Fighters and religion/spirituality.

It has always seemed odd to me that someone who fights for a living can be so religious or spiritual. I know for a lot of people religion helps with perseverance and will. I also know that most fighters are not trying to go out and hurt people. But, how do the two (fighting and religion) correlate? I am not a very religious person, and was not raised in a religious family. I'm curious to know, because many fighters after fights first and foremost praise God and thank Jesus for the win. Just curious. Thanks

Read the bible man, A lot of violent **** goes down in that book. You got fathers about to kill their sons, god threatining to lay waste to hole towns of sodomites and ******s, and of course the fun lovin apacolypse in my favourite part of the bible, revalations. The bible (Christianity is the main religion i am assuming you are thinking of with all the Brazilians and Americans who are devoute christians in MMA) says thou shalt not kill, not thou shalt not **** people up for a living. But when it comes down to it I believe it is  more geography than anything, Brazilians and Americans (I hate to generalize) tend to have large population pockets of devoted Christians and odds are a couple of them will become prize fighters

I know there are violent passages in the bible. But aren't christians supposed to model their life around Christ? He never front kicked anybody lol. It's just always interested me.

MMA is competition and sport. they go through the risk of injury. Christ allegedly makes sure they dont get harmed.

Even Paul exercised by running and boxing and he wrote the majority of the epistles (or letters) of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (italics mine, NKJV)
Fighting is a sport.  I wouldn't go so far to say that "Christ allegedly makes sure they don't get harmed" as kallous says, rather I would say that fighting and Christianity are not mutually exclusive as God wants all people to come to Him through Christ, no exceptions.

@zerohours - your commentary is a masterpiece! Very i'mpressive dude. Having the divine strength of knowing God has your back is life's greatest test/choice. Take Vitor Belfort or even Jorge Rivera; both lost family members they were very close too during their fighting careers, Vitor a sister and Jorge a daughter. I often ask myself what i'd do in that situation and i leave myself with two choices: turn to God or become an alcoholic/drug addict - yes i am serious. Situations like these never leave a person and give them the inspiration to do great things as both have turned a 180 in their careers after these tragic events. Not everyone is built to have this kind of faith, i'm not even sure i am some days. As @zerohours stated the bible says thou shalt not kill, the world before christ and shortly after his death was ****** up, and it always will be. To think ******s and murderers never existed would be extreme, its just the ever developing technology in the world that's brought it onto everyone's front door step. What am i even rambling about anymore......

Great discussion topic! I too had this conversation with a buddy of mine after the last UFC event and we were discussing this. I understand that in Christianity it says to be Christ like, and if so you have to remember that Jesus was pretty badass. For instance the time where he went into the temple and saw all the taxcollectors and merchants. He went ape**** on them and threw them all out. Not to mention the Old Testament, which zerohours has already talked about. Coming from a Catholic background I know that there is a patron saint for fighters which is St. Michael the Archangel who is absolutely amazing. He's head of God's army and was the guy that cast Satan out of heaven in the beginning. He's the angel you see in the famous painting who's stomping on the devil's face. Which brings up the point of the fact that God has a ******* ARMY! I mean as zero mentioned already the Bible has an end times prediction which includes a fight in the end so don't think of Jesus as mild, but as him going through milennia long training camp to whoop Satan's ass.

Oh and also to bring it back to mma, cause I noticed I veered off a bit there. As other's have mentioned before mma is a sport, a sometimes bloody and violent sport, but a sport nontheless. As has been seen in almost every sport, people give thanks to God because they feel blessed to have such great athletic abilities. Just because there is violence in this sport does not mean that you have to not believe in God in order to do something you love and excel in. Most Christians believe that God gives them certain gifts and talents so that they may be suited for different activities. These individuals just so happen to be suited for MMA and all I can say is God bless them that they are because their amazing at what they do.

Great commentary @lilspyder - honestly the best i've read from you so far, that was awesome!

awesome, thanks for all the input guys!

Although I do find the declaration of their faith to be a bit over the top at times in the post fight interviews (I'm looking at you Ben Henderson)  I don't think that faith and fighting are something that has to be mutually exclusive.  Having unwaivering confidence in a higher power helps the fighter have unwaivering confidence in themselves and their abilities.  I would also put forth the idea that faith and violence go hand in hand, as evidenced by the expansion of Islam in the mid-seventh through mid-tenth centuries and the Christian crusades that followed.  Although there is no way of knowing, I would guess there have been millions of deaths in the name of "God" since people began praying (and sacrificing) to deities to protect their harvest, bring them victory in battle, help them conceive a child, etc.