I agree. As a Christian, I see the contradiction in "Christians" (followers of Jesus Christ) going to war when Jesus said "Love your enemy, pray for those who abuse you."ian b wrote:a lot of conflicts are sectarian and religion often comes in to it even if it is used as front or excuse to justify mass murder. I agree with a lot of what you say but when you see ethnic cleansing on the scales we have in the past and present the religion of one section of the people is often brought up. The Balkans was a great example.I believe the Ireland conflict was originally over religion but again i agree it was sadly used as an excuse in later years. Iam in no way a religious person but i don't see the sense in killing because you disagree with how they lead their own livesmorley pie eater wrote:Sorry, Ian, but I don't think there's any evidence to back up your statement. Indian Mutiny, Boer War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War??ian b wrote:Religion is the reason why most conflicts start or exist, how sad
From memory, the greatest loss of life in 20th century was (in no particular order) Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward, two World Wars, Stalin/Soviet Union (?). The Balkans conflict certainly involved religion, as did Iran-Iraq to a limited extent (though both were majority Shia countries and Saddam's role in Iraq was to suppress religion if anything).
I'd be interested in any facts to back up this common assertion. And even if it were true that most wars were fought "in the name of religion", closer examination would show that invariably religion is a pretext or a rallying call to justify other reasons - take Ireland for example.
I guess many peace-loving Muslims feel the same about the terrorists/suicide bombers.