Nothing Causes War Like Organised Religion?

Question

Has anyone else noticed that? I can count on one hand the tyrranical exploits of warmongers hell bent on overthrowing the world, but I need a calculator to total all the religious conflicts I can think of.

Do people lose their grip on love and tolerance when they sign up to the mosque / church / temple etc etc

Dee: I'm not white. Does this mean I can blame who I like?

Answer 1

You are not right. Throughout history most wars have been non religious and most killing has been done not in the name of religion. Have you also so soon forgotten the two greatest wars?

I prefer God's explanation :

From whence come wars and fightings among you ? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members ?
Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war yet ye have not... James 4


War comes from the sinful state of man's heart. That includes your heart too. Therefore you are not wise to sit in judgement lest you condemn yourself.

Answer 2

Nothing causes war like humans-I can quite safely state that I know of no organised war that didn't/doesn't involve humans.
I am not trying to belittle the statement, but wars are caused because people are involved-sometimes this is becuse of 'religion', but it could be because of race, or land, or politics, or no obvious reason at all. when Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan rampaged it was because once they had started they had to keep going, though why they started in the first place, no-one could really say. Hitler was probably fuelled by a mix of insecurity and megalomania, which probably often go together. In these cases, for instance, it led to war simply because people follwed them, and kept doing so. There have been inter-tribal wars in Africa many times over centuries, as well. In all of these, 'religion' was, at most, incidental- people went to war because some people wanted to, and others were forced- that's all there is to it.
This kind of statement really annoys me, for 2 reasons. One, because it lumps all religions together, implying they are all the same, which is patronising and insulting to the extreme. And two, because it is implying that humans are basically 'alright', unless they are affected/ controlled by 'religion', which is obviously nonsensical-any daily newspaper would show you that-very little about 'religion', but lots of crime and violence.
I apologise if I have been rude at any point, I always try to be polite on this forum, but this does really annoy me.

Answer 3

Religion is the "tool" but money and power is the motivation. All you need do is scratch the surface a bit to see the inciting reason underneath. This might appear cynical given the number of human lives lost over the course of our collective history but I cannot think of a single religious conflict that didn't have an underlying desire for land, or power or economic gain. Religion has been and continues to be the world's greatest tool for propaganda and the means to incite the masses to fight. I would be very surprised if you could name me one religious conflict or war that did not have some underpinning of this nature motivating it.

Answer 4

Sadly, it's true that inumerable attrocities have been carried out in the name of religion. Even within Christendom, wars have been fought, crusades and inquisitions conducted and good Christians martyred for daring to disagree with the leaders of organised religion.

However, it would be a mistake to confuse Christendom with Christianity. Christianity teaches love and tolerance so, if you claim to be a Christian but are not living your life in accordance with what Jesus taught, then you are not a Christian.

We need to get away from organised religion and look to the original blueprint - God's word - and stick by that. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Answer 5

The truly sad part is that Christendom's leaders not only condone wars, they encourage their members to participate in them. Christians do not engage in warfare of any kind, whether religious or not. We are peaceable with all people. We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is what Jesus taught while on earth and we must follow his example and his teachings. If everyone followed the "golden rule" the world would be a much better place.

Answer 6

Religion has nothing to do with war, the problem is peoples attitudes and mentalities.
When people decide to create new rules to suit themselves so that they can justify what they are doing when they are on the wrong then they will be at war not only with other people who think they are wrong but with other innocent people that had nothing to do with the whole scenario.
The only way out is to stop fanatics of any kind on their tracks.

Answer 7

The facts are overwhelmingly against you.

I can't believe anyone can say anything so palpably wrong.

What are you trying to say?

That you need a calculator to count beyond five?

That you are not clever enough to see the obvious?

Seems like it is you that does not have much of a grip on reality.

Answer 8

Its a sad fact that religion does cause conflict. At the end of the day its just politics and we should be free to believe in what ever makes us feel better without harming others!!!!!

Answer 9

It all depends on a person really if they let themselves be brainwashed , or not ..........If your righteous you going to feel and know the truth that we're all basically the same.......if not your going to stay brainwashed and blind that's why in a way it's really sad ..because we all need honest brainwashing so our world can change for the better and so that everyone can change for the Goodness not for the idol worshiping , if you want check out this site www.kabbalahcentre.com , it's a spiritual site they teach about goodness of everyone and the potential of everyone despite the religion!

Answer 10

Religion causes faith in something that is impossible to change. Two people with different faith come together and cannot agree, so the best way to keep the other person from speaking is to eliminate them.