Does Religion cause War?

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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.
CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"Crusades." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
"Thirty Years' War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
"The War in Afghanistan." NewsBasics RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

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