Religions and Possible Sources for Conflicts
Different takes on Religions
All major religious beliefs, except Taoist and Confucianism come into existence due the revelation of its founders. Some may consider Confucianism as a moral science or philosophy, as to whether it is a religion or not will depends on one’s definition of what are the traits required for it to be classified as such.
Is Buddhism considered a revealed religion? This would depend on which particular sect’s teaching one is referring to. The doctrines of the Theravada would not be classified as such. On the other hand, the Mahayanist doctrines would be considered as a revealed belief. In the Mahayanist form of Buddhism, the historical Buddha may not feature in its teaching at all. Its sutras comes about as a result of the revelation of later day ’saints’ and are full of the teachings of transcendental Buddhas and Bodhisavttas. The visual interpretations of these Buddhas and Bodhisavttas can be seen in all Mahayanist temples.
Ultimately, every religion and its offshoots would consider their tenets as the only one that is true and right, and that it is also the only one that can provide peace, solace and direction for all individuals in this life and to lead them onto the path to final deliverance and salvation thereafter.
Likely source of Conflicts
A large part of the teachings and doctrines of most religions are transcendental in nature and cannot be proven by scientific evidences or facts. Such things as the creation of the world in six days, miracles perform by the founder, the doctrine of karma, rebirth and reincarnation, etc have to be accepted by the followers of the respective beliefs in good faith. When they are disputed and ridiculed, believers can only defend their teachings and doctrines through subjective logic and reasoning. Emotion can run high and conflict may arise when such logics and reasoning are not convincing enough and are ridiculed.
Another inherent feature that can cause conflicts between religions is the acceptability and sometime required obligation by the followers of some religious faiths to carry out proselytizing, evangelism and even holy wars with ultimate predictable outcome.
‘You shall not kill’ is a universal precept or commandment to all major religions, but it can be interpreted differently by different religious faiths. ‘Do not kill’ is the First Buddhist Precept. To the Buddhist, this precept of not taking life covers all sentient beings except for those that ‘breaths but cannot move on its own’.
On the other hand, Middle Eastern religions believe that animals are creation by God as a source of food for human consumption. There are also many other exceptions where life can be taken in the commandment, ‘You shall not kill’. Such instant as in wars to defend one’s faith or when moral codes are broken and the offence is considered serious enough to warrant death.
All religious teaching by itself does bring a lot of good and benefit to its followers. It becomes a problem when it is in the hand of those with ulterior motives and who chose to bend or interpret it differently to serve a particular purpose or to achieve a particular aim.
When religions sanction proselytizing, when they are persecuted, when the teachings gets misinterpretation and when they are manipulated or used to serve a certain objective such as in politic or for war, conflicts are bound to arise and when not handled correctly can lead to serious consequence.
Can it be resolved?
Religious conflicts can only be minimized; be it through the force of secular laws, individual self restraint and responsibility or by the understanding and acceptances that there are many teachings available that can lead us on to the path of enlightenment and salvation. It is like the circumference of a circle, there are many points on it that can be use to reach its centre eventually.
Whether religions become a blessing or a bane to society will depends on how the followers of each religion are being guided by their leaders and how each individual chose to practice its faith.