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The role of religion in the causes of war
The role of religion in the causes of war
Religion can cause war reasons for and against
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The article chosen for this review is by Raymond G. Helmick titled Does Religion Fuel or Heat in Conflicts?. The article discussed how religion does in fact play a role of some type within most all notable conflicts throughout history and continues through into today’s conflicts. The article talks about how religion faith is in itself “an all-encompassing outlook on life, on the world and its meaning” (Helmick, Peterson, 2001, p. 81). Many of the world’s wars and violent acts against others can be attributed to the different religious beliefs. When the topic of religion is brought up in any type of discussion, one must understand that it is viewed in many different ways and that it can at times fuel the fire when for the most part its aim
In his essay, Rodriguez believes that the diplomatic affairs we see on the evening news are merely being disguised as a religious war. The fight over oil or land when in reality it is the fight between whose side God is on, the attacks under the control of Al Qaeda when perhaps it’s the greed for power or world domination. According to Richard, these religious wars are allowing terrorism to become prevalent; often times within the same culture (147).
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
Christians refuse to fight at war, they can still be part of war in a
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
“history is written by the victors”(Winston Churchill). Conflict has been deeply engrained into the history of mankind. For thousands of years all across the globe the prevalent aspect in which mass conflict has surrounded was that of differing religious practices. With all that is good that comes from religion, much evil is directly following. This conflict over religious views has caused hundreds of years of war in some parts of the world as well as problems that can range from day to day in your home. In the book Lame Deer, Seeker of visions religion can be seen at the base of all the struggle between the Native American people and the European Colonist that moved in to take over their land. Religion has been used for centuries to explain the surrounding world, but it only seems to pertain to the people practicing these beliefs. People through history have used their religions to justify their own personal desires even if they were not always the ideas of the religious institution.
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
Religion can be viewed from many different perspectives. People throughout the world hold different religious values. One person’s religious value will not match the religious values of another person. Globalization as a whole has affected the way we view the different religions and our feelings towards them; it has moved towards a more symbolic representation of ideologies. Many have come to believe that the west is more superior to others. Martha Crenshaw argues that globalization is a key driver of terrorism because there is a comparison between countries having less access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power.
Granted the people seek religion for means of peace and conflict resolution, it is widely believed that misinterpretation of religion is one of the fundamental reasons for evolution of war all around the world. History proves this by innumerable war and evolution incidents, one of them occurring in what we call now Spain.
Yet this discussion should not end by recalling the broad, if only tacit, role of religion in bringing about violence, but should recall the role of religious faith in promoting love between diverse peoples. Fundamental to the Church’s centuries-old teachings is the importance of humanity’s dignity a sons and daughters of the Creator. Violence, if even in part motivated by religion, contradicts what St. John taught us about God – “God is love” – a divine love that humanity is called to mirror and extend.
Yes, some aspects surrounding religion have played a role in some of the previous historical warfare’s and the most recent flare of modern day terrorism. But think about it. Is it religion itself that causes these conflicts or is it certain people’s interpretations of it that lead to these violent outcomes? Though many would prefer to solely blame religion, other non-religious factors have further influenced these as well. As humans we always have to find an answer as to why these events take place and religion seems to be a fallback in providing us with this solution.
Jonathan Fox and Shmuel Sandler . Bringing Religion into International Relations. (June 2004) Palgrave Macmillan. 22 March 2014
People throughout history used to have a lot of different opinions about religion and its values and beliefs. However, it’s very important to point out that now religion became very important to people all over the world to the point that it has made a very big impact on the decisions that people make every day. Therefore, some people have gone as far as giving up their lives for their religion. And others decided to form their countries and set its laws based on religion. As a consequence, countries started going into wars, fighting over land and resources, but at the same time misleading their people and forcing them to fight wars claiming that it’s because of the religious differences. These wars resulted in the creation of many new religions and the destruction of many. As a result of that, a lot of people got lost and confused questioning which religion is the right one to follow and some others with no religion to follow at all also confused and questioning the existence of
Conflict and violence is around us throughout the world and the mass media has made a huge impact of what we think of violence and the relation to religion, especially in the last couple of years. In addition violence has been considered as being part of human nature and comes from our biological structure of aggression. It is an out let for us to relieve stress levels and some believe that it can be a device of vengeance and a positive mechanism to human survival. For example it is a system for the survival of the fittest and reproduction. Another way that we can look at it on a different spectrum is the way religious beliefs utilise non violent mechanisms that try to diminish the impacts of aggressive behaviour. When we think of religion and violence we do not think to situate them together. This is because “theologically, it can certainly be concluded that all religions have the goal of peace” . People who are outsider of a religious tradition can make many generalisations. In this essay it will discuss why some religious traditions in South East Asia oppose violence. In addition the rejections of violence have shaped and changed religious practices within Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism. There have also been many generalisations about the above traditions. Moreover I will try and answer why non violence has become a generalisation and how it has impacted India as a whole.
Thacker, Justin. Does religion cause war? UCCF: The Christian Unions, Registered Charity number 306137, 9 January 2009. Web. 15 April 2012.
How do we define religion? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of religion is as follows: “the belief in a god or in a group of gods, an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods, or an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group” (Merriam-Webster.) My personal definition of religion is that it is a set of beliefs and practices that generally pertain to the worship of one or more than one spiritual being or representation of a spiritual power. Religion can be a personal belief or an organization or group of people who have similar beliefs and values. There are many different types of religions in the world and have been since the beginning of mankind.