Do all religions ultimately lead to oppression and abuse of power like what happened during the Dark Ages?

Desiree: Do all religions ultimately lead to oppression and abuse of power like what happened during the Dark Ages?
And if it wasn’t for atheists and other people with the courage to stand against organized religions, then a religion will once again lead humanity down that dark path? Do atheists therefore have a moral obligation to oppose religion?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Tut Uncommon: 3peat Offender
The Amish seem harmless enough.

Answer by Teh Atheati Kitteh King
I think you are putting atheists on a moral highground… There are good christians and bad atheists… dont generalise…

and no religion does not necessitate oppression… but the more powerful ones generally utilise it…

Answer by ßαd ƒlαmίηgο
Yeah, what’s up with those Zen monks beatin’ us down?

Answer by Zerexiam
it’s not the gods that cause this it’s us which is natural so whats your point?

Answer by Bongo McGurk
religion leads to mental disorders as fundamentalists clearly demonstrate

Answer by Kevin
Yes, most RELIGIONS do lead down that road…

That’s exactly why I choose a personal RELATIONSHIP with Jesus

Answer by vikram
Probably. Actually every religion is its essence i a very good way of exchanging morals and a good way to live life but religions got abused by poweful people for their own good.

Answer by Light Yagami
no… they don’t lead to that anymore… they are all currently doing that and they show no signs of stopping.

Answer by MelGodsChild18
no……what power im a christain and i have power over no one and dont want it

Answer by Wolf
nope the Asatru don’t believe in oppressing anyone well unless you count those half wit sheep fuckers from the 14 word press but they are not real Asatru. if my people still ruled the land corruption could be rooted out easily and a person labors would be rewarded properly and we would not have weak people ruling over the strong. Also my forebears stood against the crusaders and sent them running home with their tails between their legs while licking their wounds well the crusaders that survived at least.

Answer by iThrowApples
im quite sure that isnt happening
but im catholic so i dont really think itll happen…

doing religion assignment…

this is really helping me

Answer by Leonard
Humans will take any excuse to be selfish and oppress others.

Answer by Callisto
Make no mistake, religion still IS a powerful oppressive force in the world.

Just think about the evolution “debate” in the US, fundamentalist Islamic militants in the middle east, Orthodox Jews in Israel attacking a female reporter for turning on her tape recorder on the Sabbath, and Pope Benedict telling his Sub-Saharan flock that condoms don’t prevent the spread of AIDS.

Some of those aren’t just morally suspect, they’re genocidal.

Not just agnostics and atheists, but all compassionate, socially aware citizens of Earth need to take a stand against these manipulative, agenda driven forces.

Answer by breyet_leyet
Jesus hated religion. Read what He said to the pharisees and scribes. Jesus is all about God.
Jesus gives us freedom, freedom from the law and sin thru the free gift of Grace in Jesus.
Evil men use religion and whatever else they can to control and abuse people. Jesus never taught such things. He taught turn the other cheek. He also said believers would be hated for His sake.
Religious persecution still happens today. It happened in the Old Testament, with Daniel, and the Hebrew children cast into the oven. And is happening today with religious martyrs killed for being Christain, most recently in Pakistan. I now refuse to buy anything made in Pakistan. Kill my brothers and sisters, I do not financially support you. What about 9/11 ? Isn’t that Islam killing the infidels and non-belivers they have determined, against their religion. Religious oppression and abuse of power will be with us until Jesus takes over His kingdom, and even then, the non-believers of Jesus will be removed and cast off.
It just is.
Think happy thoughts !!!!

Answer by The Link
Hardly.

Any charismatic moron can hijack any religion, philosophy, worldview, or way of thinking (regardless of the intrinsic worth or accuracy of said religion, philosophy, etc;) and twist it for their own purposes, taking advantage of weak minded, weak willed, or emotionally unstable people. It could be done (and in several instances has been done) with an atheist worldveiw as well. And, as a Christian, I will readily admit to and point out the innumerable instances throughout history (and the present) that people have done it with Christianity and forms of Christianity.

But for all those who have hijacked and twisted the Gospel for their own purposes, it doesn’t change the intrinsic truth and power of the unadulterated Gospel as it comes directly from the Word. All the hijacker accomplishes is making themselves into a fool of history.

Answer by A
Read here

https://www.islamreligion.com/category/33…

https://www.thedeenshow.com/videos.php?ac…

https://howdoipray.com/howdoipray/Home/

Answer by Joe
Oppression and abuse of power are the natural end result of any organization led by fallible humans. Good intentions of good leaders can postpone this but only for so long. This life cycle of organizations can be seen in every civilization that has ever lived from the ancient Hebrews, to the Roman Empire, to the United States of America; they grow, live a while, then get corrupted, then die.

If you accept the Bible account, then it only took the children of Israel a matter of days to start worshiping a Golden Calf after Jehova miraculously led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. Thus we see that even when God himself is leading the people through his prophet, they are easily persuaded to believe false doctrines and corrupt the religion for their own ends.

I don’t want you to get the impression that I’m against religion because I’m a staunch believer and member of a religion; I promise.

The Bible says ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.’ (Prov. 3:5)

This is the key to my argument: Any group of any kind led by fallible humans, is destined to become corrupt and fail. We can’t even trust ourselves to get it right. As the maxim goes: Die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the enemy. What then can we do? Where do we turn?

There is only one source for pure religion and pure knowledge. We must turn to Him for guidance. Be a a member of a religion but investigate what they are teaching you. Read your Bible and pray about the teachings you find there in comparison with the teachings of the churches until you find that one church which was founded by Jesus Christ Himself and which contains the whole, pure, and simple Truth, not because YOU decided it was right, but because God led you to it. Once you find it, you must make sure that it is God that you are worshiping and following through the church keeping in mind that the human leader / prophet is still a fallible human and that everything he says should only be accepted after personal study and prayer. With your foundation in the right place, God will be pleased with you.

One last note: We all learn at different rates and in different ways so don’t be surprised if your quest for Truth takes you through many small steps or in unexpected directions. Basically just because you were led to one church doesn’t mean that that’s the one with the Truth. You might need to learn a few things from them before moving on to another church. Trust in God and follow his promptings and you can be sure keep your religion pure at least within yourself.

The reason that I recommend finding the right religion and not simply creating a belief system for yourself is a long argument but for now I’ll say that I believe that certain ordinances like Baptism can only be done by those ordained of God in His one true church (As evidenced by Jesus only willing to be baptized by John, a Nazarite who was given that authority and not by any of the leaders of the Jewish church of that day). Also, though a church may at first appear to have teachings contrary to what we have accepted up to this point in our lives, it may be that with study and prayer that you decide that the other way is more correct. Being humble enough to critically examine our own beliefs and assumptions is what I’m getting at. I know I’ve had to eat crow a few times XD.

With Love
-Joe B

Answer by shivkumar s
for this the first thing to under stand is why this product called religion is put in the market for those this thing seem to be new and impressive so everyone want to have it and showoff about the good and some thing new, so the one buy the right to sell make lot of name and followers and power to miss use and why not ,,this is always happens why to worry now

Answer by Natasha
That’s utter nonsense. Religion, first of all gives people values, and if you take that away, life will become chaotic, nobody will know what to do anymore or how to behave, there’ll be no rules and people will just go back to the ancient times when it was okay to kill and steal and do other bad things like that. We need religion for our spiritual development.