Religion and the History of Violence for Natural or Inherent

Question: Discuss about theReligion and the History of Violence for Natural or Inherent. Answer: Introduction: Before the topic of the essay is discussed in detail in the subsequent paragraphs, it becomes necessary to discuss what the topic of the essay means. The topic questions the fact that whether the humans are naturally violent or no? Humans are the animals who are the most intellectual species present on the earth at this given point in time. Naturally stands for the tendency of something which is there from the present or from the time when a human being is born. It is not inherent or acquired or done by seeing your idol, it is anything which is present inside the human from the day he is born. Violence stands for the activity which won't be considered peaceful; something which reflects aggression and the behaviour of fighting which is generally not verbal but also leading to fighting with fists and weapons. Hence, the whole topic which would be discussed would be whether the tendency in the humans of violence is natural or it is something which can be acquired i.e. that human nature from the start wants to fight and have this instinct or no(Gabbatis, 2017). So the concept of violence actually can be inside the humans by two ways. The violence can be- Natural or inherent Acquired over the time(Parsons, 2017) Natural or inherent violence can be that the person is so from the very beginning and have got that in his genes whereas some people become violent over time. People can become violent over time because of the following reasons- They have seen harsh times and have become so over time. They have been in the company of such people who have the tendency to fight. They have been bullied and have become like that(Hughes, 2015). They want to take revenge from people who have mugged them. So the question arises that are people actually violent naturally or it is just a myth. There stand two theories related to violence and aggression namely the new theory and the old theory. The old theory was given by Konrad Lorenz and it said that the aggression and violence was not a reaction of reflex to the external stimuli and it was something which was built over by time in the people. He said that people do not react violently every time but there is a built up of energies which happen over time and once that saturation point arises because of filling till the brim, that irritation and pressure is released in the form of aggression and violence by the people. Hence, it is the thing which occurs over time and is an internal built up thing(Wright, 2013). Under this the most important and the most popular theory have been the frustration built up theory which says that the people keep on accumulating and building pressure in their minds from things which keep on happening overtim e and once their saturation point is raised and once they have been totally done up with something that frustration is visible and it comes out in front of the people once it is triggered(Johnston, 2016). But this theory then also says that these emotions can be controlled and kept in check if the person has control over his emotions and does not show his violence in front of the people and also it can be avoided once the person has communicated his feelings and what he is upset about to the people and he relaxes his mind from sharing his bit(Gabbitis, 2017). Then there comes the new theory of aggression which says that it is the external stimuli which aggravate in the person the tendency to fight and be aggressive and it is not the emotions which triggers the aggression instinct of the person(Fuentes, 2012). This theory states that there are certain things which are needed by the human body for the survival like the food, water, air, shelter, sex, and other basic things. Anything which hampers the availability of these things in the life of the human it leads to the building up of aggression in the human. A theory also says that if a person is involved in a lot of violent body contact sports like boxing, football and all, he becomes aggressive by nature and he also not able to communicate his feelings with others. Different types of cultures and forbidding the children to do something also can be one of the reasons why children turn out to be violent. Another thing which decides a lot about the behavior related to aggression or violence is how the person is bought up in the house. if the child is bought up ideally (and here ideally stands for that the atmosphere of the house is fine and the parents do not keep fighting and the child is taught all the good and moral values in the house) then there are less chances that the child turns out to be violent and indulge in a lot of fights(Greene, 2014). Whereas, if the parents themselves return frustrated to their home and fight with each other in front of the child and also make him a part of the brawling; if the needs of the child are not fulfilled and he is not able to communicate well with their parents, then it is a very high probability that the child turns out to be violent and starts fighting with all the people around him. Hence, the growing up stage is a very crucial stage and the basic nature of the child is formed in those formative years. Hence, it is the time of make or break and the child is made to learnt there and then whether he would turn out to be an a ggressive person or not(Keltner Marsh, 2010). Except for these issues like abuse from the family members, gangs from the streets and the violent behaviour at school by the fellow students also make the child impulsive and he learns to react in a similar way and hence turns out to be a violent person(Sapolsky, 2017). Bullying and all makes the person violent but it not always that he wants to harm the other person and many times the display of violence and aggression can be because the person is trying to save himself from the other people. The cultural holocausts and the barriers in the religions, ethnic groups etc., are also reasons why people can turn out to be violent, for example, if a particular ethnic group is looked down by the other groups and not give sufficient resources and recognition, the people of that group will turn out to be hostile and start the acts of violence and show their aggression by killing people and looting them and creating issues in the normal lifestyles of the people(Armstrong, 2014). Hence, both the theories propound different reasons for the germination of the aggressive and violent style in the people. There can be different factors and reasons why people inculcate such a behaviour in them and turn out to be an aggressive person who is ready for any sort of violent act. Another of the American survey found out that the chimps are considered to be a very violent creature. They tend to be very violent and generally the males among them are considered to be of the aggressive and violent state. And there is no doubt about the fact that the human beings are the descendants of the chimps who have modified from them to be what they are today. So if the chimps are considered and proven to be the violent breed then with time it is possible that though the looks have been changed and modified, but somewhere the basic nature remained as it is. There is a high chance of probability that the aggressive and violent nature of the chimps would have been carried down to the present human beings and who because how their descendants were turn out to be aggressive too. It is also not a big deal to find out that the men among both the sexes are found to be more violent and aggressive in their attitude rather than the women who are mostly subtle and against violence. So just like the chimps the men can have frustration and aggression which can be related to lack of food and unavailability of satisfactory shelter place; the territorial induced aggression and the aggression related to sex and prey can be the reasons why the men today are also highly aggressive in nature just like the chimps who somewhere too had the same fears. It is also said in science that there are certain hormones in the body of the person which is related to aggression. The complexities and hormones and fluids of the body like serotonin, testosterone and other various neurotransmitters and hormones are there which are associated with aggression. Though there is no fixed quantity or set standard which shows that the person is extremely aggressive but certain reactions from the person which shows irritation, mood- off, not interested in conversation, etc. are the things which reflect the frustration of the person and which leads to the aggressive and violent attitude by the humans. Another major area through which the violence can be seen of the people is the war. Wars are common from the very beginning and there have been wars between almost all the countries. The reasons for wars can be so many but the end line is that they show the aggression of the human beings they have inside them for the other people. The reasons for war are again the insecurities and the greed of man. The people of different countries fight wars because they want to expand their territories (hence the territory infused aggression), they want to rule the other countries (expansion of territory aggression) and also because they are afraid that the other stronger country would declare war on them (hence the fear which induces aggression). War is the ultimate display of violence by the people. The wars are not natural, they are man-made. The man, because of his own fears and greed, has been continuously fighting wars with different countries. And this tendency to fight a war is not natural or inherently there; the aggression and violence related to war are mostly developed with age and is because of the people you are surrounded with and the kind of ideas they put across in your minds. Hence, if the war is seen and the aggression and violence portrayed in it are taken as the basis then it is something which is acquired and built with time and is not something which a person carries from the birth. Somewhere in the year 1986, a scientist deduced that there is no type of evidence which is scientific which shows that the violence and aggression in a man are inborn. It cannot be scientifically proven that the men in our society are violent naturally. Though the history is full of war and bloodshed; it is full of different kinds of killing and issues, but none of it has ever shown that the problem of violence and aggression is in the people from birth. All these cruelties have just shown the different reasons and fears in the humans which have related to the wars in the past. Though there are hormones related to aggression in the people, yet these are aggravated only if the certain external stimulus is made to react with it. People tend to fight only when they are put in that situation where they cannot break free without fighting them and showing certain violent act. Science even has proven that though there are animals from which the humans have been deciphered to be developed an d who have shown the extreme sort of violence and aggression, yet, there is a line between the humans and animals which cannot be skipped. Though certain habits might have been transferred and carried forward, yet the human brain is the most intellectual brain which is said to be in the universe. The brain of a human cannot be compared to that of an animal and hence the reactions to things are also different between both the species. This deduces that the aggressive nature of animals for a certain thing is not a basis to decide whether it would be the reason of violence in human beings too. And hence, this does not give a liberty to deduce that the aggression in human beings is innate. There are two types of aggression which have been deduced. They are the proactive and the reactive and these are associated with the external factors and the response to external stimuli. How this aggression can be tamed turns out to be a different story altogether, but the main point to infer here is that the aggression is always stimulated by external forces and hence this is not natural or innate. Aggression is always something which is acquired by the people over time. Though the history is full of war, there are many instances where people have shown harmony and have settled their disputes without declaring war on each other. Not only this there are many communities and regions in different countries which are peaceful and have never tried too hard any kind of ethnic group or different people. The evolution in humans has shown many social activities and emotions like empathy and altruism which has helped people to look past the violent behaviour of the people. Many constructive things like food shelters, new education system and methods of learning, the development of industries and handicrafts, etc., are the things which show how people can live peacefully and live without the display of any sort of violence. Even though there has been a migration of people between the countries, and many immigration and emigrations, yet people have learnt the art to accept people with open arms and not be violent. It has also been concluded that though there are people who have an inclination towards violence and can become easily aggressive and hence ready to fight; there are also people who are not so violent in nature and they try to think logically before taking any step of violence. Even though there has been data which shows the things like group conflicts in the past and the excavations have shown that there happened large group violence over 12000 years ago, yet people have now become smart enough to realize that many a times cooperation is something that is needed by the people and not violence. Though people may indulge in the bad and large level of issues and violence, yet it can be seen that in the near past the people have developed the quality to cooperate and listen and reach to conclusions before first rather than fighting at the very first place. Conclusion: In the conclusion, it can be said that the people can indulge in a lot of violence and behaviour of certain people can actually make them part of big fights because of excess display of aggression, yet one can rectify it with controlling our emotions and channelizing that aggressive energy in some place useful. Bibliography Armstrong, K. (2014). 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