How do you explain the relationship between
religion and violence?
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Video Text: This is almost a paradox, at first. No religion
preaches "thou shalt be violent, thou shalt make war, thou shalt hate."
They all emphasize love, compassion, the peace-makers, non-violence, and
every single major religion in the world has some version of the golden
rule. And then you look at the actual practices of religion for
thousands of years up to the present, and they seem to do the opposite.
They preach love and they're full of hate, especially hate for "other",
the non-believer. They preach peace, and yet most wars in the history of
humankind have either had religious causes or religious justifications.
So, this is what troubles me--to try to reflect philosophically on this
paradox, the difference between abstract slogans and ideals and ethical
and spiritual teachings. The real practices in the world, where I find
increasingly today religion is a negative force--it's a violent force,
in fact, that leads us away from compassion, and love, and mutual
understanding and peace.
