Is Religion the real cause of Extremism?

Well, we know that a person can take a few pages from any holy book and manipulate for their own gain. But should we really blame the religion for generating such extremists? For me the answer is no. But don't you think certain members of their religion who condem violent acts are some what sympathetic to their cause?

Why do these people turn themselves into fanatics or Extremist? What drives a person to take the pages of a holy book and turn them into a declaration of violence?

No.

People, specially extreaminst take, manipulate and extract bits and pieces of their religion to make their clearly wrong/sexist/discriminatory actions seem like the right thing to do.

People of such religions get stereotyped and sometimes abused for it.

One cannot distort that which is not already present. For example, if The Bible did not already contain passages condoning the ownership of slaves, exremists could not use The Bible to justify slavery. In this sense, it would seem that "extremists" are really "fundamentalists" that interpret The Bible literally.

I have not read the bible, so I will ask to know where exactly does the Bible permit slaves?

Slavery had nothing to do with bible - on the absolute contrary. The slavery came about because people believed that biologically - ie scientifically, white people are superior to black people.

It had absolutely nothing to do with religion.

Slavery has been going on for a long time and there is stuff about it in the bible. However most certainly if you read the new testament you will see that it is not justified.

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
I have not read the bible, so I will ask to know where exactly does the Bible permit slaves?

Slavery had nothing to do with bible - on the absolute contrary. The slavery came about because people believed that biologically - ie scientifically, white people are superior to black people.

It had absolutely nothing to do with religion.

Leviticus 25:44-46

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have - you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.

Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.

You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.

There wasn't the employer/employee relationship during that time, and so it was accepted that you had slaves.

About the original question..

These fanatics really believe they are doing Gods will. They are doing it for God, and that's the best service you can do. Though they only pick out the scriptures that apply to their own beliefs and apply them.

However most certainly if you read the new testament you will see that it is not justified.

Originally posted by finti
so why dont the christians just diss the OT then

Not quite sure what you mean. It doesnt mean the OT is entirely incorrect, it just means that there were some things that changed with the coming and subsequent death of Jesus.

which means the OT is actually not worth a thing cause with the NT things are seen diffrently

I wouldnt word it like that. Just that, somethings are different while others are reiterated. There is still history etc to read in the old testament and lessons.

swada thats what it is

Adam_PoE -

👆 The paragraph about slavery - its what i asked for, however your ''if bible didnt say anything about slavery it wouldnt exist'' argument is redundant.

The slavery was around long before, during and after bible was written - it had NOTIHING to do with the religion. It is included in the bible, as evident - ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, you name it, all had slaves and that was way way WAY before Christianity.

The later America/Britain slavery again, had to do with the then so apperant biological poorf that black people are inferiour in body, in culture and in mind to white man - again NOTHING to do with the Bible, as even in the passage you provided, it condems the Pagans and says nothing of the skin colour.

Again, to make my point clearer - Agreed that the Bible talks about slavery, but the slavery didnt start with Bible, it was included in Bible as a by-product of then society and the later slavery was based on scientific poof that white are superior to all other or whatever.

The great Greek Philosopher, Thinker and Philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Politics that slavery was a benefit for the state. Yet Greece was the birth place of democracy?! How about them apples?. And if I'm not mistaken Nietzche himself was a firm believer of Master and slave.

But going back to the topic Adam Poe gave a perfect example of how a person can quote a paragraph from a holy book and then use it to prove a point (this case slavery) This is I how I notice that fanatics (I'm not calling Adam Poe a fanatic! Don't get me wrong here) can justify their actions. They read a certain section of a holy book and use it for their own cause. But they don't care about analyzing or even give the quote proper thought. A fanatic isn't interested in scholar or academic elements. They read things literate and don't bother to study the book properly. Any text that is from ancient times must always be studied properly. Scholars spend years trying to understand and find causes to the writings of books. A modern day person shouldn't just take every word literated. Unless the message is rather simple like "love each other" then there is no need to dig any deeper.

Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Adam_PoE -

👆 The paragraph about slavery - its what i asked for, however your ''if bible didnt say anything about slavery it wouldnt exist'' argument is redundant.

The slavery was around long before, during and after bible was written - it had NOTIHING to do with the religion. It is included in the bible, as evident - ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, you name it, all had slaves and that was way way WAY before Christianity.

The later America/Britain slavery again, had to do with the then so apperant biological poorf that black people are inferiour in body, in culture and in mind to white man - again NOTHING to do with the Bible, as even in the passage you provided, it condems the Pagans and says nothing of the skin colour.

Again, to make my point clearer - Agreed that the Bible talks about slavery, but the slavery didnt start with Bible, it was included in Bible as a by-product of then society and the later slavery was based on scientific poof that white are superior to all other or whatever.

Where did I state that slavery started with The Bible? Where did I state that The Bible is the cause of the African slave trade? Nowhere. What I said was, "One cannot distort that which is not already present. For example, if The Bible did not already contain passages condoning the ownership of slaves, exremists could not use The Bible to justify slavery."

Originally posted by WindDancer
The great Greek Philosopher, Thinker and Philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Politics that slavery was a benefit for the state. Yet Greece was the birth place of democracy?!

I thought Aristotle was not for democracy? He did afterall
tutor would-be world conqueror Alexander the Great.

Anyway, religion, I believe, rarely causes people to do bad
things, though it can be used to justify it (in that sense, like
biology, which was used often to justify slavry or oppression
because the targets were "inferior" biologically).

A good example is war. One of the most common cliches
is that religion was behind more wars than anything else.
That simply b.s.! Religion has rarely, if ever, been the
cause of a war, maybe an excuse?, but not a cause.

Even the most famous "religious" wars in history, the
Crusades, ahd little or nothing to do with religion, and
everything to do with Byzantine Emperors wanting help to
fight off invasions, Popes wanting to extend their authority
to the eastern Mediterranea, and kings wanting wealthy
lands to conquer. These used religion to rally support from
the masses, but otherwise weren't much motivated by it.

Even the most famous "religious" wars in history, the
Crusades, ahd little or nothing to do with religion, and
everything to do with Byzantine Emperors wanting help to
fight off invasions, Popes wanting to extend their authority
to the eastern Mediterranea, and kings wanting wealthy
lands to conquer. These used religion to rally support from
the masses, but otherwise weren't much motivated by it

Wars fought out of religous reasons are as much political as they are religious even so religion do have to take it share of causes to wars.

Yes, without religion we would not have extrimism in the name of 'god'.

Is Religion the real cause of Extremism?

NO, Religion is the tool used by fundamentalists in order to control and unite their followers. If it was not religion, it would be nationalism, or racism, or whatever else you could use to unite people.

Wars for centuries have not been fought over religion, religion has been used by people in power to further their own agendas.

Windancer - Democracy and slavery are not mutually exclusive: democracy can decide/vote pro slavery.