Is there any religion without blood on its hands?

[FunBobbyMucha]

I've been pondering this lately. I've never been much of a religion student, so I tend to generalize the different world faiths as "Same message, different haircut." I'm acquainted with the wholesome history of Christian-led bloodshed, less so with Middle East and Eastern religions. Even the Buddhists have killed and tortured in the name of their faith, right?

So which religions are the bloodiest? Which the most pacifistic? Which (in your opinion or in measurable history) is the most faithful to and hypocritical to its own tenets?

I ask because I am dumb.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. jains

followed by buddhists

[BurtWorm]

4. I didn't see there was a question after, which are the bloodiest,

so I thought you were April foolin'! ;)

[ithacan]

9. terrorism in the name of Buddhism...

in Sri Lanka.

So any religion can be turned to justify violence...

[daveskilt]

2. how about quakers? mennonites? amish?

fairly peaceful bunch. also digimbara Jainists - the "sky clad" monks who wander around naked blessing people and do not believe in doing anything in their own self interest. (including eating! they only eat if others feed them)

edit: bloodiest would be christians debatably - crusades, holocaust etc all done in the name of that religion, but there are other upstart younger religions trying to catch up. peaceful religions tend not to last long. most start that way then end up dead or ruthless. christians to the lions, slaughter of sihks before the 10th guru made fighting ok.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. even the other form of jainism is peaceful

[daveskilt]

5. true. they are the nice ones who feed the digimbara monks

[stopthegop]

12. Holocaust was not done in name of Christianity...

even if Hitler claimed it was, a perversion can not be blamed on the true belief system...you also left out Islam...has a bloody history also

[daveskilt]

15. not just hitler claimed it was to purify for jesus

and it is not the only christian massacre of jews.

not christian bashing honest - I cant imagine jesus or mohammed commiting genocide, but a heck of a lot of their followers have had a crack at it in their name - all thinking they were the ones following the "true belief system". I think the insistance on their being a true belief system is often the problem, it doesnt exactly allow for much of a live and let live view of the world if it is the one right way - that often leads to someone at some point making the leap that if their way is the only right one and the others are all wrong shouldnt they just get rid of the others?

[Az]

6. Plenty of religions

The real problem is the dogmatic absolutist religions. These are the groups that claim they have the truth. Any attempt to deny this truth is met with a range of reactions depending on the social position of the religion. It doesn't even need to be a religion in the traditional sense. Hard Line Communism fits this bill. Any that did not accept their truth were removed from society so as not to pollute the true believers.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Flag waving, but...

...No true Wiccan sheds any blood, but thier own...

[BurtWorm]

8. I was just reading in Guns, Germs and Steel the other day

about the massacre at Cajamarca, Peru, when Pizarro seized Atahuallpa, King of the Inca, and a small band of Spanish conquistadores (less than 200) slaughtered something like 7,000 Inca in the name of the Christian God. It's a disturbing story. The Christians claimed--and whos was there to contradict them--that God willed the slaughter because he wanted the Inca to see the error of their demonic ways.

PS: slaughters like that were repeated over and over during the years after Columbus's "discovery" of the "New World."

[daveskilt]

13. good book for you - A peoples history of the US by Howard Zinn

fantastic book detailing columbus the genocidal maniac through to the present.

[BurtWorm]

18. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't read it yet.

It's on my list, but it's a long, long list.

[H2O Man]

10. Handsome Lake,

Ghost Dance, etc. Reformation prophets generally correct the violent manifestations of major religions, and historically attempt to bring the herd back to the nonviolent central themes.

[ArkDem]

11. Religions don't have hands.

.

[daveskilt]

14. guns dont kill people...etc?

relgions give many hands an excuse

[ArkDem]

17. What is a relgion?

.

[daveskilt]

19. well a system of beliefs "grounded" in a belief in a metaphysical

manifestation of some higher being. generally involving supernatural occurances (past, present, or future) usually looking to answer philosophical questions or at least questions for which there is no proven current explanation. purpose of life, what happens after death, nature of spirituality, nature of the higher being or beings.

it is within the answers that the hands are influenced by one religion or another. The system of beliefs in order to become a religion requires some formalization on a conscious level and most often a socialized setting with formal rules, customs, rites and conventions.

at a basic level a religion is a group of people who at some point share a similar conception of the answers to the above questions and seek to formalize that belief system.

by so doing an assumption is made that this set of answers is correct - the basis for faith. and then the cycle begins where ultimately someone thinks if I am right then others are wrong and wouldnt life be better if they were not here and since I am right then god must approve of my helping him out in this way.

on edit: ah a relgion is what I type when i am doing too many things at once - feeding my one year old daughter, running some regressions for work and procrastinating here :silly:

[LadeJarl]

16. No...

No, there is no such religion.

Asking which is the least bloody is like asking "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Erik

[H2O Man]

20. You need to learn more...

...before making such a statement.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Zen Buddhists, Sufis, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Humanists to name

a few

[RandomKoolzip]

22. The Church of the Subgenius.

No blood on the hands, but everywhere else!

[Burma Jones]

23. Catholics are the Bloodiest, Perhaps Bushmen are the least