Is Religion the Main Cause of War and Violence?\n<\/h1>\n\n <\/p>\n
\n![\"Religion](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/faq\/religion_war.jpg\")
<\/a>\nSome state that religion is the main cause of\nwar and violence. Faith is the root of all wars\nthroughout history. This has almost become\na mantra for many atheists and secular\nhumanists. Known atheistic writers, like\nHarris, make sure that this thought becomes\nembedded in the thinking of many people. In\nhis book, ‘The End of Faith,’ Harris depicts\nfaith as ‘the most prolific source of violence\nin our history.’1<\/sup><\/a><\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\nOne cannot deny that there have been wars\ninfused by religion (like the Crusades and the Thirty Year’s war), but it is fantasy to point at religion\nas main cause. To give the argument some weight people point at the terrorists who, in the name of\nIslam, destroy trains, buildings or other targets in order to murder as many as they can. It does not\ntake a genius to discover the fallacy behind this argument. It is like saying that baseball lovers are\ndangerous for society because in the past someone was killed with a baseball bat.\n<\/p>\n\n
\nPhilip en Axelrod describe, in their three-volume ‘Encyclopedia of wars<\/i>‘, about 1,763 wars that\nhave been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as\nbeing religious in nature,2<\/sup><\/a><\/a> which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one\nsubtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to\n3.23%.\n<\/p>\n\n
\n![\"Religion](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/faq\/religious-wars-chart-2.jpg\")
\n
\n
\nWith other words: All religions combined, minus Islam,\nonly gave rise to less than 4% of all wars and violent\nincidents in history. Further, they played no motivating\nrole in the major wars that have resulted in the most loss of life.\n<\/div>\n\n![\"Religion](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/faq\/religious-wars-chart-1.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
\n\nFacts state that almost all wars were motivated by non-religious and naturalistic motifs. Lives lost\nduring religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the regimes who wanted\nnothing to do with the idea of God—something showcased in R. J. Rummel\u2019s work ‘Lethal Politics…<\/i>‘ and ‘Death bij Government<\/i>‘, laat dit duidelijk zien:\n
\n
\nNon-Religious Dictator Lives Lost<\/b>3<\/sup><\/a><\/a>\n\n- Joseph Stalin – 42,672,000<\/li>\n
- Mao Zedong – 37,828,000<\/li>\n
- Adolf Hitler – 20,946,000<\/li>\n
- Chiang Kai-shek – 10,214,000<\/li>\n
- Vladimir Lenin – 4,017,000<\/li>\n
- Hideki Tojo – 3,990,000<\/li>\n
- Pol Pot – 2,397,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n\n
\nRummel says:\n
\n
\n‘Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed,\nburned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or\nkilled in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed,\nhelpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It\nis though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but\na plague of Power, not germs.’4<\/sup><\/a><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n\n\nThe historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the number 1 cause of war.\n<\/p>\n
\nIf not religion what than is the main cause of war and violence conflicts? The same thing that causes\nall crime, cruelty, loss of life, and other such things. Jesus provides us with the answer:\n
\n
\n”For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,\nmurders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,\npride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.’ (Mark 7:2-3 KJV)\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n\n\nJames obviously agrees with Jesus and notes:\n
\n
\n‘From whence come<\/i> wars and fightings among you? come they<\/i> not hence, even<\/i> of your lusts\nthat war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot\nobtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.’ (James 4:1-2 KJV)\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n\nIn the end, the evidence shows that the atheists are quite wrong about the wars they claim so\ndesperately to be religion’s blame. Sin is the number 1 cause of war and violence, not religion, and\ncertainly not Christianity. Next time when someone points at religion as the root of wars and\nviolence you can ask them whether the have heard this, know this, think this or actually examined\nthis.\n<\/p>\n\n
Endnotes<\/h4><\/p>\n\n- ↑<\/a><\/a> Harris, S., The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason<\/i>, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, p. 27.\n <\/li>\n
\n- ↑<\/a><\/a> Philip,C. & Axelrod, A., Encyclopedia of Wars – 3 Volume Set<\/i>, New York: Facts On File, 2005. Geciteerd in: Vox Day, The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens<\/i>, Dallas: BenBella Books, 2008, pp. 103-106.\n<\/li>\n
\n- ↑<\/a><\/a> Rummel, R. J., Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917<\/i>, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1990, p. 23.\n<\/li>\n
\n- ↑<\/a><\/a> Rummel, R. J., Death by Government<\/i>, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2009, p. 9.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\n\nOriginal article by R. Schumacher edited by M. Slick:\n
\n‘The Myth that Religion is the #1 Cause of War’ (https:\/\/carm.org\/religion-cause-war)\n
\nFurther adjustments for Apologeet.nl by: J. Hofmann (juli 2015).\n<\/small>\n<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
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<\/p>\n
\n \nOne cannot deny that there have been wars\ninfused by religion (like the Crusades and the Thirty Year’s war), but it is fantasy to point at religion\nas main cause. To give the argument some weight people point at the terrorists who, in the name of\nIslam, destroy trains, buildings or other targets in order to murder as many as they can. It does not\ntake a genius to discover the fallacy behind this argument. It is like saying that baseball lovers are\ndangerous for society because in the past someone was killed with a baseball bat.\n<\/p>\n\n \nPhilip en Axelrod describe, in their three-volume ‘Encyclopedia of wars<\/i>‘, about 1,763 wars that\nhave been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as\nbeing religious in nature,2<\/sup><\/a><\/a> which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one\nsubtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to\n3.23%.\n<\/p>\n \n \nFacts state that almost all wars were motivated by non-religious and naturalistic motifs. Lives lost\nduring religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the regimes who wanted\nnothing to do with the idea of God—something showcased in R. J. Rummel\u2019s work ‘Lethal Politics…<\/i>‘ and ‘Death bij Government<\/i>‘, laat dit duidelijk zien:\n \nRummel says:\n \nThe historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the number 1 cause of war.\n<\/p>\n \nIf not religion what than is the main cause of war and violence conflicts? The same thing that causes\nall crime, cruelty, loss of life, and other such things. Jesus provides us with the answer:\n \nJames obviously agrees with Jesus and notes:\n \nIn the end, the evidence shows that the atheists are quite wrong about the wars they claim so\ndesperately to be religion’s blame. Sin is the number 1 cause of war and violence, not religion, and\ncertainly not Christianity. Next time when someone points at religion as the root of wars and\nviolence you can ask them whether the have heard this, know this, think this or actually examined\nthis.\n<\/p>\n\n \n\nOriginal article by R. Schumacher edited by M. Slick:\n <\/p>\n\n Is Religion the Main Cause of War and Violence? Some state that religion is the main cause of war and violence. Faith is the root of all wars throughout history. This has almost become a mantra for many atheists and secular humanists. Known atheistic writers, like Harris, make sure that this thought becomes embedded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4261,"parent":1086,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,308],"tags":[264,261,302,318,263],"folder":[98],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1125\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>\nSome state that religion is the main cause of\nwar and violence. Faith is the root of all wars\nthroughout history. This has almost become\na mantra for many atheists and secular\nhumanists. Known atheistic writers, like\nHarris, make sure that this thought becomes\nembedded in the thinking of many people. In\nhis book, ‘The End of Faith,’ Harris depicts\nfaith as ‘the most prolific source of violence\nin our history.’1<\/sup><\/a><\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\nWith other words: All religions combined, minus Islam,\nonly gave rise to less than 4% of all wars and violent\nincidents in history. Further, they played no motivating\nrole in the major wars that have resulted in the most loss of life.\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\nNon-Religious Dictator Lives Lost<\/b>3<\/sup><\/a><\/a>\n\n
\n
\n
\nEndnotes<\/h4><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n‘The Myth that Religion is the #1 Cause of War’ (https:\/\/carm.org\/religion-cause-war)\n
\nFurther adjustments for Apologeet.nl by: J. Hofmann (juli 2015).\n<\/small>\n<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"