Religion does not cause war.

Segregation, violence, patriarchy, radicalism and extremism are all connected to religion. The consequences of those words are a threat to the peace and democracy, in other words, all this is cause by religion Todays people are getting more and more convinced about that religion is the cause of the wars nowadays. You can read about that everywhere, media, internet, community sites, TV etc. But the question remains, does religion really cause war? Lets see how history and the present time tell us about it: Before we discuss about if religion does cause war or not, we should define what war is and why its caused. War is people fighting, usually over a bit of territory or desired resources. It could also be that one party wants something another party has, or that a leader tries to galvanize an entire group or nation to an identity he can think of. That could be to an ideology, nationality, ethnicity, class or religion. Religion is not behind every war or not behind any wars at all. Of course there are wars where religion is involved, but that does not make any sense at all. Let us take an example, World War 2: Hitlers point of this war was to eradicate people, including Jews. So to claim that religion is the cause of this war is just pathetic, of course its between the Catholics (Germany) and the Jews, two religions, but if we look at the main factors of this war, it was about nationality and race. But people may say that religion can lead to war, and that means that its dangerous. Of course religion CAN lead to war, just like any ideology can do too, such as Nazism, communism, and other ideologies. War is often caused because people live and think different, so religion is one of those factors to war.

Another reason religion is blamed for war is because many people choose to protect themselves in the name of religion. We can take an example from one of the three religions that believe in God, Islam: Osama Bin Laden, most wanted person in the world. According to CIA sources Bin Laden had 640 million dollars on an American bank, and had a running business in many Arabic countries. According to CIA sources the Talibans with Bin Laden on the top used to control 35% of the drug trafficking in Afghanistan. But when Bin Laden steps out on TV, he says that he is fighting in the name of God and in the name of religion against USA and its allied. This makes people conclude that religion causes war. But things people do not understand is that some extremists are making acts in the name of religion. Let us take another example: Let us call a random guy for Daniel. Daniel decides to kill an innocent family, which results that police arrest him, and puts him in jail. Next day there will be headliners on the newspapers about this act. What Daniel does is to protect his identity so he says, I did this because of my religion says to do this. Then media who will write Killed a family in the name of Islam/Christianity makes us (the readers) conclude that he did this for religion, which makes us point our attention towards the religion and not Daniel as an individual. This things happens very often around the world, media does not name the persons who did this, but rather the religion or ideology of the person who made the act, but it doesnt mean that its his religion or ideology that forced him to do the bad act. I mean I am a religious guy, but If I choose to kill somebody, I doubt that I got influenced by my religion to kill a random guy, but more because I had an interest of killing him. When we read A Muslim guy killed a man A Christian assaulted a woman etc. etc., people will start building prejudices about religions and say that religion causes conflicts and wars. But people claims that religious people has been too deep into religion and has been brainwashed, so they start acting like during the Middle ages, just killing people for no reason. Wrong

Let us check what the religion itself says about killing people: And not equal are the good deed and the bad. Repel [evil] by that [deed] which is better; and thereupon the one whom between you and him is enmity [will become] as though he was a devoted friend. Quran 41:34

Life is a very value thing according to religions. All religions that believe in God, says that God created your life and he is the one who are allowed to take away your life, suicide or murders are strict forbidden in religion. So the argument that people gets brainwashed is totally wrong, its the opposite! Really religious people are not harmful; its the people who are not practicing religion or dont know about what their holy book orders them to do, that does those acts, because of ignorance. If they really would read their holy books, they would understand that religion is just bringing peace upon you, your family and the society. I believe that its the atheism that causes war or conflicts. The reason that I believe that is because a religious person that have a faith, and fears God, would never dear to make such dirty act as taking a humans life. But atheists do not have these kinds of laws, which make their life like anarchism; do whatever you want. According to Richard Dawkin he says: Being an atheist and not following moral laws will increase the chance of making bad acts because you wont fear anything than the laws the government has put to you, that also are based on religion. Hitler often claimed that he was a non-religious guy and an atheist, he also claimed that the only thing that should be worshipped is the nation, everyone are united under a flag, no matter what kind of religion you have, but to use propaganda and convince even the religious people to follow him he used the name of religion when he was talking about killing Jews. "My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! Was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world

against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people." Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942) Since when did Hitler become so religious? With this people could claim that religion forced Germany and Hitler to kill the Jews, or to start a war which is totally wrong, Hitler served the Nazis and was the founder of the ideology, which has no connection to religion at all. My conclusions are that people should stop blaming what people do in the name of religion. Judging a religion based on a bunch of people or groups especially non-practicing religious people is nothing more that stupidity. Humans are not perfect, therefore we can make sins and bad acts, but its not because we are influenced by the religion to do the acts, but because of our own will and interests. I would recommend people who blame religion for causing war and conflicts, to instead of judging religion based on people to rather read what the Holy books says about killing people, or hating people. They will realize that people often uses the religion as a protection of their own identity to not get rubbished in media. We dont need knowledge, we could just think logical. Why judging a religion based on a human instead of reading the real source (the holy book of that religion we judge) and see whos wrong? Then youll realize if the religion is wrong or if the person who might have misunderstood or uses it as an interest is wrong. By Florent