Do Religions profess love or peddle Hate?

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charvakheresy's picture
Do Religions profess love or peddle Hate?

All Religions claim to profess Love, They all claim their God loves us and will forgive all our sins. But is that true ?
Do religions pedal hate and divide in the guise of morals or are they genuinely promoting some kind of love
As for my I have come to realise that religion has nothing to offer but Hate. It seems to divide at every level. it corrupts the individual so that they begin to buy into the hate and behave as immorally as their books tend to demand or at least close.

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ZeffD's picture
To say they peddle hate might

To say they peddle hate might contain an element of truth. A world divided into religious sects inevitably leads to more hatred in the world, but how? They peddle superstition and the idea of religious faith.

Religionists are generally taught that their faith is at the core of their "belief system". The concept of "sacred" puts some religious principles beyond effective criticism. Such ideas are obviously dangerous and divisive but it is tribalism that compounds the dangers. One has to be taught to hate "them". Religion (like nationalism and ideology) divides people into "us" and "them. Add to that firm belief in an afterlife and you have a recipe for violence as well as hatred.

Religionists who change their view don't see themselves as rejecting superstition, they have been taught to see it as "losing faith".

Few superstitions come without any harm and religions are simply giant cults for which some people would not only kill but lay down their children's lives.

Christina1013's picture
You know, I get what you're

You know, I get what you're saying. But I think there's two kinds of religious people.

For me, I grew up in a very liberal church, and I truly believe their love was beyond authentic. To this day, even when I tell them I am an atheist, my youth leaders still respect me and still reach out to me, not to "brainwash" me, but to truly show me love. We all hang out, eat pizza, laugh about crude jokes together. I think what they believe is a load of horse crap, but they think what I believe is crazy too, I'm sure. My point is, I think the root around my past church was honestly love. I think that's why it took me, personally, such a long time to accept that this isn't what I believe. I believe in love, forgiveness, mercy, but I do not believe in Jesus Christ or a big man in the sky. I didn't realize until I got older that I can believe in all the same things, all the same morals, and not claim a God.

So that being said, there are always the "turn or burn" Christians, there's always going to be extremist, terrorism, hatred "disguised" as love, but personally, I don't really think you can say it's all hate or it's all love. It truly depends on the church, the person, and what they are taught.

mykcob4's picture
All religions peddle hate in

All religions peddle hate in various forms. You have the conflict over religion vs. religion. "My church is the TRUE church" sort of thing. Then you have religions that commit genocide, cultural extinction, murder, rape, plunder, and theft.
One of the greatest examples of religion peddling hate was in the American west. It was called "manifest destiny." The idea was that "god" wanted christian white people to rule over the entire Americas and that the indigenous people were savages. Calling them savages was much more than just prejudice. It was a license to rape, kill, murder, and steal, from native Americans.
The conquistadors did the same thing albeit under a different label.
Black slavery was a religious undertaking and the white slave owners in the US south believed it was their god given right to have black slaves. Where did they get that ludicrous idea if not from their religion.

Much of WWII was a result of religion and the white supremacist that believed that they should rule the world.

All and all religion is the bane of humanity. It is the cause of almost all prejudice and hate. It calls itself a peace promoting ideal in much the same vain that conservatives say that they promote "family values." Both are a complete an utter lie.

johnwmstevens's picture
Your title contains an error:

Your title contains an error: that of using the word "religion." Religion is so abstract a category as to be nearly meaningless.

I would answer you by saying that some religious traditions do teach what some would describe as hate. Others do not.

"All Religions claim to profess Love, They all claim their God loves us and will forgive all our sins."

Not true. Not all religions are theistic religions (they do not have a God). Those that do do not all teach that God loves and forgives. Certain religions profess a faith in multiple "natural" gods who don't care one whit about human beings as anything other than objects to be used.

If you want to have a more in depth discussion of this, first you need to learn something about the topic. In general, I find that atheists are fairly ignorant about it. For instance, there are atheistic religions (ones that believe that there is no god), you know.

charvakheresy's picture
You are correct that my

You are correct that my statement is a generalisation and would point to the major religions in the world, and mostly to the attitude of the believers within those major religions.
As for atheistic traditions existing within some religions is also correct but those are organised religions that do not talk of the presence of god, yet they peddle irrational fairy tales and aren't based on rationality.
There were 2 schools of thought one by Brihaspati and one in ancient Greece that were given Creedence as atheistic traditions based on rationality and to a great extent were discredited by the religions texts.
Most atheists are atheists because they have studies scripture.
Religion is not an abstract term. There is nothing abstract about religion. it is one of the few terms that has had the unfortunate privilage to be defined by most constitutions around the world.

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