who else thinks Religions causes wars?

Answer 1

yh they do, because they create great differences between people and the conflicting ideas create conflict

but mainly i agree with the idea that it is the followers not the religion that cause the war...although at the same time it could be said that it is the religion that makes the followers make war, so i suppose it could be argued either way

Answer 2

I do not think religions cause wars. I think to say so is taking the easy way out of confronting the reality of the human condition.

Wars are caused by our desires to have our own way - that goes from the tiniest tiffs between infant siblings to the Wars that have devastated and re-formed our societies.

It's our selfishness and fear that cause wars. If religion were to disappear tomorrow it'd be something else the day after. The human condition causes wars.

Answer 3

I have to agree with the person who said that religions don't cause wars. Wars are caused by the followers of religion.

Answer 4

Religions don't cause wars. Ultimately it should be up to the individual to choose whether they believe in a god and which one it is and which cult they follow. However the wars are started by the fanaticism of those who do not follow this doctrine and try to impose their religion or belief on those who don't conform to it. The problem is that most of these fanatics think that only their way is right. One day, when they all discover that there is no god and it is only a man made, self created belief in the unexplained, there may be an end to all this un-necessary struggle to force one's beliefs down the throats of others.

Answer 5

Touchy subject this,
Religion does start wars but not directly through religion itself, the people on the seperate sides of there religions start the wars and then use religion as a scape goat, wars are generally started trough countries or wold leaders miss treating its people, or invading other countries, another country will step in and there, you have a war, its more political that religous i think,

Answer 6

I think the race religions cause war. Christianity was supposed to change all that, but the race religions are holding on for dear life.

Answer 7

Many wars are based or caused on religion!

Answer 8

No, Atheists and secular humanists consistently make the claim that religion is the #1 cause of violence and war throughout the history of mankind. One of hatetheism's key cheerleaders, Sam Harris, says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.”1

While there’s no denying that campaigns such as the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ War foundationally rested on religious ideology, it is simply incorrect to assert that religion has been the primary cause of war. Moreover, although there’s also no disagreement that radical Islam was the spirit behind 9/11, it is a fallacy to say that all faiths contribute equally where religiously-motivated violence and warfare are concerned.

An interesting source of truth on the matter is Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as being religious in nature,2 which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one subtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to 3.23%.

That means that all faiths combined – minus Islam – have caused less than 4% of all of humanity’s wars and violent conflicts. Further, they played no motivating role in the major wars that have resulted in the most loss of life.

Kind of puts a serious dent into Harris’ argument, doesn’t it?

The truth is, non-religious motivations and naturalistic philosophies bear the blame for nearly all of humankind’s wars. Lives lost during religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the regimes who wanted nothing to do with the idea of God – something showcased in R. J. Rummel’s work Lethal Politics and Death by Government:

Non-Religious Dictator Lives Lost

Joseph Stalin - 42,672,000
Mao Zedong - 37,828,000
Adolf Hitler - 20,946,000
Chiang Kai-shek - 10,214,000
Vladimir Lenin - 4,017,000
Hideki Tojo - 3,990,000
Pol Pot - 2,397,0003
Rummel says: “Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.”4

The historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the #1 cause of war.

If religion can’t be blamed for most wars and violence, then what is the primary cause? The same thing that triggers all crime, cruelty, loss of life, and other such things. Jesus provides the answer very clearly: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23).

James (naturally) agrees with Christ when he says: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2).

In the end, the evidence shows that the atheists are quite wrong about the wars they claim to so desperately despise. Sin is the #1 cause of war and violence, not religion, and certainly not Christianity.

https://carm.org/religion-cause-war

Answer 9

I too think its the follows of the religion who interpret everything in a different way, which leads to wars

Answer 10

yes, religion is most of the time the reason behind most wars but then again religion wouldn't cause war if people excepted the fact that people have different beliefs and not everyone is alike, but..sigh..who can explain this to the self-centered people of this world....