Stereotypes in religions have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. There have been mobs, battles, and even wars because of these stereotypes. Just think of the crusades that caused thousands of deaths over hundreds of years. All of that over two similar religions is ridiculous. So what are these stereotypes? What causes people to take it to the next level? How can we prevent it? Questions like these will be explored and answered throughout this piece.

100% of people stereotype. Only 5% of those stereotypes are actually true. So we got to wonder why we do it. So what are these stereotypes? Well they are pretty much anything you think that isn't supported by scientific evidence. You stereotype hundreds of times through out the day. Anytime you think something, it is a stereotype. The definition of stereotype is, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (According to dictionary.com). So that right there pretty much says it all. It might start out as a oversimplified image, but then it is brought to a new level.

That brings up the other question, how does it get out of hand? What happens is that after awhile, we start to believe those things. It all starts out as a joke, but it is like, if someone tells us something enough times, we are going to start believing the thing they say. So when we here of something on the news that supports our stereotypes, we start to hate whoever we are stereotyping. And when we start to hate something, we go over the top. When we hear of attacks on the news because of religion, we know that for some reason, the attacker hated the person that he attacked. You may hate that person because your religion is close to the one they believe in, and you are afraid they are right, so you come up with horrible excuses, saying bad things about their religion. Like, all muslims are terrorists. Most of us have heard that, that was started because of 9/11. Even though they are not all terrorists, we still believe that.

So what should we do, well it is simple. In school, we should be educated of different religions. If we are aware of the different ones, we can not stereotype them. We stereotype because we are not educated. The day we stop stereotyping, is he day there will be world peace. So for our school, and other schools, we should be educated. In 6th grade we had a unit on Pakistan. We learned of their religion, and of their culture. They are not all terrorists, unfortunately, we only here of the bad things through the media. My solution is simply the fact that we should be educated.

Stereotypes are just making an uneducated guess on someone. It is funny because when we stereotype, it is probably from the influence of a adult, not our own decision. If you think being a atheist is bad, then our parents probably said that to. So just remember, the next time we start to stereotype someone, think, do I really know what I am talking about, or should just keep it to my self.


Citations

AALetta. "Stereotypes in Religions." Teen Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. <http://teenink.com/hot_topics/what_matters/article/479077/Stereotypes-in-Religions/>.

Ahsan, M. M. Muslim Festivals. Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Enterprises, 1987. Print.

"Psych Central - Trusted Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, ADHD and Psychology Information ." Psych Central - Trusted Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, ADHD and Psychology Information . N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. <http://www.psychcentral.com/>.

"Stereotypes." Stereotypes. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. <http://www.Ilaam.net/articles/stereotypes.html>.