Does faith unite people?

[boyfriday 21]

Be careful what you wish for, blind faith doesn't always lead you to a happy and content life.

Indeed, if it did I'd be back there already!

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2013 at 12:45 ----------

 

Faith unites deluded idiots into groups that believe in the same imaginary friend.

 

But if you had an imaginary friend who made you happy would you be making efforts to distance yourself from him?

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2013 at 12:48 ----------

 

I read what I thought Zamo probably meant and not what Zamo actually typed.

 

Zamo's usually meticulous in his use of language, even though a lot of what he says grows in the field on the left

[milquetoast1 10]

Does faith unite people?

 

Yes, it unites people together to think they are better, more deserving, more entitled, more knowledgeable, and more important than those with different faiths or none.

 

Of course faith can unite people to do good, but it is dangerously delusional to pretend that it does not also motivate people to do bad.

 

People will cherry pick what they want. Unfortunately, a society in which good people are motivated to be better and bad people are motivated to be worse is less desirable than one without that motivation.

[I1L2T3 10]

Am I reading this right.

I looks like you think that only the people that share your views have faith, and the people that claim to have faith but don't share your views don't actually have any faith.

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2013 at 11:18 ----------

 

 

Thats the impression I also got.

 

It's not a simple binary case of does it unite or not. A lot of the time it is a uniting force but we also see how faith can be a destructive force in the hands of extremist and fanatics.

[cuttsie 1,090]

Yes I believe faith does unite people for a variety of reasons. Observers tend to believe that their earthly actions will be answerable to God, so they tend to mind their P's & Q's. Most religious messages promote peace and love for your fellow man.

 

The problems occur when zealots seize religious texts to suit their own misguided ends, I believe these people exist in all walks of life, however a supernatural cause gives them the opportunity to promote hatred and divisiveness.

The Aztecs and other peoples of South America where quite content worshiping the Sun God along with the stars and the Moon until the Zeolots in Rome decided to send in the Conquistadors along with the priests and turn their World upside down by FORCE!

[Zamo 10]

That's right, but the question was 'does faith unite people', not 'does faith unite all of the people'.

 

A faith that is shared unites people but is faith itself unifying i.e. uniting people with different beliefs?

 

Isn't the fact that the faiths had to come together in Kenya for the inter-faith prayers evidence that they are in fact divided? Isn't it morality that brought them together rather than faith?

[RootsBooster 24]

The BBC reports that Kenya's top Christian, Hindu and Muslim clerics have led a multi-faith prayer service for the 67 victims of the Westgate shopping centre attack. President Uhuru Kenyatta told the gathering that religion had been used to try and divide Kenyans but faith had instead united them.

 

This has got me thinking... is it really true that faith unites people? Is it not actually the case that faith divides people?

 

Even in places, like Britain, where people of different faiths are not fighting each other over their differences, we still have division rather than any sort of faith induced unity. Do not people of different faiths generally worship, cluster and socialise along faith lines? Of course, there is some coming together but surely that is more to do with proximity rather than the unifying influece of faith?

 

Wouldn't it be better to have one less thing that divides us? Wouldn't there be more unity if all people gave up their faith for the greater good? I think it would be a selfless act that any god would surely admire and approve of.

 

They were united in mourning and grief, not by faith. If people have differing faiths, they are by definition divided by faith. That's not to say they can't get along together.

 

The multi-faith prayer service won't have contained prayers to one unified version of an omniscient God, each person their will have been praying to their own version of their own God/s, according to their faith. Therefore still divided by faith (but united geographically)

Edited October 2, 2013 by RootsBooster

[Clown Shoes 10]

Religion unites people in a good & very obvious bad way.

 

Turn on the news for your answer.

[frededwards 10]

 

But if you had an imaginary friend who made you happy would you be making efforts to distance yourself from him?

 

 

I cannot envisage a situation whereupon I would be dim enough to believe in a made-up figure.

[ronthenekred 10]

For many acknowledging their faith isn't that simple. Their faith has to be protected. Faith isn't just a religious concept. The concept of faith within a religion is also not just religious based, it's political, social, ethical, moral, financial and cultural. If at any time one of those aspects are seen to be questioned or attacked then it's perceived that all those aspects are attacked.

 

There are many cases where the "faithful" are prepared in the name of religious expediency to overlook differences, usually when political or religious gain is at the forefront media wise.

Secularism isn't an acceptance of others faith, it's tenuously a toleration of it.

 

Does faith unite people? Of course it does.

" " " " " " " " "? Of course it doesn't.

[boyfriday 21]

I cannot envisage a situation whereupon I would be dim enough to believe in a made-up figure.

 

That's fine, but my suggestion did rely on your full subversion to the belief of his existence

 

---------- Post added 02-10-2013 at 13:42 ----------

 

A faith that is shared unites people but is faith itself unifying i.e. uniting people with different beliefs?

 

Isn't the fact that the faiths had to come together in Kenya for the inter-faith prayers evidence that they are in fact divided? Isn't it morality that brought them together rather than faith?

 

Very true, a factor which I'd not considered.

[Manlinose 10]

faith unites those who share the same faith - and divides them from everyone who doesn't

[angos 10]

The Aztecs and other peoples of South America where quite content worshiping the Sun God along with the stars and the Moon until the Zeolots in Rome decided to send in the Conquistadors along with the priests and turn their World upside down by FORCE!

 

Didn't they also throw people into the pit of fire as a sacrifice to their sun God.