War, religion and athiests

sydney, Australia

Jun 07, 2007 @ 04:32:02

hi guys, i always here athiests saying that religion is the root of all the world's problems as it has caused all the wars. personally, i don't think that is true since alot of blood has been spilled for non-religious reasons - for example the two largest wars of the last century were World War 1 & World War 2 which were not religious wars at all.

also, i recently watched an episode of South Park which made fun of this issue where Cartman was in the future where everyone was athiest - yet in the future u had different athiest groups fighting one another which were the United Atheist Alliance, Unified Atheist League and Allied Atheist Allegiance.

quite clever, but it kind of raised the question, would that happen in reality? i.e. although athiests act morally superior these days, do u really think all the wars would end if everyone was athiest? or would war continue regardless? and if war continued anyway, then why is it that religion is to blame?

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West Side, California

Jun 07, 2007 @ 04:41:11

My slogans always been.

"Problems aren't born, there made."

So I guess religious is making problems that aren't problems.

Wellington, New Zealand

Jun 07, 2007 @ 04:42:45

They are not necessarily morally superior just smarter and know that war is not in the best interests of anyone it is very very very rare to make a profit out of a war no matter how much people say the Iraq war was about oil America lost more money because of it than they will gain from oil. In thw past there were many wars because of religion just as there were many wars about a wide variety of other things. War would be possibly less likely to occur but I think it still would, people would still have compunctions to kill, still have pride in their country and scorn of others and do whatever they want to get things to their advantage, removing religion will not solve that in any way shape or form. However just because it is not implicated in future events does not mean it was not the cause of past ones and war is not the only premise on which religion can be considered to be bad...

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West Side, California

Jun 07, 2007 @ 04:44:54

Religion isn't just one bad or good, its both, like everything else

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West Side, California

Jun 07, 2007 @ 05:02:29

@20questions Said
hi guys, i always here athiests saying that religion is the root of all the world's problems as it has caused all the wars. personally, i don't think that is true since alot of blood has been spilled for non-religious reasons - for example the two largest wars of the last century were World War 1 & World War 2 which were not religious wars at all.

also, i recently watched an episode of South Park which made fun of this issue where Cartman was in the future where everyone was athiest - yet in the future u had different athiest groups fighting one another which were the United Atheist Alliance, Unified Atheist League and Allied Atheist Allegiance.

quite clever, but it kind of raised the question, would that happen in reality? i.e. although athiests act morally superior these days, do u really think all the wars would end if everyone was athiest? or would war continue regardless? and if war continued anyway, then why is it that religion is to blame?

Is the sun blue?

War will always exist.

Whether if its the god you bow down to, or the color of you skin, even the clothes on your back.

War and fighting is inevitable.

sydney, Australia

Jun 07, 2007 @ 05:04:13

@negasable Said
Is the sun blue?

War will always exist.

Whether if its the god you bow down to, or the color of you skin, even the clothes on your back.

War and fighting is inevitable.

Exactly, so why do people blame religion for being the cause of all wars? Obviously war would still exist, so athiests can't really sit there and say we would do a better job if religion didn't exist.

War would still go on.

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West Side, California

Jun 07, 2007 @ 05:05:56

20questions, in society, we all need some scapegoats.

sydney, Australia

Jun 07, 2007 @ 05:07:29

@negasable Said
20questions, in society, we all need some scapegoats.

how about trying to look for the truth in a situation, rather than looking for a scapegoat??

so don't blame religion on a war, if the main reason behind that war is not a religious one - e.g. nationalist, economic reasons, etc.

Edited: June 07, 2007 @ 05:09

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West Side, California

Jun 07, 2007 @ 05:09:55

@20questions Said
how about trying for the truth in a situation, rather than looking for a scapegoat??

so don't blame religion on a war, if the main reason behind that war is not a religious one - e.g. nationalist, economic reasons, etc.

I'm not blaming solely them. But you know scapegoats and pointing fingers have always been there since the beginning of time. Satan is a scapegoat for everythin bad for christians. Its the way things work, but I say own up to your responsibilities.

Wellington, New Zealand

#10

Jun 07, 2007 @ 06:24:17

Hmm I wouldn't blame a war explicitly on religion unless it identified itself as such e.g. holy wars are obviously about religion...however it is a contributing factor to many wars, to remove one of the factors might have meant the tension was not enough to start a war or at least not as serious a war. Franz Ferdinands assassination sparked WWI but had the other issues of the time not been there his assassination would have just meant a mild squabble.

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West Side, California

#11

Jun 07, 2007 @ 06:26:08

@dragonwars Said
Hmm I wouldn't blame a war explicitly on religion unless it identified itself as such e.g. holy wars are obviously about religion...however it is a contributing factor to many wars, to remove one of the factors might have meant the tension was not enough to start a war or at least not as serious a war. Franz Ferdinands assassination sparked WWI but had the other issues of the time not been there his assassination would have just meant a mild squabble.

Holy war? That was just an excuse in the early years to kill non-christians or infidels for for fascist reasons. But good point

Wellington, New Zealand

#12

Jun 07, 2007 @ 06:28:11

@negasable Said

Holy war? That was just an excuse in the early years to kill non-christians or infidels for for fascist reasons. But good point

They would not have wanted to kill them if they were not Christian

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West Side, California

#13

Jun 07, 2007 @ 06:29:45

Sorry, little unclear, what my point in of all this is, because people can't get over petty differences, war will always exist.

Wellington, New Zealand

#14

Jun 07, 2007 @ 06:33:54

@negasable Said
Sorry, little unclear, what my point in of all this is, because people can't get over petty differences, war will always exist.

I doubt war will always exist. What is far more likely is that internal conflict will increase and external conflict will decrease. For example do you really see France, Germany or Britain going to war with each other again? in the past it was how they valued themselves according to beating the other...