Thursday, September 27, 2012
What Are The Least Violent Religions To Mankind ?
There are a number of ways to qualify this, but how we are going to approach this today is in groups. We are going to look at these historically, verses today, or a certain time frame. For example, Catholicism would certainly be more violent during The Spanish Inquisition, than it is now. Therefore, lets start with the Abrahamic religions and their major components. These are the religions who believe they descend from Abraham, and each believes in one God or is monotheistic, We will rank these from oldest to newest, beginning with Judaism. Now within Judaism there are many branches such as Samaritan , but perhaps unfairly and due to space we will simply use Judaism collectively. Christianity follows with the birth of Christ and led to The Catholic faith that began splintering into branches in 381AD, and while there are others, the three main branches are: Rome (includes the West and 22 Eastern Catholic churches);Eastern Christianity are Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Horn of Africa, India and parts of the Far East ; Islam began roughly in 610 - 620AD, and its two major branches of Sunni and Sh'iah, ( there are others, and Sufism would get my nod, of the least violent of these) Protestantism, and its many fragments arrived next in the 16th century with Martin Luther and The Reformation (for my Republican friends, I should add that this is where The Later Day Saints Church and its principle Mormon branch fits); The Bahá'í Faith was started in Persia around 1844.
It is not too difficult to tab the less violent branches in Abrahamic religions. Generally speaking the Abrahamic religions are by far historically the most violent of all religions. Yet even in the midst of all this violent history (that we don't need to revisit), there are some notable exceptions. It is not just its shorter history that awards the prize to The Bahá'í Faith, but for its tenets and beliefs.Thus, if you are looking for a peaceful branch of an Abrahamic religion other than, Islam, Christianity or Judaism, I suggest you Google The Bahá'í Faith. Now before my Christian, Muslim and Jewish friends cry foul, permit me to make two statements: 1) Any religion does good, some more than others and most are more self serving in the process. While we can argue about religious educations and their value (or lack of in colonizing), we readily salute them for the health services they provide, as well as agricultural contributions. 2) It is important historically and currently to understand how religion and government use and excuse themselves. Certainly Hitler expunging the Jews in his empire was a religious crime of serious magnitude, yet he did it under the auspicious of Germany and The Third Reich. The same is true of The Iran - Iraq war that pitted Sunni against Shi'ah, or the atrocities committed by Roman Catholics during The Spanish Inquisition. The list of examples is long, and the point is that religion and government make strange, but convenient bedfellows. Ask almost any Muslim and they will point to the USA and the Christian policies that "In God We Trust" that tout freedom intrusively. Remember The Crusades? There is a significant amount of history between these two religions, and then there is Israel and Palestine ! Christianity and Islam are not only under the Abrahamic banner, they are the two largest religions in the world today.
Now we come looking to the group of religions we call India founded. I'm not wild about this name, as noble India has had many borders and even using the treasured "subcontinent" can be misleading. However, we will go with it and start with the mother Hinduism, followed by Jainism, the various forms of Buddhism, and finally Sikhism. Like the Abrahamic branch there are many branches within these religions, but as before we'll use these major designations. In most, but not all cases, these are considered dharmic religions. Based on archaeological proof, Hinduism is considered by many to be the world's oldest religion, Judaism is a challenger as well as the many indigenous religions in other cradles of civilization, yet the physical evidence (at this juncture) favors Hinduism's claim. If we ask Hindu's many would say theirs is indeed a peaceful religion, as most of the violence was Islam attacking them. However, a Muslim would vehemently disagree, as would perhaps a Sikh. Fortunately though we have two candidates here that stand head and shoulders above as far as non violence and peaceful existence with mankind, these are Jainism and Buddhism. Jainism is perhaps less of a controversial choice, than Buddhism. The reason is that there has been violence, and continues to be violence in Buddhism. Here, the observer can say it is defensive, yet violence is violence and we are not here to place blame, but simply identify. You can find out more about Jainism through your favorite search engine.
The Persia religions include Zoroastrianism, Kurdish tribal religions and Mandaeism. Again there are others but these are the major domo's. None of these really stand out as being particularly violent or outstandingly peaceful. Other religions of note that I would not classify in our elite group of tolerant, non violent include Shinto, Chinese Folk, Korean, Shinshūkyō, Scientology, Cao Đài, and Taoism. African Traditional Religions are a mixed bag, though the Yoruba branch is my religion, as much as I'd like to include it to our elite group, I can't. Not because of the animal sacrifices, (because we are talking about mankind), but because of its warrior roots and infighting with other tribes historically. The same is true of ancient mezzo American religions like the Aztecs, Mayans etc. Even the Native Americans don't get the nod, not because of the persecution they suffered at the hands of the white man, but because of their infighting among other tribes. The same is true of most indigenous cultures, though there are exceptions.
Shall we award a grand prize? I think not, but each of the category winners are well worth reading up on, and have earned my respect. Having said that, even in the most violent religions there are those who find the peaceful and tolerant path of peaceful coexistence with other religions and ways of life. I find that the more focused religions are on respecting Nature, the more peaceful they generally are. After all, humanity is a part of Nature, though many religions and followers seem to forget it. We don't want to get into a discussion on the value of humanity to Nature, though do we? To some, including me, not killing fleas or bedbugs seems extreme, however littering or polluting a river does not. Neither does civilization encroaching on a rain forest, or the erosion of the ozone layer by greenhouse gases. Seriously, if we look at the religions who celebrate Nature through ceremony and beliefs, we will find the peaceful ones.
Labels: Abrahamic, Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Charles Spencer King, Hinduism, IFA, Jainism, Natural religion, Sufism
# posted by Cubaking @ 8:25 PM 
