war has been with us every step of the way. Going as far back as the roots of civilization in Mesopotamia 4712 years ago and today the fight in the Middle East continues. In a world constantly ravaged by the outbreaks of war, it is important to engage our Christian faith and determine whether any war is justifiable in lens of Christianity. Thus looking at looking at theologians such as Augustine, Aquinas, Niebuhr, and Yoder provide us with a condemned look on war.
For centuries, religion has been an undetachable part of the political life in the Middle East. After the Arab spring, the situation in the region and especially Syria and Iraq raises the question regarding the relation between religion and politics. The role of religion, particularly Islam, remains evident in most aspects of the social and political life in the region. Even in the secular states, such as Syria, a large amount of the society practice religion and Islam is an integral part of the state constitution (1973) and political culture. Accordingly, the strong role of religion in the conflicts in the Middle East should not be surprising but at the same time, it does not mean that religion is the source of violence. The hypothesis suggests
To begin with, many religious leaders and religions that start or participate in Holy Wars are usually against killing. The 6th commandment in the Bible states, “ Thou shalt not kill.” This evidence supports my answer because one of Ten Commandments says not to kill, but Christians and others still did. Others think the leaders are justified because God had also killed, according to the Bible. They are wrong because God had
Religious symbols, rituals, and metaphorical language can be depicted too literally or as the most important part of the religion. Doing this often distracts from the deeper and true meaning of the belief. When these objects or practices become the focus of worship, meaning is lost and changed, creating a cloudy area between what is proper and what is inappropriate for the religious belief. These objects and rituals are put in place to help us worship, but are not what we worship. We look at our own religious practices, and assume ours are the proper one to follow, regardless of the numerous other religions in the world. We are so caught up in our rituals and religious objects of worship being different from one another, we often miss the fact we all worship something similar; a god or gods of higher cosmic power. We get so caught up in representations of our own religion, sometimes we take it out on others who do not believe the exact same thing we do.
The worst part about war and killing are the punishments. According to AL-islam.org, The great chastisement is the first punishment for murder. The great chastisement is supposed to be bigger than the flood of Noah. This punishment is when a fire larger than ever seen will come down from the sky and will wipeout a huge number of humanity. Aside from this punishment there is also the possibilty that people may face a divine wrath and hell. Which in this case the wrath of God is when He shows anger towards you, and hell is where your spirit gets sent when you die. Others may think that if their God tells them to kill in a war it is ok. But when you kill in a war and use the name of your God even if your God didn’t tell you to, it can turn horrible
In every point of human history, we observe, a common scenario of religious activities is to establish peace. The way of religion to establish peace may be