Name Some Wars Caused By Religion!

mball1297 said:

Then it would have been "differenza" instead of "difference".

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But he was only half Italian.

All Religions if followed to the letter are peaceful.
Wars begin because people twist the teachings of there chosen religious prophets to suite there own selfish agenda.
Religion has never started a War.

waikru said:

All Religions if followed to the letter are peaceful.
Wars begin because people twist the teachings of there chosen religious prophets to suite there own selfish agenda.
Religion has never started a War.

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May I direct you to a book called the Bible, especially the Old Testament? You will change your mind about the "peaceful" thing after reading that.
And, yes, religion has started many wars.

people use religion as an excuse. there is usually a hidden agenda.

waikru said:

people use religion as an excuse. there is usually a hidden agenda.

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Sometimes.

Its strange, in all these examples all I see are justifications for war, not causes. Maybe I am programmed for materialism, but IMO all wars have been politically motivated/ for economic gain, etc, or to externalize an enemy so as to foster nationalism. To that end, religion has been used to galvanize people to see the chosen enemy as "evil", or without a soul, making them easier to kill.
Just a thought.:angel2:

Although I believe that wars are sparked by religion I do not necessarily feel that the wars are about religion for example the American Civil was wasn't really about religion but the South believed it was their "God" given right to own slaves and they would prevail because "God" was on their side. On the other hand if you know the words to "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" .

If you don't know it the lyrics can be found here:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Here are two other links about religion and war.

How many wars have been caused by religion? : Ask The Atheists

The new wars of religion | Economist.com

i don't think religion starts wars. i think that religions are pitted against each other to start wars. in the end, the people who rule the world behind the scenes will say that religion is bad in order to abolish all religions (with the goal of destroying abrahamic religions).

All wars have a political, a social, and an economic reason. It's unfortunate for religion that it so easily fills any of those three areas, but it is never the sole reason. There are always two other considerations that go into a war.

While religions have certainly done their fair share of killing, the thousands of years of religious squabbles are humbled by one century of the nightmarish and methodical mass murder done by Marxism. Cambodia, the Soviet Union, etc...

Doc said:

While religions have certainly done their fair share of killing, the thousands of years of religious squabbles are humbled by one century of the nightmarish and methodical mass murder done by Marxism. Cambodia, the Soviet Union, etc...

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Two points:
Firstly, what makes you believe that Marxism had a hand in the actions of it's followers in mass murder?

Secondly, what about the murders of millions of communists throughout the century? Do we condemn capitalism as blatantly and indiscriminately? I would cite the Vietnam war as a prime example of this, as well as the genocides in Indonesia in the 1960's.

Whether we want to believe it or not religious violence is rising dramatically. Religion plays a crucial role by providing moral justification for killing and by providing a scenario of cosmic war.

I think that religion is the ultimate tool of manipulation for the powerful, most ironically when it justifies flat-out hatred. In a more historical sense, I agree with angellous that "gods" have played a large role in ancient history. Whereas in those times the gods were more obviously man-made for political purposes, now we have more heavily established religions that are veiled in pseudo-moralities. I say "pseudo" because much of these moralities are more about nationalism and politics than an actual concept of law. The "laws" can easily be broken if classes, races, and other nations are considered to exist "outside of it" and are therefore enemies of it.

The only real religion and morality, in my mind, is the one that universally applies to everyone. If we are all equal (in the same boat, so to speak) we cannot justify war unless it is indesputably a cause for moral justice.

Religion is a tool as any other for control of the masses by the elites. While religion itself is not bad, and I do believe in the truth of my religion and the existence of G-d, I'd have to be ignorant or a fool to deny the simple fact that religion can be used as a tool for the worst things of human nature.

I highly doubt that very many wars were directly caused by religion. Cromwell's conquest of Ireland was definitely one of the exceptions to this rule, but I doubt even the crusades were truly *caused* by religion. The vast majority of conflicts, as others have said, are over property and resources. Others are used for control; a war or conflict's sole purpose is to focus the masses' anger at this outward enemy instead of their domestic issues. Religion, nationalism, ideology, culture, ethnicity, lingual unity, etc. are just some of the things used to convince the masses to fight and die over the property and resource rights of the ruling classes.

angellous_evangellous said:

We should also consider that the seperation of church and state is a very new concept. Religion, very often being the product of the state - or the state has been the product of a religion - has had its hand in the cookie jar for quite some time.

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It is not a new concept; every civilization had its' heretics. The only difference is that religion in civilized countries are now toothless lions, unable to use force to further their own ends.