Our Beliefs In A Non Violent Way example essay topic

Clingman page 1 Borders of Non-Violent Resistance When I think about violence towards another human being, I start thinking about the consequences that are going to come about afterwards and then I start thinking, what's the point? That's probably why I have never been a fight in my life, physically that is. I look at all these people on TV or in the media "standing up for what they believe in", but where do you draw the line from getting violent to get your beliefs across to just taking the calm approach? In today's society if you want to be heard, you either have to blow up a building, kill several thousand people or get violent in some other way. Right now in the world today, I can not think of one person in the media that is currently standing for what they believe in without getting violent. It seems like everybody I think of is in the past.

Take Mohandas K. Gandhi for instance. He was a man that lived a long time ago that had many borders to cross to get his point across to people. He faced many challenges, lots of oppression and tyranny, but he never raised his fist in a thought of violence. Because he was so loved by the people, everyone started to follow his ways and eventually stopped the violence and stood up and showed their beliefs in more peaceful ways without fighting. This is a man that should be the ideal role model for society when we think about going to war. I'm not just talking about war with other countries; I'm talking about war with our words towards others and war with our actions when we get frustrated or angry with other people.

A really poignant quote that stood in my mind that came straight from Ghandi's mouth in Clingman page 2 the movie was this; 'Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man. ' In my mind, Ghandi is basically saying that a man using his brain instead of a gun is more destructible that the man using the gun. Because the man using the gun may be able to take one quick pull of the trigger and shoot a bullet, but sooner or later that man is going to run out of bullets and then what do they do if the other man is still standing or if there are more like him still standing there waiting? Ghandi was trying to change a specific thing and that is usually how it is when someone stands up to be heard. In today's society whenever you hear someone throwing a fit or starting a war in some way, it is usually over religion, because everybody believes that they are right and that everyone else just needs to shut up and sit down.

I am a born again Christian and I firmly believe in standing up and showing that I am a follower of god. But today more than ever, that is extremely hard to do. When I sit at home reading through the bible I come up with so much violence and hatred toward believers and followers of god and believe it or not, history does repeat itself. But even though there is much violence between the people, there are a few characters that do stand up for what they believe in without getting violent.

Take Peter for example, this is a man in the book of Acts that is basically a missionary for god and travels from town to town preaching the good news to those that don't know about god. He arrives at this town and is preaching the word to the Clingman page 3 unbelievers and when the authorities find out, they beat him and drag him out of the town and throw him outside the city gates. What does Peter do you may ask? Well, he gets up, dusts himself off and heads right back into the town.

This is a perfect example of standing up for your beliefs without getting violent. There are many people in "the good book" like Peter but he is just one that I thought of. Now you may ask what the significance of telling that story about Peter was. Well, the whole point to my essay is standing up for your religion without getting violent through the persecution of others. And in today's society that's a really hard thing to do because everyone has their beliefs and opinions and they all think that they are right.

The people that crashed the planes into the world trade center towers on September 11, 2001 were standing up for what they believed in. They believed that god (Allah, in their words) told them to do it. They died for what they believed in, but unfortunately they did it in a violent way and took thousands of people to the grave with them. As you sit here reading this paper, look at your life. Think back to high school and try to remember how kids used to treat you or how you treated others. Did you do things in a violent way because people weren't the same as you?

When I look back, I was pretty much an all around jock all through high school. I would go to the parties on Friday and Saturday nights and I would get really drunk with everyone and not remember a thing on Sunday morning. My senior year my life changed and I accepted god into my life for the first time. This was an extremely hard thing to do because it was so hard to stand Clingman page 4 up for my Christianity, and give up the past at the same time. Everyday, I was persecuted by my 'friends' because I started reading the bible instead of drinking a beer. They all still liked me and we got a long, but sometimes it was so hard to stand up for my beliefs.

Now, I'm not a violent guy, I never have been. I have always had a lot of fear in my life, but I have never been violent. I have always had fear of what others would think or say or do and I think that has also helped out the fact that I have never done anything really outrageous or irrational. Whenever somebody would test my faith, I would and still to this day test him or her right back. For example if someone asks me the question, 'How do you actually know that there is a god and that he created the entire world?' Well, I just turn back on them and ask the question, 'How do you know that there is not and that he didn't?' I think that there are many, many ways to stand up for what you believe in and make your point across without getting violent. Another point that relates to this subject, is that everybody in this world today are so caught up about what people think and what they will say or what they will do.

And I will be the first to admit that I think these things sometimes also, but I think that when we overcome these frustrations, it will be so much easier to share our faith with others and not be afraid because Christianity is not the 'cool' thing. So anyway, in conclusion I would like to say in the world today, there is so much violence because of people standing up for their beliefs. Yeah violence is Clingman page 5 wrong, but at least these people are standing up. I think if the rest will stand up for our beliefs in a non-violent way and show others that violence is not the way to get a point across, this would be a much better nation. Buddha taught that in order to live a life that is free from pain and suffering people must eliminate any attachments to worldly goods. Only then will they gain a kind of peace and happiness.

They must rid themselves of greed, hatred, and ignorance. They strive to cultivate four attitudes, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. The basic moral code prohibits killing, stealing, harmful language, sexual misbehavior, and the use of intoxicants. Morality, wisdom, and samadhi, or concentration form the cornerstone of Buddhist faith. By observing these, lust, hatred, and delusion may be overcome. This is known as Nirvana.

It is a realistic goal only for members of the monastic community. The most devoted followers of the Buddha were organized into the monastic sangha. They were identified by their shaved heads and robes made ofunsewn orange cloth. Many early monks wandered from place to place, settling down only during the rainy season when traveling was difficult.

The Buddhist have lasted because they have the ability to adapt to changing conditions and to a variety of cultures. Monks are expected to live a life of poverty, meditation, and study. They must avoid all sexual activity. They devote themselves to work, study, and prayer. They all dress in special robes. Monks play an important part in preserving and spreading Buddhism.

Historians have attempted to discover universal constants of human nature, a bond that forms from continent to continent, human being to human being. Is there a constant quality that all peoples posses, and is reflected in all civilizations? Indeed, it is extremely difficult to make generalizations about centuries of modern history. To say that something is true of all of history is virtually impossible, as a counter-example exists for just about anything that can be said of any group of civilizations.

To say that all religions are spread by violence is equally unfair and untrue - because contrasted religions has been spread in exceedingly diverse regions of the world, by vastly different cultures. Islam, as a prime example, has been characterized inequitably by historians and the media as a religion of violence. To put it bluntly, as this article does, 'Islam was mainly spread through Arab territorial conquests (Sudo, 4). ' However, upon examination, it is not fair to make the generalization that Islam is a religion of violence, and one notices when looking at world religion on a whole, one finds that Islam was no more violent than any other religion. In fact, not only is Islam not a fundamentally violent philosophy, but we can also see that many other religions normally considered 'non-violent,' such as Christianity or Hinduism, have been spread through bloody conquest. Thus, in searching for a universal constant of history, we ought not fall into the 'fallacy of abstractions,' as Sydney J. Harris keenly puts it, and assume that because of isolated incidents and conflicts of territorial ambitions, that all religions have violent tendencies.

Islam has, throughout the centuries, been somewhat a victim of circumstance - indeed it has been perceived by many as oppressive and cruel. This belief originated over a thousand years ago, when Islamic peoples first threatened the western world. As they slowly undermined Byzantine authority, Christians became terrified of their presence, resulting in widespread animosity and aversion. Hindus and Buddhists of the South Asian subcontinent lived under Islamic law for hundreds of years (Ahmad, et. al., 186), and eventually, in the twentieth century, split the region into angry factions (Ahmad, et. al., 207). Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was a great warrior.

This invariably lead defeated peoples to believe that he begot a cult of war and violence. Over the centuries, it also has developed the ability to instill a sense of holy purpose onto its believers and soldiers, where they go into a battle of certain death for their faith in the jihad, or holy war. Even today, the jihad is still a potent source of conflict and aversion, as the many of the problems in the Middle East center around the issue of Islamic Fundamentalism and the jihads. Originally, Islam was perceived by western historians as a religion of violence and conquest; 'by preying on the caravans of the Quraish, [Mohammed] weakened them to the point of submission (Mohammed and Islam, 1).

' In fact, Mohammed was a warrior, ar.