Religion's biggest enemy may well be their biggest fans. Extremists are those individuals who take the teachings of their own religion beyond that of what a normal individual would believe. These individuals go to extreme extents to push their beliefs and prove themselves to their god. I believe that these are the people that lead to religious wars and the same individuals that cause someone like myself to look at religions in a dark light.
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It happens in every religion, and is skewed by the media and our perception of other cultures. In North America we typically see the Islamic religion being shed in a negative light. Especially after 9/11, the attention has been focused on the Islamic extremists. The media shows this religion in a manner that allows people to develop prejudices. Through the concentration on the wars taking place in primarily muslim countries and the acts of groups such as al-qaeda. A prejudice that all subscribers of the Islamic faith wish ill for western countries and establishments is an easy prejudice to adopt.
The problem however is the fact that these are, well prejudices. When we use the actions of extremists to make up an opinion of an entire culture we are simply being ignorant. This happens of course both ways. A recent low budget film (if you can call it that) had a trailer released on youtube. The ignorant and disrespectful film caused an uproar. This is an example of a select few causing an entire nation to be hated and looked at in a negative manner.
These type of individuals lead to so much tension and hatred based solely from the expression of ignorant views in a public light. In 2010 a church in Florida proposed a "Burn the Qur'an Day". A debate between the advocator of the day and muslim provides the perfect example of ignorance of extremists causing international problems.
I believe that extremists are causing most religions to loose the respect of the mainstream population and is causing a movement to an atheist world. Weather or not you subscribe to a religion or not it's clear that the extremists of each religion are a problem, and as a society we should not allow them to be used as examples for the rest of the population.
I agree, religion has been the cause of most wars throughout history and continues to be today. What man has done with religion is sickening. With each turn of the century religion continues to drift further and further from its original intent. People continue to take it to the extremes and in the end cause the very harm their religion supposedly speaks against. A world without religion would likely be a safer place then one with.
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