Is religion the source of the most bloodshed in human history?

Question

Why do people continue being religious when it has caused so much death in the world?

Answer 1

Communists that used atheism as a means to power have killed more than 75 million people.

Now, this is NOT a battle of who has killed more or less. It's just that ideas and belief systems do not kill people, people kill people.

Thumbs down don't change the statistics.

Answer 2

It is not necessarily the source of all bloodshed. It certainly has done its fair share though. Most bloodshed from the christians has been over heretics. Then there were battles with Muslims and the story goes on an on.....It is never an article of information in the religious communities. It is like bible classes, they pick up particular passages and re translate them so they can place them into this day and age. They for instance would not be discussing Balaam and his talking donkey, someone in their class might think them a little nutty.

They don't bring up anything that would put their precious faith at risk. Don't talk about it, just forget it all happened. After all half a story is better than none, and make up whatever you want along the way. That is the way of religion.

Answer 3

No, it is not. Despite what many people might think, if a person studies carefully and thoroughly through the history pages what we see is that most of the bloodshed and wars in the world have been caused by three things:
1) access to limited resources (and control of those resources)
2) wealth (either acquiring it through warfare...i.e stealing it...or acquiring it through acquiring the people who hold it...i.e. conquer)
3) power (extension of territory, more people either for slaves or to increase the number of people who pay "tribute" or "tax" to the leader)

Often the leaders of the world have been shrewd politicians who knew very well that they needed good propaganda to convince the masses they lead to go off and shed their blood just to make their leader richer, more powerful, or in control of resources. The easiest way is to attack your enemy at their heart...i.e their religion. Burn the churches, mosques, temples, etc. Declare their religion to be wrong, bad, or aweful (especially if the leader feared an uprising by that particular religious group).

If we look at far ancient history it was less to do about religion and the reasons for war were always much more obvious. Rome fought Carthage because Rome wanted to be the richest (Carthage was at the time). The Romans never pretended to shroud their desire. As times progressed and religions began teaching peace, tolerance, harmonious living.....well obviously such ideals didn't sit well with leaders. So they found ways to use the very religion so many were following and practicing so as to not only better their own lives, but also the entire world....to twist it to fit their own agendas. And we continue to see this today where some who have no real religious/spiritual agenda twist religion to turn it against other people who are deemed "different' or "wrong" and somehow makes it seem as if it is okay (despite what the religion may actually teach on the matter). And so while it may seem that religion is the culprit behind all the bloodshed in recent history, if one does their scholarly work clearly you come to realize that indeed the bloodshed was over greed and power. It's just that the greedy and power-hungry decided to work religion into their propaganda so as to somehow make the masses "legitamate" their otherwise nonspiritual agenda.

Answer 4

Have you studied any of The problems in The 20th century?

Nationalism killed a lot more people in the 20th century. You could say that Religion took a back seat to Nationalism. Probably because people are becoming better educated (meaning we have more information available today) and also mass communication etc.

Nationalism killed a lot of people.
Examples are
Nazi Germany
Russian Gulags
World war 1
World war 2

Quick question, When was the last time that a Pope wanted war?

Vietnam, was that a religious war? Iraq War (both of them), are they religious wars? Spanish American war, was not religious. The Napoleonic wars certainly were not religious.

Answer 5

No... it is the human ego that is the source of most bloodshed.

Religion is a creation of man, just as politics, society, etc. are also....

Spirituality does not end in bloodshed - it is when the ego takes it and makes it so important to us that we are willing to kill for it. As with anything.

Answer 6

I don't think that it is the real cause of most of the bloodshed, but it is certainly the most used excuse. Perhaps a better way of saying it, is that the "decision makers" rarely start wars or bloodshed solely for religious reasons, but will use religion to inspire and control their followers.

Answer 7

It is the #1 EXCUSE for bloodshed and war. It is not the people, it is the leaders who incite the people to fight.

Answer 8

HUMANS HAVE SHORT MEMORIES.Further,there is yet no substitute to religions for the spiritual needs of humans.Till then,religions shall continue to rule over us.

Answer 9

No, although for a long time it was. Most wars nowadays are fought over economic or political rather than religious issues.

Answer 10

Um,

You seemed to answer your own question. I think this is called "begging the answer", it's really not cool.

And the answer is no; greed is the killer. Money, power, land, control, security... it's just easier to get people moving if "god also wants it". So religion is a handy excuse for rulers to do what they want, and have people stay loyal.

Answer 11

As far as I know, every army has gone into battle with a large number of chaplains tagging along to bless the bullets and the guns, so I guess we could say that religion has had a lot to do with it.