As a follow-up to my recent question about forgiveness being exclusive to Christianity (and thank you for the clarifications), don’t you think that religions put pressure on people to forgive? If so, then I am not a fan of religion. What do you think?
Please keep in mind that most religions emphasize free will. The idea and importance of forgiveness are emphasized for the believers and then it is up to them to exercise their free will and to forgive or not. Also, in your criticism of “putting pressure on people to forgive,” I think you are missing a vital point. Here is an analogy: Parents (who are good parents) want their children to grow up to be good adults. Therefore, the parents emphasize that their children show respect to others. Is this “putting pressure on the children to show respect,” or is it something much more beautiful than pressure? The point of emphasizing respect is to aid the children to grow in the goodness of humanity, not to put some kind of grim pressure on them that makes no sense toward their humanity. It is the same with forgiveness, which can aid a child to have mercy on others, to be patient and kind to others, and thus to be deeply human. This is very different from a grim pressure that bears no fruit. It is similar in religions that emphasize the free-will exercise of forgiveness. These belief systems are showing the believers a beautiful way of being human.
