Is religion the source of major conflicts?

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Do you think religion has some key roll in major conflicts? If you look back at any major wars and battles (ex: Crusades, WWII, War on Terrorism) you can see that religion has some source in them. Do you think that the relationship is just coincidental, and people are just corrupted by misconstrued words, or do you think people committed terrible acts, all because of their faith?
 
World War II was ideology FAR more than religion.

Religion gives us differences over which to hate one another. We'd find other differences instead if there was no religion.

(That said, I DO prefer a 51-to-59 Democrats senate to a 60+ Democrats senate, for much the reason you're hinting at)
 
Evil Figment said:
World War II was ideology FAR more than religion.

Religion gives us differences over which to hate one another. We'd find other differences instead if there was no religion.
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Agreeded. Well said EF.

Religion has always been a cause for fighting if someone didn't follow yours and you were like, an extremeist.

Religion has caused many problems for mwah personally.
 
Evil Figment said:
World War II was ideology FAR more than religion.

Religion gives us differences over which to hate one another. We'd find other differences instead if there was no religion.
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We could argue all day whether or not Hitler was atheist, a satanist, christian, yadda yadda. I just like to put WWII in the category, because of Holocaust, which technically isn't WWII I guess.
 
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I'd say that a lot of religious terrorism stems from not only religion, but a lot of other factors as well, so to say that religion is the source of conflicts is wrong, but religion might be in the heart of the conflict, as well. It's difficult to separate culture from religion sometimes, and the two can both cause problems and end up laying the whole blame on religion sometimes, it would seem.
 
The holocaust had fairly little to do with religion - "Jew", in Nazi German parlance, was an ethnic group, not a religious one (eg, it didn't matter if you, yourself, were actively jewish or had converted or what; if you had Jewish grandparents, you were either mixed-blood or a Jew yourself).
 
It's not the source, but a contributing factor. Religions seem to hate each other for some reason. Now, the recent terrorism activities are caused by Islamic extremists, martyrs if you will. Their faith drives them to do what they do. Now, that doesn't mean all muslims hate other religions and will blow up buildings. But the ones we are fighting do. To an extent.

Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the world wars however were political.

I know from playing Civilization (incredibly realistic to an extent) that if you have differing religions, you will be hated.
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
It's not the source, but a contributing factor. Religions seem to hate each other for some reason. Now, the recent terrorism activities are caused by Islamic extremists, martyrs if you will. Their faith drives them to do what they do. Now, that doesn't mean all muslims hate other religions and will blow up buildings. But the ones we are fighting do. To an extent.

Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the world wars however were political.

I know from playing Civilization (incredibly realistic to an extent) that if you have differing religions, you will be hated.
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Yeah, that is true. Korea and Vietnam were fought about "THE COMMUNISTS!!!1!11!" and Desert Storm....hell I still don't know what that was about, I think it had something to do with oil. Anyway, I love the Civilization analogy. xD
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
It's not the source, but a contributing factor. Religions seem to hate each other for some reason. Now, the recent terrorism activities are caused by Islamic extremists, martyrs if you will. Their faith drives them to do what they do. Now, that doesn't mean all muslims hate other religions and will blow up buildings. But the ones we are fighting do. To an extent.

Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the world wars however were political.

I know from playing Civilization (incredibly realistic to an extent) that if you have differing religions, you will be hated.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
Is it the source of major conflicts? No.
Is it one them? Absolutely.

There's no way one single belief would be the source of all strife in the world. Not when there are so many other things people could look at and call you a heretic or inferior. But then, I suppose it depends on your perspective as well.
 
Religion itself is not a source of major conflict. However, doesn't power attract the corruptible? Those that crave power will seek roles where they will most be able to have and manipulate it. Religion is merely a tool for conflict, not the source.
 
In my opinion wars are started and fought because big egos clash, money/greed, need to demonstrate power, wanting to get rid of something/someone, wanting to put an end to something, and a few more things. Now I doubt any of these reason are the actual reasons but that's how I see it; religion and other things just fuel the wars, but there have been many wars that started simply over religion..iirc.
 
Historically, there are two sources of conflict - religion and resources.
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
and politics
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Politics is the tool through which religion and need for resources extend their conflict.

However, I'd say that need for resources is the only cause for conflict with religion and politics being tools for it. I'd also like to see "love" somewhere in there as a major cause of conflict.
 
apparently children's card games and video games are another source of conflict.
 
Ryuutakesh! said:
apparently children's card games and video games are another source of conflict.
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Card games? VIDEO GAMES? That's demoniac! [/sarcasm]

Misty said:
I'll play devil's advocate and say that I think most "religious wars" are really just regular wars with a religious veneer. Ergo, religion doesn't really cause major conflicts.
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Just like the Crusades. A bunch of knights destroying some bunch of jew/muslim villages to steal some spice, fabric, and some other luxurious products to give to their lords. Because all they wanted is to spread Jesus lessons to the world.

WWII. Anti-semitism was basically one of Hitler's smart moves to get power. You know, he wasn't the the only guy in whole Germany that didn't like jew people back those times.
 
Zeta said:
Historically, there are two sources of conflict - religion and resources.
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And ideology. (Revolutionary wars re: France. WW II. Anything Cold War related.)
And just plain old naked ambition (EG, Alex, Genghis)
And even plainer, older batshit insanity (assorted tinpot dictators)
 
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Is religion the source of conflict? No, it's just one reason of an infinite amount that makes us different, and makes some groups want to kill each other.

I'd say: Land (aka resources), Labor (Could go into resources), Ideology, Family, Religion, "Just Because," and "Glory" are the main reasons people go to war.
 
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