religion debate
...ate than themselves, once again showing that religion can make people kinder human beings. Two examples of religious organisations are Christian Aid and The Missionaries. Christian Aid is a worldwide organisation that involves fundraising, prayer and action for the world’s poorest people. The people involved in the organisation believe in life before death, and believe that people who are poor or less fortunate who concentrate merely on surviving in this life, should be given the chance to live their life to the fullest like many others. This organisation shows that through religious beliefs such as life before death, people have become caring and considerate towards others. The Missionaries are somewhat similar, as they travel around the world helping poor people, and they also ‘spread the word’ about their beliefs, to try and encourage others to take considerate action as they do. These organisations are examples of how religion can make people better and kinder human beings. On the other hand, if you look in any newspaper or history book, you may see a different story – religious persecution, war, genocide, terrorism and many other horrific events, all caused by one thing…religion. Throughout the last two thousand years, religion has killed more people than any other cause. Many people have taken extreme action against others, just because they have different beliefs. A very well known example of this is Hitler, who wanted to obliterate the Jewish religion from his country. The Nazis solution to ‘The Final Problem’ led to the deaths of at least six million Jews by 1945, a truly horrific event, now known as the Holocaust. This persecution of the Jews shows how hatred of their religion and beliefs can lead to events such as this, which quite clearly shows that not all religion makes people better and kinder human beings. A more recent example of this hatred is the Rwanda Genocide, which occurred in 1994. In just three months, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans, out of a population of seven million, were slaughtered in a state-led genocide. This was an attempt to eliminate the Tutsi ethnic group from the country, once again demonstrating how religion can cause major problems between different beliefs, and opposes the statement. Nearly every war, when traced back, has started because of religion…it causes blind hatred and division between human societies throughout the world. However, we must face the fact that even though religion causes so many problems, people’s beliefs will always be present, and no one can change that. In some cases, re...