Religious Conflicts

INTRODUCTION

Today we have many different cultures, societies, and religions spread around the world. Most of these cultures and religion originated in the past, ancient world to us. The religions and cultures were spread through different ways by each country or religion, some used teachings and education, while others used violence and enforcement of religion. Religion in cultures and society is made important, of its effects of teaching morals, values, spirituality, and a guided path of life. At times these different believes can conflict each other, those creating and causing secularism, intolerance, and discrimination towards other religions and cultures.

Ever since humans formed different societies and countries, conflicts of power and control have centered our politics, but then as the influence of religion grew on individuals many countries gave religious sectors power and influence over the government. This was due to religion's capture of a person's emotional character and the quest to find and follow God's way of life. As the size of population and countries grew, more information was exchanged between different societies and countries. People exchanged values, morals, norms and other factors of living. Throughout history, religions have collided and caused conflicts on disputes over beliefs, norms, and taboos. These conflicts caused intolerance of other religions and culture, those also leading for people to persecute each other over the belief of being the right religion. Each religion has believed to be the righteous, and the one true religion of god. These believes still have a long lasting effect in our modern day lives. Throughout the world there have been many wars, many were created due to intolerance and secularism of religions and cultures.

In This project we'll talk about some religious conflicts and the characteristics of the three principal churches, the Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Also we'll explain how these conflicts are the results of the alteration or the misunderstanding of the original ideology.

Frame of Theory

First of all, we need to know about the principals characteristics of the three most important religions.

• Catholicism: Is the world's largest Christian church, with 1.2 billion members. The Church teaches that it is “the one true church” divinely founded by Jesus Christ, son of the supreme entity called God. They have a sacred book called “The Bible”, divinely inspired. The first part of Christian Bibles is the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible divided into thirty-nine books and ordered differently than the Hebrew Bible. The second part is the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books: the four Canonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one Epistles or letters, and the Book of Revelation. The Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals are very strict, they are based in the Ten Commandments.

The Catholic hierarchy includes cardinals and bishops and is led by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. In recent years this religion decline in the number of active followers, the Muslims are the biggest religious group with active numbers. One of the reasons can be the repression of the people, the age of reason, but industrial revolution provide an excessive development of technologies and scientific investigations; giving real scientific fact about how the things happen.

• Judaism: Is one of the oldest religions still existing today. It began as the religion of the small nation of the Hebrews; Judaism is a monotheistic faith, meaning that Jews believe in One God. With its foundational text, the Torah, they teach and tenet that there is one only God, incorporeal and eternal, who wants all people to do what is just and merciful. All people are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. This includes daily prayers which are said three times each day - in the morning, the afternoon, and after sunset.

Congregational prayers usually take place in a synagogue, a Jewish house of prayer and study. On Mondays, Thursdays, the Sabbath, festivals and High Holy Days, the synagogue service includes readings in Hebrew from the Torah and the Prophets. Among his professional duties, a rabbi is expected to conduct weekly or daily study sessions for members of the congregation. When a Jewish girl is 12, and a Jewish boy is 13, they come of age in terms of their religious duties and responsibilities.

• Islam: Is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based in the knowledge of the sacred book “the Qur'an”, considered by its adherents to be the real word of Allah. The live with the teachings and normative of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to submit to and serve Allah. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, who they consider as a prophets. The original messages and revelations of the Qur’an have been partially misinterpreted or altered over time, phrases like: “With your sword of fire, you’ll kill the enemies of Allah” are the ideological bases of the Jihads. The Qur'an describes Jihad as a system of checks and balances, as a way that Allah set up to "check one people by means of another." When one person or group transgresses their limits and violates the rights of others, Muslims have the right and the duty to "check" them and bring them back into line.

BODY

Since records began there has been religion on some level, whether it is the belief in a Christian God in comparatively recent times or whether it goes further back in history to Hinduism or Judaism along with other religious beliefs. During the same time period there have also been a large number of wars and battles between countries and civilizations. But what are the causes of these wars? Many argue that such things as politics, power and material goods are the causes of these wars, where others claim that it is religion which is the main reason. Where it can be said that religion has had a large influence on many conflicts in the past, it can also be

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