Can Religion Bring World Peace?

WHY SOME SAY YES

They believe that religious leaders can promote peace. Clergymen often talk about altruistic values. Because of this, many people think that religious leaders can use their influence to help resolve some long-standing disputes.

They believe that religious values provide motivation for peace. One researcher found that peacemakers often “see their work as having some larger cosmic significance”​—in other words, as being part of a divine plan. This view can add to their incentive to work for peace, and it can heighten their hope for success.

TO THINK ABOUT

While religion may seem to be a force for peace, history reveals that religious people are often at the forefront of fighting.

• Does it seem reasonable to believe that conflicting ways of worship will bring world peace?

• Considering the role of religious people in warfare, is it more realistic to believe that religion will unite people or that it will continue to divide them?

  

  Left: Danil Semyonov/​AFP via Getty Images; bottom right: Dmytro Smolyenko/​Ukrinform/​Future Publishing via Getty Images

  Religions that tolerate or promote hatred and violence are part of the problem, not the solution

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

The book of Revelation uses the term “Babylon the Great” to refer to all religions that do not live up to the teachings of God’s Word.a (Revelation 17:5) These institutions are responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people throughout history.

Even in modern times, wars have often been fueled by religious differences. Religious leaders have often encouraged their followers to go to war against people of other faiths or even other branches of the same faith. Religions that tolerate or promote hatred and violence are part of the problem, not the solution.

In contrast, the Bible says that those who practice true religion “beat their swords into plowshares.” (Isaiah 2:2-4) That figurative expression indicates that they do not take sides in man’s wars. More than that, they strive to cultivate such qualities as love, kindness, and self-control.​—Galatians 5:22, 23.

The Bible has helped Jehovah’s Witnesses achieve a measure of genuine peace that transcends racial and national barriers. If such a worldwide brotherhood seems too good to be true, why not attend one of their meetings and see for yourself?