Psychology of religous violence and destructiveness

Violence, a phenomenon that only interests humans among all livings, is attracted the attantion of researchers from many disciplines. Understanding and make sense of the phenomenon of violence is taken place in different ways due to its multidimensional structure. This situation makes it very difficult to define. The concept of destructiveness, which can be considered as an extreme form of violence, is also an action peculiar to humans. There are both types of violence and destructiveness due to their application areas in different disciplines. Moving from the fact that there may not be events of violence and destructiveness instantly occurring and instantly ending up, some concepts based on the sub-processes are touched on. These are anger, hatred, aggression, abuse, threat, harassment, fanaticism, terror, radicalism and bullying. There are some theories in order to determine the origin of violence and destructiveness. These are theories that argue that violence is innate and that is acquired afterwards. Biological theory and instinct theory are among the theories that defend the innate nature of violence. Among theories that argue that it is acquired later, there are the frustration-aggression theory and social learning theory. It is seen that people who resort to violence and destructiveness are based on some defense mechanism for their behaviour. These; rationalization, conscientization, basing on religion and ideology and finally, dehumanization. Differences in comprehension and interpretation of the scriptures cause disparities of opinion about the relation of religions to violence and destructiveness. This relationship can be positive, negative and neutral. Supporters of all three cases assert a variety of arguments. The conclusion reached as a result of these arguments is that religion is associated with violence and destructiveness in some cases it is found and in some cases it is not. New religious movements are generally known to violence prone. However, some movements also reject violence. New religious movements, which show a change in the tendency of violence depending on the ideology of the leader, cause the old-new fight in the society. The reasons for participating in new religious movements, which are stated to have emerged for various reasons, also vary according to the perspective of the researchers. It is known that new religious movements resort to many methods in order to gain members and not to lose their members, and brainwashing is the leading one. They perform a very meticulous work in the brainwashing process. It is a proven fact that there is violence in human nature. Since the characteristic of this violence is shaped / nurtured by society, religion, culture and traditions and customs, it is thought that violence emerges in different ways. All these factors are dressed as a different outfit for the innate violence for person. Thus, violence and destructiveness are exposed by people for different purposes. This study using qualitative methodology, was carried out in a descriptive design for its purposes. The data were obtained as a result of scanning and analyze written sources and documents. The obtained information was resolved with descriptive analysis and content analysis techniques. Keyords: Religion, Psychology of Religion, Violence, Aggression, Destructiveness, New Religious Movements, Brain Washing