The Baha’i faith is one that believes in unity among nations and all peoples. This is a big dream that will probably never come true. Our world is far too immersed in turmoil for everyone to hug it out and be best friends. Religion brings about much conflict itself. Throughout history it has been a dividing force rather than a unifying one. The Crusades, the turmoil in Israel, Jihad; all of these can be seen as battles relating directly to religion. It’s not that the religions necessarily call for the violence, but that it’s hard for people to distinguish between religion and politics when the control of the country is tightly entwined with the religion in the country. Even now in the United States, religion has an impact on controversies that affect our public policy. Religion and God are used as reasons why same sex marriage should not be legalized or why abortion should be illegal.
I do not think this is what was intended by any religion when it was found and first organized. It just happens that people take religion and use it to fight political battles for them. If Baha’u’llah’s message was correct and the founders of the major prophesized religions were all “Manifestations of God,” then this conflict was never intended by the original God (201). I just think this teaching of worldwide unity will never happen, and if it did it would not come about through a religion.
Definitely true Beth Ann. One of the biggest problems I have with religion is the fact that they are pinned against other religions. There is not a single religion that doesn't feel very strongly against, or hate another religion or hate an aspect of culture. And I also do agree that everyone loving everyone will probably not happen either. It has become so cliche to talk about wanting world peace, but in reality, it would actually be wonderful. It's almost hard to imagine how wonderful it would be to have world peace, but I definitely agree it is not really attainable.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that while world peace would be nice, its probably not very feasible. It seems to me that many religions work toward unity and peace but ironically their strides toward unity and peace often cause divisions and conflict instead. I think this partly stems from the fact that so many, especially monotheistic religions, are very myopic and intolerant of other religions and other points of view. While waging war, fighting against gay marriage and being violent is not the center of the religions that I'm aware of, it seems to be a byproduct of some religions and it's unfortunate that it is precisely that that the public's attention is drawn to rather than to the central aspects of religions.
ReplyDeleteGood post, but this can be translated into slightly more rigorous terms. Religions are all about creating strong groups, and it is somewhat counterintuitive tomask religion to mitigate those same groups. Keeping in mind some of our terms and definitions I think you could make a stronger point here..
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