Religion & War

[Hecktix]

I'm doing a mini-dissertation on Religion & War.
I like to include different people's opinions in my work as one person can always miss things.

So anybody got any interesting opinions?
Anybody here religious? - What are your attitudes?
Atheists - What are your opinions on how Religion & War are related.

Anything else?

+rep to decent responses.

[lick]

No religion = no war IMO

But i'm cathloic, but dont go to chruch and all that lol

[mangle]

No religion = no war IMO

Countries go to war on things that are not only to do with religion buddy

[Hecktix]

How do you think Religion is related to wars such as the Gulf (1&2), both World Wars?

[ifuseekamy]

No religion = no war IMO

Religion is an excuse not a reason for most wars. George Bush sent troops to iraq for oil not because he actually thought it was a mission from god. It makes a hypocritical crime sound noble.

[MrGazet]

I'm not religious..but still I practise a bit..
i dnt think nowadays wars have got to do with religions.well i think the older days like thousand years ago.people defending their religion with wars.don't really know bout this stuff

[RedStratocas]

its a pretty broad statement, but if it were not for religion there would be at least a hell of a lot less war.

I'm not religious..but still I practise a bit..
i dnt think nowadays wars have got to do with religions.well i think the older days like thousand years ago.people defending their religion with wars.don't really know bout this stuff

wars today have just as much if not more to do with religion than they ever did before. the middle east situation? terrorists aren't attacking soldiers in iraq because "they hate freedom," they do it because we are intruding on their holy land. and what about world war 2? MILLIONS of people were killed simply because they were jewish. hell, ANY conflict involving isreal it seems has something to do with religion. then look at any war in africa, they all have to do with tribe/religious differences.

[Mentor]

Religion is at least a common excuse and a great motivator for wars. The majorty of conflicts even today are motivated primary by religion "/

Thats not to say its the own reason, people will fight over land, ideolgy and plenty of other things. The difference is these wars last a few years and have victors. When religion gets involved conflicts escalate from years to centuries. Equally with religion involved far worse crimes against humanity can be justifed, which generally leads to geniside and other war crimes being committed.

Steven Weinberg's - "Without [religion], you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion."

On the flip side, since your doing a project, if you havent come accross it the christian concept of a "just" war may be of use?

[FlyingJesus]

its a pretty broad statement, but if it were not for religion there would be at least a hell of a lot less war.

I'd disagree, if people want to fight there is always something to fight about. Thinking about it, religion and religious differences are just changes in how people think of morality and the world - if there was no such thing as formalised religion we'd still fight over who has the best ideas and lifestyles. It happens to a small degree even in schools where people of different subcultures dislike each other just for not being like them, and religion is really just this on a large scale.

Steven Weinberg's - "Without [religion], you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion."

Again, I'd disagree with this as religion is being used as a show of all lifestyles. Without religion we'd still have morality and sometimes a clash of morality (albeit in good faith) does make it appear that good people are doing the wrong thing.

I'm not going to argue with anyone that religion hasn't been a massive factor in wars throughout human existence, but in the absence of it I don't think we as a species would have seen any less conflict.

[Misawa]

War isn't always about religion, it's mostly been about politics and greed. Wars of recent years have indeed been centred around religious fanatics and the indoctrinated, but without religion there would still be war and violence and tyranny, just obviously not as much.