Religion versus Man (Humans)  2015-68

I guess what intrigues me when I hear people blame religion for this and that on the news is how they assail religion for doing the thing they do not like at that moment, but forget or do not mention the actual people doing the thing itself.

Religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence. There is history relating to religion, stories, symbols, icons, and many other things that try to explain the meaning of the origin of life, usually about a deity.

How can I blame religion or something a person does that is perhaps a part of that religion? Did the religion do the dastardly thing or the person? It was the Priest that is found to be a pedophile and not the religion. It is the evangelist that is the breaker of the rules, not the religion itself (I think of Jim Baker of years ago, the televangelist, who was involved in a sex scandal that led to his resignation from the ministry. Subsequent revelations of accounting fraud brought about his imprisonment and divorce). Was it his religion that did the acts or actually him?

Religion or People Hypocrites?

I somewhat believe that the people making the accusations against religion have a problem with religion in general and do blame religilon for actions taken by people. I know someone, named Henry, that stated “Everyone of that religion are nothing but hypocrites!”  I then asked him, “Have you ever done something that involved hypocrisy on YOUR part?” He thought and replied, “Probably”.  I therefore proved and stated to him that it was not a religious thing, but a human thing involving the part of the human mind doing something against a belief. I could have said feelings, standards, qualities, opinions, behaviors, virtues, motivations or other characteristics that one does that do not actually hold true and to give an overall blame to religion is ludicrous.

Blame Religion?

Needless to say, the news is rife with people blaming religion for actions done by people. I think if I were an unbeliever, I would blame religion for something I thought was incorrect. I know an atheist who does NOT do that, and admits that many of his ilk do so.

It is easy for a member of one religion to blame another religion for things THEY do not believe in themselves.  It is common I think, and in the thinking I am against doing so myself, or I try very hard not to do that. For instance, it is so very easy, for some people, to blame the Islam religion for actions of those that, today, pervert that religion themselves by doing atrocities where they use the religion as a reason for their actions. I could add, Catholic’s, Protestants, Hindu’s, also do this, and the list goes on and on.

In this thinking, it was not the Catholic religion that was part of the Crusades so long ago; it was the people of that time that did the acts, not the religion itself. The fact that Catholics were the mainstream Christian religion of that time, gives credence to the thought, even though it is wrong to blame that religion for the actions then. There WERE Catholics that did not agree with those stomping through Europe at the time, killing many people for an ideal?

If I took the time, and really gave it some thought, I could see the real thoughts behind the actions that are given news time on TV today.  It is TOO easy to blame religion for the modern day horrors and other things that are reported on, and not the people involved that are doing the acts. Too easy!!!!  Are we guilty of doing this?

Den Betts