Bryan W. Alaspa 1When belief becomes violence
November 6th 2009 14:25
It is a sad truth for people that their beliefs become so powerful that it often leads them to violence. This has been going on for a long, long time. Of course, these days, it seems like those who follow the Muslim religion are the ones in the cross-hairs. But, the Christians need not forget that plenty of violence and hatred and evil has been done in the name of their beliefs. The problem is always when beliefs, of any kind, lead to violence.
There are some countries where the sport of soccer it taken so seriously that when the national team loses, the coaches and players fear for their lives. Can you imagine that? If you said, yes, then you are someone who needs to get some help. The fact is that there might be someone, somewhere, in this country who is so wrapped up in his or her sports team and, were they to lose a tightly contested race of some kind, might explode into violence because of it.
Political beliefs often explode into violence but, for a very long time, this happened in other places in the world. You do realize that much of the world looks at our elections and the peaceful transition of power and shakes their head in wonder, right? In other countries they will hold a national election and when the guy in office loses, he decides to just throw out the results of that election, cross his arms in front of his chest and then stays in office. This usually leads to violence because you have to use violence to stay in office.
However, this past summer shows that violence has potential here as well. Thankfully, in the heated town hall meetings heated discussions ensued but there were no incidents of real violence. Still, there were people found in the audiences with weapons in a few situations, which means the potential existed.
Most times, where it comes into play is with religion. I don’t know why this is. People want to believe so fervently in their god and want everyone else to believe what they believe that it somehow gets mixed up and turned around in their brains and turns into violence. Before too long you are storming and abortion clinic or walking into a crowded room and crying to your god before opening fire.
All this really does is cast a bad light on the regular people who are somehow able to believe that they believe and not feel that they have to convert the world to their belief system. There are those who pray to whomever or whatever they want to pray to and then just go about their business. They don’t want to kill or hurt other people and they don’t want to be part of a mass suicide. They just want to live their lives.
But the nuts get the press. Thus, it casts a bad light on everyone else just trying to live their lives. And everyone else is so shocked by the violence, they are willing to forget that so many others who may share the same religion or beliefs are not violent. In the end, the violence only causes harm to the cause these people who perpetrate violence claim they are fighting for.
There are some countries where the sport of soccer it taken so seriously that when the national team loses, the coaches and players fear for their lives. Can you imagine that? If you said, yes, then you are someone who needs to get some help. The fact is that there might be someone, somewhere, in this country who is so wrapped up in his or her sports team and, were they to lose a tightly contested race of some kind, might explode into violence because of it.
Political beliefs often explode into violence but, for a very long time, this happened in other places in the world. You do realize that much of the world looks at our elections and the peaceful transition of power and shakes their head in wonder, right? In other countries they will hold a national election and when the guy in office loses, he decides to just throw out the results of that election, cross his arms in front of his chest and then stays in office. This usually leads to violence because you have to use violence to stay in office.
However, this past summer shows that violence has potential here as well. Thankfully, in the heated town hall meetings heated discussions ensued but there were no incidents of real violence. Still, there were people found in the audiences with weapons in a few situations, which means the potential existed.
Most times, where it comes into play is with religion. I don’t know why this is. People want to believe so fervently in their god and want everyone else to believe what they believe that it somehow gets mixed up and turned around in their brains and turns into violence. Before too long you are storming and abortion clinic or walking into a crowded room and crying to your god before opening fire.
All this really does is cast a bad light on the regular people who are somehow able to believe that they believe and not feel that they have to convert the world to their belief system. There are those who pray to whomever or whatever they want to pray to and then just go about their business. They don’t want to kill or hurt other people and they don’t want to be part of a mass suicide. They just want to live their lives.
But the nuts get the press. Thus, it casts a bad light on everyone else just trying to live their lives. And everyone else is so shocked by the violence, they are willing to forget that so many others who may share the same religion or beliefs are not violent. In the end, the violence only causes harm to the cause these people who perpetrate violence claim they are fighting for.
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