Why do religions experience persecution?

Answer 1

Religions were usually closely associated to whim and fancy of the affluent and influential persons in the society. Religion gave politicians and the rich individuals the tools to control their workers and servants. Crafty individuals cleverly exploited the ultimate human fear of death. Their objective was achieved by creating an abstract concept of Heaven and Hell so that they could induce their workers to maintain loyalty and obedience through the fear of sin and death.

They used natural acts of nature to authenticate their ingenuous fabrication. They convinced the gullible workers that these natural disasters were demonstrations of God's wrath upon them for their various misgivings from time to time. A typical example of such a fabrication was the mythological story of Noah's Ark and the great flood.

When a competing religion threatens the economic control of another then persecution is used to destroy the competition. Religious persecution has more to do with wealth, power and greed, than it has to do with righteousness and piety.

______________________________________________AnswerThe Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weakIn The Bible, there's a verse that goes something like this, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate". By them, the Good Book means the world, as believers, of any religion, should be called out from the world, and therefore are now open to any attack that the world might try to get some "relgious zealot" to shut up, and NO, RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS SHOULD NOT AND DON'T HAVE TO BLOW THEMSELVES AND OTHERS INTO THE AFTERLIFE TO GO TO HEAVEN THEMSELVES. That is a strong statement, I know, but the true purpose of any religion is twofold: to save others with what you believe to be true, and to glorify the god/God you worship, and how can you expect to win souls for any cause on this earth by blowing the non beievers to bits, as the frightened ones are certainly not any closer to being converted to any cause if they realize that they would do the same thing if they jumped ship.

Christ, the Personification of Deity, proved this twofold: He preached His message (winning souls in peace), and He was martyred by those who hated what He stood for, though He never raised a hand to anyone, not even when He was being nailed to the cross, guilty of doing nothing but preaching the Word, healing the sick, and discipling His followers.