Religions are Falsely accused.

[PureX]

And it is narrow minded to ignore the part religion has played in wars, often times the war is purely religious

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Just as it's foolish to focus on how religions get used for malicious purposes and ignore how politics, commerce, science, art and history all get used in exactly the same ways.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Just as it's foolish to focus on how religions get used for malicious purposes and ignore how politics, commerce, science, art and history all get used in exactly the same ways.

What would an art war look like?

 

[ChristineM]

Just as it's foolish to focus on how religions get used for malicious purposes and ignore how politics, commerce, science, art and history all get used in exactly the same ways.

Yup, i agree with that but it does not excuse religion in any way.

 

[ChristineM]

What would an art war look like?

Paint would fly

 

[Heyo]

pay taxes

... and tithes. The crusades were called out by the pope - and more or less happily followed by royalty (though some followed reluctantly and even preferred excommunication - for a while).

 

[RestlessSoul]

What would an art war look like?

 

[PureX]

What would an art war look like?

The first group of people fascists subjugate are the artists. Because art is the mirror through which a society sees itself. And the fascists want to control what they see. It's how they inspire people to march to the drumbeat of the fascist's lust for violent conquest.

 

[PureX]

Yup, i agree with that but it does not excuse religion in any way.

Nor does it blame religion.

 

[Heyo]

A fundamentalistic belief in Islam along with the belief that the US was at fault. Without such an extreme belief (religion) it would not have happened.

Your interpretation. In fact, no reason was ever given for 9/11 and no-one claim responsibility. The attackers were nominally Muslims but it is questionable whether they were especially devout. (Some of them allegedly visited a night club the day before the attacks.)

 

[Stevicus]

Religion is not about power, it is used by people who seek power, it’s the people not the religion.

Yes, religion was created and used by people. Who else would be using it?

 

[Augustus]

What would an art war look like?

WW2 perhaps…

Futurism - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Gabriele D'Annunzio - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

How Italian Futurism Influenced the Rise of Fascism - artmejo

artmejo.com

When Futurism Led to Fascism—and Why It Could Happen Again

The Italian Futurists praised invention, modernity, speed, and disruption. Sound familiar?

www.wired.com

 

[Heyo]

We can be kind and altruistic, and violent and venal, all are equally human and there is no escaping this unfortunately.

We may not be able to escape it but we can mitigate it. The number of wars and especially the number of casualties has shrunk ever since WWII and the overall trend is even older. The same goes for violent crime, at least in affluent and civilised countries. Social security, the rule of law, education and not least a humanist philosophy based in the Enlightenment have transformed our culture in just 400 years. We are still far from being peaceful but we are on our way.

 

[F1fan]

Can you tell me a War that at its core was a result of the Religion.

I think your questions are misleading. Religions don't do a damn thing. Religions are just sets of ideas. It is people who adopt various religions that act in various ways, and then justify acts in whatever way they can get away with. So you should be asking why humans under the influence of religions will act in ways the religions prohibit. This should include how easy it is for humans to conform and believe in dogmas, even if they are inhumane, like slavery. The human brain evolved to believe and conform to group norms. Religions were develpoped to help the group maintain order. This obviously failed as populations got larger and control was less workable.

A Fight to end slavery is a fight to end slavery, I’m referring to wars that were blamed on religion, not all Wars have been but many are.

If you look at part of the justification of the Baptists of the confederacy they used the Bible. The Bible has many references why slavery is acceptable, so they acted with that interpretation. The North also used the Bible to condemn slavery. The Civil War came about laregly because the South relied too heavily on free labor, and the moral justification via a liberal interpretation of the Old Testament. Talk about self-dealing. Morals are quite squishy when greed comes into play. As Bronowski said about war, it is a highly organzied form of theft.

As for Israel and Palestine that is clearly a land grab.

And God is on both sides of the issue (according to each side). That is religion at work.

 

[LuisDantas]

Call what Religion

That is my point. If you truly want to claim that religion does not cause war, the direct and necessary result is that you need to accept the responsibility of pointing out what you are calling religion and what you are disqualifying.

The results can be unconfortable, in no small measure because many people presume the best of movements that are in fact quite awful.

 

[F1fan]

True it’s used as a recruitment tool and to whip Terrorist into a frenzy.
By men who use it to their advantage through false teachings, is that the Religion or the people at fault.

False teachings versus true teachings is in the eye of the beholder. The disagreements are often why wars happen. This is what has happened when humans started realizing there was no God at the top of the pyramid scheme making humans accountable. Anything goes.

 

[Polymath257]

Can you tell me a war that started because of Religion, not a War that used Religion as a smokescreen but Religion alone.

How about the Albigensian crusade? It was specifically to stamp out the 'heresy' of the Cathars by the Catholics.

How about the 30 years war, which was specifically about which areas were to be Protestant or Catholic?

How about the wars which spread Islam out of the Arab peninsula and across the world? it was specifically to spread Islam.

And, let's be clear. Religion often provides a *very* good 'smokescreen' when it can be used to specifically condemn non-believers. This is NOT the promotion of 'peace' except the 'peace' of uniform belief.

 

[Polymath257]

Religion was used as a recruitment tool by people with non Religious motives.
Look deeper.

Often that is the case. But it is also used by people with *religious* motives to destroy 'heresy' and spread the religion to more places.

The secular and religious motives do often coincide, but religion can be and has been the primary motivation in many conflicts.

 

[Polymath257]

That is so funny, you still believe their intentions were to spread Religion with a murderous crusade.

Yes, I do. Their goal was, in large part, to eliminate heresy.

Or perhaps by spreading their tentacles they could acquire more land and have more residents to pay taxes.

Not the case in the Albigensian crusade or the 30 years war. Both of those were primarily for religious motives.

pay taxes

Well, most wars are about power. But they are often about *religious* power.

 

[Madmogwai]

Yes, religion was created and used by people. Who else would be using it?

The problem is how people use it, so again it’s still the people, not the Religion.

You are still using that same fallacy. It was part of it. You probably do not remember what was happening at that time. Iraq still saw Iran as a major threat. They had just lost a war that disarmed them. They did comply, but they made it all but impossible to confirm that they did. It appears that a good part of that was because they were afraid of an Iranian invasion (whether such a fear was reasonable or not is besides the point). Many of the Democrats were as ready to invade as the Republicans were. There were countless quotes of Clinton and Gore that indicated they believed that Iraq was armed too.

Thus Religion was not the reason.

 

[Madmogwai]

Yes i can and will

There were several mitigating factors, not least was Islamic fundimental extremism.

You can add American support of isreal and secular Arab nations.

And you still have not explained your "pay taxes" quip. Im assuming because you have no answer to my post listing a few of many religious wars.

I did answer it, the crusades were a land grab.