I think religion teaches a lot of good things like not to hurt others, not to lie, etc. But it takes us away from the reality. Also many wars happen from religion.
I disagree fully with this statement(bolded)(the war part mostly).
It does not take us away from the reality. It just presents a even larger picture and reality. It gives a greater purpose to even the most insignifigant person. And this purpose is a universal purpose that can apply to every human.
Wars happen because of people.
Not the religions. If religion did not exist, the wars would happen just the same. Just look at the 2 most severe wars in history. The 2 world wars.
The first was started by a assasination that caused 2 countries to be in conflict, and due to alliances, it escalated the rest of the world into war.
The second was started by 2 non religious leaders hungry for more power and land. (essentially)
All that said. Religion can be used to make people more selfless than they would normally be, due to their selfish actions haveing negative consequences outside of life.
or
It can make people reckless, and let go the worth of their life, which can be used (usually by power hungry manipulative people) to do bad things(such as suicide bombers etc)
Religion if followed, (the majority of them or the most popular ones) would lead the world to peace.
Sadly there are many people who misunderstand what religion teaches, and many people who cannot understand concepts of that religion.
For example. My religion(Catholism(a sect of Christianity)), teaches that you should love all people. However It teaches that you should dislike and hate sin. It recognizes things like abortion and homosexuality as sin.
It teaches that Jesus died on the cross as penace for all the worlds sins. It also teaches that you must be remorseful for your sins for them to be forgiven, (and It recognizes that if you are truly remorseful, that you will try to stop your sin. And as you are not a perfect being, you will fail. But it is the sentiments in your heart, and the effort, that allows you to be saved)
Of the Catholics, based on this teaching, you have 3 major groups of people
1. The people who just disregard the teachings of the church. They pick and choose what fits them, and do not represent what the church believes in. These are the people who think abortion is fine, and homosexuality is something to be embraced etc. They may be Christian, but they are mostly just Catholic for the social aspect. They would welcome all homosexuals to come to the church, and would even promote homosexual weddings in the church. These people accept a sinner for his sin.
2. The people who try to follow the teachings, but are misled, or ignore certain parts of it. These people, are the kind of people, that would treat a homosexual inhuman. They would be following the part of homosexuality being a sin etc, but they would miss the part of treating with love and forgiveness. They would prevent any homosexual from going to church. These people do not tolerate or accept a sinner for their sin.
3. The people who follow the full picture. They do their best(as nobody is perfect) to treat others with love and dignity. However they do not embrace or condone others lifestyles, that are sinful. They would welcome anyone in the church. Regardless of if they are homosexual or any other type of sinner. They would not teach that those sins are okay, but would try to teach and help the sinner to overcome their sin. These people tolerate sinners, but do not accept them for their sin.
A good example of how TOLERANCE works(as MANY MANY people, do not understand the concept of tolerance. Only acceptance, and non acceptance.
A father does not think his children should have any tattoos. However his kids get tattoos. He does NOT accept them saying "wow i like your tattoos" all of a sudden. Nor will he ever. He does not just hate them, and go and cut the tattoos off. He does not treat them without dignity and love because they got a tattoo. Instead, he still treats them with love and dignity. He expresses that he hates that they got tattoos, and will try to convince them to remove them. However he does not force them to remove them, nor does he like them. He simply tolerates that they have them.
(PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THIS IF NOTHING ELSE. This is a thread dedicated to the topic of "does religion bring peace?"
My above comment, was only useing homosexuality as a topic to illustrate how people can not follow their religion, just useing a example of people among my own religion. So it is NOT a debate about whether homosexuality is good or bad. If I see anyone respond and make that a topic in this thread, I will neg rep you.)
Sorry about that above comment(in parentheses). But I can just very easily see someone who has a 1 second, 1 paragraph attention span, seeing the part where I say homosexuality is a sin, and then derail this thread into a homosexuality discussion thread.(full of flame)
But the very short answer to "does religion bring peace?", is It does not bring peace, but teaches peace. It teaches things that can lead to peace. (that is to say at least many religions at their core. There are many variants, which do not preach peace(see radical islam, radical christianity(see westboro baptist), that teach hate and do not teach peace.
I personally think a world with religion, holds a much better chance of obtaining lasting peace than one that does not. That is because religion involves something bigger than yourself. It Involves if you sacrifice your life to doing good while on the earth, that you will get rewarded after life. And if you do bad, then you are punished.
So a world with religion is like a family with kids. The kids do what the parents ask, because they fear punishment and seek reward.
A world without religion, has people, who only have 1 life period. Then they are gone forever. This can lead to people being selfish, and just seeking to enjoy themselves with what little time they have. People thinking about why should they do something good, for the future generations, would think "why" because they would only have a temporary existance.
So a world without religion, would be like a family of kids. With no parents. There might be some kids that could function and be happy on their own. But without someone beyond themselves, they would not be as functional, and well raised than the family with kids.
But the wars of the world, and conflict, is not religion based, nor non religion based. It is just a part of human nature. Part of the cycle of hatred/conflict. It would happen in a religious world or a non religious world.
However there are only 2 peaceful worlds.
1. A boring world. Everyone is the same. People are not allowed to be different. As people have no differences, they cannot have conflict. This world is pretty much a slavery. However it is not a known slavery. There is no master, other than the uniformity.
2. A interesting world. A world of winners and losers. A world where the losers if they lose, they move on till they find something they can win at. OR they use their loss to help them learn to win.(see rocky). A world where people have a large variety of differences in opinions and beliefs. But they tolerate and respect one another. They understand they are different. And they treat each other differently. But they all treat others with dignity always. Conflict happens. But it does not escalate to deaths. When something bad happens, people turn the other cheek.
This world is a world which is free.
