Clivedurdle

When did humans invent the idea that someone having a different religion was a reason to kill them?

Metal Gear

The people who "invented" this idea can be explained as members of two groups.

1) unintelligent people who really do believe their religion is right (none are right)
2) power hungry people who use religion as a means to make others submissive, and kill those they cannot control.

figuer

People even kill each other because they support different football teams.

Demon

People tend to be hostile towards anyone of a different group.

ahdenai

The idea of which you speak was invented at the same time as the invention of the second religion.

Splarnst

We have a winner!

The notion that "invented" the idea of killing people of different religions is simply mistaken. Animals often attack other animals that threaten their territory. Chimps have been known to engage in organized raids on other groups. Humans are just an advanced chimp.

storytime

Probably when humans like animals, began to realize that they needed to expand their territory so their increased numbers could survive.

Anat

I doubt the Egyptians fought the Hitties because of religious differences. But in those days religions were tribal, so people of different tribes or nations had different religions by default. When Alexander's armies conquered other nations the trend was to identify the local deities with the most similar Greek ones.

The persecution of Jews by the Seleucians and later the Romans as well as the persecution of Christians by the Romans had to do with refusal to participate in the state religion as expression of real or perceived disloyalty to the state. (Does anyone know how the Zoroastrians fared in Helenic times?)

thentian

I'd say this idea was invented the first time one person wanted to kill another person and couldn't think of a better excuse.

mountainman

Separate perspectives?

Religion in the Making - A Series of Four Lectures delivered during February 1926, at the King's Chapel, Boston, USA by Alfred North Whitehead.

Notes on a palm leaf by those who preserved the Sri Lankan Yoga Swami's ...
Best wishes,


Pete