Religion is the cause of all wars

Great Debates
1

Religion should be abolished.

2

Cite, please.

Sua

3

…by means of a Holy War :stuck_out_tongue:

4

You really want one?

5

Well a soccer match was the trigger for this war:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/8350/war.html

I think we should abolish soccer :wink: .

  • Tamerlane
6

Human intolerant toward the Religion of others is the cause of all wars.

Not really, but the first statement isn’t true either.

7

Absolutely. You just posted an amazingly overbroad and, to my knowledge, utterly incorrect statement.
Correct my misunderstanding.

Sua

8

No, it is usually a person’s religion which governs how they view another religion.

9

Yes indeed, it was overbroad to start the debate rolling. It is not “utterly incorrect” though.

10

Of course it is. http://www.ploughshares.ca/imagesarticles/ACR99/acr99.jpg
lists 25 countries with armed conflicts in 1998.

Seven of these conflicts have a religious dimension, and arguably for some, the religious dimension is pretty tangential - ethnicity is the motivating factor:

Israel/Lebanon
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Philippines
India
Indonesia
Yugoslavia
Egypt.

So, perhaps your thesis should have been “Religion is the cause of 1/3 of wars. 1/3 of religions should be abolished.”

Sua

11

How about Northern Ireland/Southern Ireland? You’ve missed that one out for starters.

12

  1. Um, who’s Southern Ireland at war with.

  2. Project Ploughshares - the source of the link - appears to be of the opinion that the war in Northern Ireland is over. FWIW, I agree with them.

Sua

13

The Northern Ireland terrorism. It is religioun based.

14

I live in UK. It doesnt look over to me.

15

But that is beside the point anyway.

16

What Northern Ireland terrorism? All the major armed groups have declared a cease-fire.

Sua

17

Yeah? I’ve heard that before…

18

No, it is a person’s intolerance which governs how they view the religion of others.

How is your tolerance towards the religion of others?

Intolerance fuels war.

19

Now, now - We’re getting off track here.

Niobium Knight: I’ll give you Northern Ireland, just to be standup guy ( Sua might be more stubborn, though, addicted as he is to facts :slight_smile: ).

But the fact remains that first of all your statement was grossly inaccurate. Yes, grossly - human history records many religious struggles - but many more for a hundred other reasons. Humans are pack animals by nature and will always fight for territory, metaphysical or actual.

Second of all religion seems to some extent to be intrinsic to the human condition. The search for a higher meaning in life leads many ( most ) in this direction. Calling for the abolishment of religion is just ridiculous on practical grounds ( how would one even begin to accomplish this? ) and is nonsensical on philosophical grounds ( since it does seem to be intrinsic ).

Now if you want to rant about all the miseries religion has caused, that’s fine. I’ll agree at least some of the time. But your “suggestion” is every bit as silly and unhelpful as my facetious comment about soccer.

  • Tamerlane
20

So does religious intolerance.