Non-Violence : Religion And Nonviolence

In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.

Jainism treats the issue of life and death in a very similar way. Followers believe that living a non-violent life and respecting the sacred life existing around people (according to the Jains, everything in the world, including the inanimate, has a soul) may release the human being from the vicious circle of re-incarnation. Jains also recognize the eternal nature of the human soul and believe it exists as enmeshed in the human’s or object’s body during a whole life. However, Jainism assumes that the soul parts from the body when it does to be re-incarnated into something (or somebody) else, which means Jains do not recognize the unity of soul and body. This is actually the principle of all three religions—they pose little value to the human life because all followers believe that the soul will still remain in the human world, but will only change its appearance once re-incarnated into some other being or object. (McKay et al., 2008)

While when discussing the history of the world’s power forces, violence makes for stimulating discussion, other tactics were put to good use, one of these alternatives being non-violence. With the guidance of three worldwide heroes - Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela - with contagious optimism and high spirits, it became apparent just how much of a difference could be made carried out through non-violent terms. Mankind was introduced to another way to resolve major problems just as effectively, if not more, than violence could.

     Jainism was distinguished for their extreme practices, even to the severity of death by self starvation. They focus on asceticism or the mortification of the flesh and individuals, striving toward moral perfection by means of nonviolence. They especially avoid harming any living creature since every manifestation of nature has

Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without religion.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Jains see the principle of ahimsa, the principle of non-violence, as fundamental. Sikhs do find nonviolence as an important, but not on the fundamental level of Jains. Sikhs will permit violence on defensive grounds.

For some, the choice of Vegetarianism is decided based on religious beliefs or practices. Vegetarianism is compatible with the major world religions—the Eastern Religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism) and the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Bahá'í Faith). Among these, it is most commonly practiced by those of the Buddhist, Christian and Islamic faith. Vegetarianism within the Buddhist culture is taught along with the “Four Noble Truths,” which focus on the acts of suffering. Since the Buddhist faith accepts the idea of karma, it is believed that in order to maintain a life of peace and happiness and remain free of suffering, one must refrain from the harming, injuring or killing of any living being. As part of the Christian faith, animal cruelty is forbidden. The teachings of Jesus Christ focus on the ideas of love, compassion, mercy and acceptance. Although the question of eating meat is not directly addressed in Christian doctrine it can be implied that since animals are a creation of God and the idea of love for all of God’s creations is heavily stressed in the Christian faith, then out of Christian love on should lead a life

Pluralism is found in many ancient Indian traditions including Jainism, Buddhism, and the Advaitic interpretation of the Upaniṣads and the Bhagavad Gītā. Each tradition’s core values internally ground non-violence. In all of these traditions there is a multiplicity of world views and individual needs, overcome by a common goal of breaking free from bondage to reach enlightenment. At face value, these traditions appear to have opposing metaphysics. While the conceptions of what is achieved by freedom from bondage differ in form, these traditions all recognize a pluralism of paths to a common goal. This not only promotes tolerance, but transcends this to reach a fuller form of respect. It should be clarified that this respect does not, however, mean that these views are entirely tolerant or relativistic. These conceptions of pluralism simply require that each view must considered as one of the many sights which potentially have some truth to

A third teaching of Jainism is that lying and exaggeration are damaging practices that are to be avoided. On another hand Jainism also teaches that “absolute truth” is impossible to express because everyone experiencing any given situation from a unique perspective. Other teachings condemn stealing, and confine acceptable sexual practices to those between a married couple, both of which try to curb improper desire, and stop the perpetuation of pain inflicted on others. These teachings, which emphasized acceptable societal practices are similar to the Dharma of Hinduism, which emphasized social obligations (Molloy, p196, 2010).

Her religious indoctrinations allowed for her subjugation but ultimately, she broke free from her false consciousness and used her faith as a tool to fight oppression. However, this is an atypical response and there is a disconnection between teachings of the church and her own developed religious beliefs that empowered her to fight. The church as an institution can and has been used as a tool of oppression, Menchú recognizes this “Catholic Action and other religions and the system itself have all tried to keep us where we were. But I think that unless a religion springs from within the people themselves, it is a weapon of the system” (Menchú 157). In her own words the church is a weapon of the system, the system of oppression. However in time

The message of peace is a fundamental universal concern which is relevant throughout our world today. Peace is not merely the ‘absence of war’, but a state of mind in which a sense of tranquillity comes from actively working towards right relationships with individuals and God. To understand the way in which Muslims and Christians view peace it is imperative to understand the source of the teachings for each religion. The principles teachings of peace for Both Christianity and Islam are primarily found in the sacred texts of both religious traditions. Christianity looks to the bible and specifically the New Testament for teachings about peace, whereas Islam focuses’ on the Qur’an and Hadith to guide their beliefs of peace. These sacred

Religion has its shares of promoting violence. Many will argue that a cause of religion wars is for economic and political reasons, but others argue that those who start wars are, by definition, not religious. In reality, separating religion out of economic and political motives can be involved in such a way finding religious motives innocent of much. Excuses for Christianity responsibilities cannot be accepted whether the person has misappropriated the message of Christ. The primarily set of doctrines is not Christianity, but by living through past background it personified the visible actions of Christians. In other words, Christianity, Islam or any other religion has no intention of excusing from survey. Given certain conditions,

Blessed is the man who can perceive the law of ahimsa (nonviolence)" (Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence). He believes that violence is never the answer and that people should stay away from it. Violence will create another violence and there would be no end. Also, the government takes the violence resistant harshly. They ignore people who cause disturbance to the society and to the citizens. Having a peaceful resistance, the government sees the people and consider their resistance and try to come with a solution to satisfy their citizens.

Jains have five incredibly important aspects that they follow. The first is ahimsa, non-harm, not only to themselves but to everyone and their environment. Next, Jains believe in telling the truth; they don't believe in over exaggerating or lying because it can cause pain to someone (which brakes ahimsa).