Toto

This is more suited to GRD

Bloodnf

So which religions (or non religions) are not violent?

Malachi151

Depends on how you define "violent".

I think that the stories of Judaism, and the God described by Judaism are violent, but Judaisn doesn't really actively promote or engage in violence I would say. This is in part because Judaism was tribal and not evangelical. Judaisn mostly encourgaed Jews to keep to themselves and fight for independence, and it didn't really promote violence beyo0nd what was normal for that time (violent justice, etc.)

The Aztec/Inca/Mayan religions, however, had both violent stories, violent gods, and enduced violent practices, they required human sacrafice and self mutilation.

The Greek and Roman religions had violent stories, and some of them condoned and promoted human sacrafice. I never saw much in the Greek and Roman religions as far as social values and morality, however that may be due to how the Christians have framed it.

Confucionism is pretty peaceful and introspective. It can be used to support violence in the name of the ideology, however, and it was evangelical, thus enducing violence to spread it.

The Nordic religions had violent stories and enduced violent action, but they weren't evangelical, so the violence was realtively limited.

Zoroastrianism is based on a violent duality, but it doesn't teach any particularly violent leassons. Overall, not so violent, but it was evangelical, so again you get violence there.

Egyptian religion had violent stories and violent gods, as well as violent lessons, but it wasn't evangelical and it also was tempered by much peaceful lessons and moral codes that pushed moderation and restraint.

Christianity, the NT stories, are not very violent, and the God of the NT, IMO is much less violent than the OT. Overall I rank it pretty good as far as not being "violent" per se, however, it obviously uses violent imagery in terms of the suffering and death of the savior figure, thouugh "his teachings" were not violent overall, but it is also HIGHLY evangelical, which enduces violence in the same of spreading the religion.

Islam, has violent stories, violent teachings, and is evangelical, the worst combination fo all. The only good news is that unlike the Aztecs it doesn't promote human sacrafice, "per se". It does also have many lessons on peace and moderation to be fair.

Buddhism is a pacifist religion, but it is also moderately evangelical, AND I consider Buddhism perhaps one of the worse kinds of violence. It commits violence against the believer by enducing the believer into a self-destructive pacifism. Exploitation and abuse are rampant in every Buddhist society. Buddhism teaches that the first problem is suffering, and suffering is created by desire. If you have any suffering, then it it your own fault because you have desires, thus in order to eliminate your suffering you need to eliminate your desires. In the end the only solution for happiness is to comepletely have no desire, no will, but because a complete subject. It also teaches that when you reach enlightenment, by eliminating all your desire, then in your next life you will be rewarded by being wealthy, etc. thus the class system is explain such that those on top have earned in it their past life, and you try to get on top by driving yourself to the bottom in this life. Its a compeletely horrible religion, I consider it the MOST VIOLENT.

Hinduism, similar to the above, and you have the caste system. They have violent mythology and violent gods, Shiva, etc. Its also a bad violent religion on many levels, like a mix of Judaism, Greek religion, and Buddhism. Nasty stuff that. Oh, but don't kill or hurt animals, starve to death before you eat a cow

EricK

The problem is that these are revelatory, monotheistic religions.

Two polytheistic religions can probably get along better with each other as there will usually be an overlap between their pantheons: "Oh! That is your word for pig, that is your word for sheep, and that is your name for the God of Livestock. ".

Montheistic religions could also theoretically get along with each other (You call God this, we call him that) unless they also believe that they have a (or more properly, the) revelation from God. Now they can tell that they worship the true God, and everyone else who hasn't received this particualr revelation must actually be worshipping some false God after all.

Rathpig

This is a damn good, might I even say, "goddamn good", first post.

R.,

sknight

Obviously most religions are potentially violent, just as most people are. Even buddhism is capable of producing deadly kung-fu monks wielding mad weapons of violence. It's the extent of the violence that the OP seems to be getting at: "Why Abrahamic Religions are So Violent".
I think there are three reasons, the first is the belief in one single truth, that there can be only one and everything else is false; lies which are likely perpetuated by satan/evil. It's noted that pagans who revered their own personal gods may, at times, have feared the gods of others, for instance when they were in a foreign land.
The second reason is the belief in hell for those who don't accept their religion, hence anything done to the unbelievers in order to convert them is justifiable.
Add to that a little, god doesn't care about your actions, it's just what you believe, e.g. accepting jesus, that counts and you have a perfect recipe for a very violent people.

Or maybe that's all rubbish and christian history can attribute it's violence to the very, very bad influence of the romans. Dunno who the muslims could blame, I'm sure there's someone though.

Chili

But there is a single truth that overshadows all other truths like a pyramid in the noonday sun. It is called Truth spelled with a capital T. Hell is religion specific and is already in those who see others to be wrong. So here now, the fire of hell is what motivates the warrior.They actually believe that they do it for God and do it in his name (there is a passage on this something like "remember me God when I did all those things in your name?). Same thing except that they are a heresy of Judaism in the same way that Christianity is a heresy of Catholicism.