Does religion cause War? I say that religion is the foundation of war; people want their God or Gods to be the only one. They can not tolerate that there are people with different beliefs than them. Many who watch the news and read the newspaper ask this question. Constant reminders that “The Muslims” did this and that fill their thoughts. Many faithful believers of their religions say that Religion does not cause war, and that it is natural human nature to want conflict with each other to prove who the best is.
Around 1096 Emperor Alexius I (Formerly General Alexius Comnenus) was losing an incredible amount of land to the Seljuk Turks (Muslims), and so Emperor Alexius went to Pop Urban II asking for aid. They believed that it was the ‘Will of God’ and their faithful duty as Christian to recapture their ‘Holy Land’ from another Religion and so The First Crusade started. You would think that the First Crusade was the last, no; there were seven or eight more Crusades after the first. The first crusade ended up in a victory for the Christians, while many Christians, Jews and Muslims ended up slaughter in the aftermath of the war. In 1147 General Zangi, governor of Mosul started his own Jihad or ‘Holy War’ against the Christians, who the Muslims called ‘Franks.’ Thus began the Second Crusade for the Holy Land. The Christians suffered a terrible defeat in this Crusade resulting in loss of territory. The Christians kept on trying to fight back and so the Third Crusade happened. This is when you start hearing about Richard the Lionheart, he reestablished the kingdom of Jerusalem. The rough estimate that many scholars give for the Crusades is around 1,500,000 deaths in the Crusades that would have been avoided if both sides had religious...
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...d, but people need to learn to have tolerance for others beliefs and to accept that not everyone is the same. Instead of striving to help the world together, people are trying to push down their personal beliefs on others. Religion teaches good values and morals to us when we are in need of help. It is everyone’s personal interpretation of the religion you follow that defines whether it leads you in a path of peace, or a path of violence.
Works Cited
"Bethinking.org - Suffering - Does Religion Cause War?" Bethinking.org - Suffering - Does Religion Cause War? N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
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"Crusades." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
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"The War in Afghanistan." NewsBasics RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
The crusades in the middle ages were a long-lasting series of vigorous wars between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land, Jerusalem. The crusades lasted for almost two hundred years. They began in 1099 and approximately ended in 1291. (What were the motives, and causes of these gruesome wars?) is the first question one might ask. To properly answer this question, I am about to analyze the first four crusades that had began in 1099 and ended in 1212.
Religion gives rise to and is born with the unreasonable and uninviting desire to make man at home in what seems to be very close to an uncaring world. With this being
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
In conclusion, the Crusades were a series of wars that lasted over two centuries to gain control over the Holy Land. The First Crusade was the only crusade that was seen as a success. Many cultural, scientific, and commercial exchanges took place as a result of the Crusades and the Crusades had a deep impact on many areas that extended beyond the Holy Land. Eventually, in 1291, the Crusades would finally come to an end but the impact would extend into today’s
“history is written by the victors”(Winston Churchill). Conflict has been deeply engrained into the history of mankind. For thousands of years all across the globe the prevalent aspect in which mass conflict has surrounded was that of differing religious practices. With all that is good that comes from religion, much evil is directly following. This conflict over religious views has caused hundreds of years of war in some parts of the world as well as problems that can range from day to day in your home. In the book Lame Deer, Seeker of visions religion can be seen at the base of all the struggle between the Native American people and the European Colonist that moved in to take over their land. Religion has been used for centuries to explain the surrounding world, but it only seems to pertain to the people practicing these beliefs. People through history have used their religions to justify their own personal desires even if they were not always the ideas of the religious institution.
Moses, Paul. “Is religion about war -- or peace.” CNN. December 18, 2009. Web 14 April 2011.
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
Granted the people seek religion for means of peace and conflict resolution, it is widely believed that misinterpretation of religion is one of the fundamental reasons for evolution of war all around the world. History proves this by innumerable war and evolution incidents, one of them occurring in what we call now Spain.
Yet this discussion should not end by recalling the broad, if only tacit, role of religion in bringing about violence, but should recall the role of religious faith in promoting love between diverse peoples. Fundamental to the Church’s centuries-old teachings is the importance of humanity’s dignity a sons and daughters of the Creator. Violence, if even in part motivated by religion, contradicts what St. John taught us about God – “God is love” – a divine love that humanity is called to mirror and extend.
In discussions of the world would be a more peaceful place without religions, one controversial issue has been placing blame on one 's own religion when wars or conflict ending in violence has occurred. The question is asked. Does religion play a role in the violence going on around the world? On the one hand, many people may agree with this belief and argues that religion in a way always has played a role in the amount of violence in our society. On the other hand, the public contends that as humans we know what were are doing and our religion has nothing to do with the violence that we create. Others even maintain that we use religion as an excuse or as an answer to why we created so much violence. My own view on this topic is taking away
Religion has made people blind, dumb and deaf to the reality. They have faith without reasoning which is blind. On the contrary, it has often made people to become bigots and fanatics. Bigotry and fanaticism have led to persecution, inhuman treatment and misery in the past.
Conflict and violence is around us throughout the world and the mass media has made a huge impact of what we think of violence and the relation to religion, especially in the last couple of years. In addition violence has been considered as being part of human nature and comes from our biological structure of aggression. It is an out let for us to relieve stress levels and some believe that it can be a device of vengeance and a positive mechanism to human survival. For example it is a system for the survival of the fittest and reproduction. Another way that we can look at it on a different spectrum is the way religious beliefs utilise non violent mechanisms that try to diminish the impacts of aggressive behaviour. When we think of religion and violence we do not think to situate them together. This is because “theologically, it can certainly be concluded that all religions have the goal of peace” . People who are outsider of a religious tradition can make many generalisations. In this essay it will discuss why some religious traditions in South East Asia oppose violence. In addition the rejections of violence have shaped and changed religious practices within Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism. There have also been many generalisations about the above traditions. Moreover I will try and answer why non violence has become a generalisation and how it has impacted India as a whole.
Throughout examples in history, current events, and religious teachings, religion severely impacted history and world. Its power to partition groups of people is demonstrated through various events, such as the Crusades and the September 11 attacks. Whether from the past or current events, the dividing force of religion plays a vital role in shaping society today.
Edwards, Will. "Does Religion Cause War?" Weblog post. Personal Development Resources. The Inspiration Blog, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .
Sometimes, religious discrimination can induce civil wars as well. For example,(The Ecological and Political Impact of Colonialism) This example shows how discrimination led to a civil war.