Myth: Religion is one of history's leading causes of war and bloodshed.

And the fact remains that no matter the myriad reasons a leader declares war , the common man has fought and died more for his gods than for any other reason

No the fact doesn't remain. The fact is not a fact at all

Not in world history, not in Western history either.

War was mostly always a question of booty, territory expansion and power.

Men who were putting their lives on the line weren't as stupid as you choose to believe they were.

They were motivated by more venal reasons that God.

You are focusing on a relatively brief period in the span of Western and Islamic history and assuming they are representative of all history.

Armies, nations, empires warlords were typically motivated by earthy motives,

Were the Vikings motivated by religion? Hell no!

Rome? Hell no!

Egypt? Hell no!

'The Greeks? Hell no!

The Phoenicians? No

The Huns?

Hell no.

Tha Han? the Mongel? The Celts, vandals goth visogaths ostragoths, and on and on and on with all the invaders off the stepees and norther Europe?

Hell no hundreds of times in hundreds of invasions.

YOu anti-religious folks just fucking make history up to make your point and frankly I tire of this myth.

Read your fucking history, boys.

It isn't all about the Hebrewic fanatics, Jewish, Christian and Islamic

Mostly mankinds bellicose history is about greed, not GOD.



Religon SELDOM played a major factor in going to war, power OFTEN did.

YOu guys seem to think if just because these people had some religion they were slaves to it and everything they did was prompted by it, too.

That's nonsense of course.

Lord knows that the history of religiously motivated violence and wars is disgusting enough without you fundamentalist atheists blowing that sorry record completely out of proportion.
 
Were the Vikings motivated by religion? Hell no!

Cowards never saw the halls of Valhalla

Egypt? Hell no!

IN many of their campaigns, the gods were invoked and the honor of both ewgypt and her gods became a rallying cry for the comon soldier

'The Greeks? Hell no!

A times, yes

The Phoenicians? No


vandals goth visogaths ostragoths

fought because they were betrayed and were being pursued


YOu anti-religious folks just fucking make history up to make your point and frankly I tire of this myth.

Read your fucking history, boys.

The Jewish Conquests, the Wars for the Holy Lands, the inquisition, Constantine's holy domination...

It isn't all about the Hebrewic fanatics, Jewish, Christian and Islamic

Who said it was?
Religon SELDOM played a major factor in going to war, power OFTEN did.

The reasons the elite declare war are not the same reasons the poor fight it
 
I would blame the man's mental illness or reason for doing it as well.

Islam is one of those religions that has brought prosperity to the world.

Your argument of blaming the man not the hatchet would apply to all the benefits as well. It was the nice man not the tool. If religion is a corruptable tool that can be replaced by other means why wouldn't we want get rid of it?

How has Islam brought prosperity to the world, out of curiosity?

And all tools can be turned to evil uses. That doesn't mean the tool is flawed. And religion isn't "replaceable".
 
then what has been the leading cause of death in the world....it would have to be territorial rights....moving ethnic groups enslave or killed the group on the land they wanted....nothing has really changed about that now has it? pirates exist to this day. greed, lust are two of the 7 deadly sins

religion as a uniting factor..i just dont see that...seems most churches here will split over anything.

Greed. Politics. Evil. And Communism.
 
I've seen many a simpleton opine that religion is the single greatest cause of war. This is simply not true. Religion is however, one of history's most successful tools for unifying a populace and maintaining public order. And yes, this very element has oft been exploited by leaders of men as a means to arrouse support and justifcation for going to war. But that makes evil those that exploit the tool for evil, not the tool itself. If a man hacked up your family with a hatchet, would you blame the hatchet or the man? On the whole, religion has been an absolute boon for humanity in terms of both survival and prosperity. Without which we may very well not be here talking about it today. To categorically dismiss religion as a scourge of humanity is to betray a marked dearth of wisdom and maturity.

My readings indicate that you are correct.
 
Were the Vikings motivated by religion? Hell no!

Cowards never saw the halls of Valhalla


Vikings came for booty and stayed for the land.

They didn't come to pray they came to prey.

Who cares what they told themselves, they weren't there to SPREAD THEIR FAITH, which the benchmark of a RELIGIOUS war.

Egypt? Hell no!

IN many of their campaigns, the gods were invoked and the honor of both ewgypt and her gods became a rallying cry for the comon soldier

How do you know that? You don't, but let's assume it's true anyway, shall we?

Now, was the religion of Egypt spread to the people of the lands Egypt dominated?

Hell no, it was not.

The captive lands of the Pharohs could pray to anything they wanted, just as long as they paid tribute to Egypt.

Ergo, religion was NOT the cause of Egypts wars of expansion

You're playing (or falling for) a revisionist game.

And the way the game is played is this...

If the people fighting believed in a GOD, credit their every move as being motivated by that religion.

Sheer fucking revisionist (and thoughly anti-religious) nonsense.

Everyculture or tribe believed in some religion in those days.

But not every religion sought converts and if conversion isn't the point of the war their war isn't a religious war.

What you and others who believe this myth seem to be doing is viewing every war every culture and every people through the (presumed, incorrectly) religiously fanaticism of the Judeao-Christian lens of rationalizg why they had the RIGHT to slaughter people who got in their way.

The ancient Hebrews didn't have religious wars even if they c they claimed they were backed by GOD.

They had wars of domination for territory. Anyone who stood in their way happened NOT to be in the tribes.

Sure they killed all non-believers, but not because they were non-believers, but because they were on the land that the Jews wanted.

That's not a RELIGIOUS war, sport, that's a tribal war for territory, plain and simple.
 
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The biggest reason for bloodshed is Imperialism and precious stones; religion has only been a useful tool in that conquest, and that is an undeniable fact. How many millions of natives lost their lives "In the nme of god"? How many more were enslaved "in the name of god"? How many Christians and Muslims slaughtered each other "in the name of god"? The casualties are countless, and while it might not have been THE real reason, it was more often than not the justification, because it's easier to say that people must die to defend god than to defend those who "defend god" to maintain their power and wealth. And in the meantime, the representative of Christ on Earth sits in his golden palace reaping the benefits of fountains of red blood.
 
Religion caused everyone to divide into little groups , who each called the other liar and fool, and is still a dividing force today. A lot of the friction and war in today's world are religion based.
 
Religion caused everyone to divide into little groups , who each called the other liar and fool, and is still a dividing force today. A lot of the friction and war in today's world are religion based.

But you've brought them all back together Al. Everyone thinks you're a liar and a fool.

Way to go! :clap2:
 
Religion caused everyone to divide into little groups , who each called the other liar and fool, and is still a dividing force today. A lot of the friction and war in today's world are religion based.

But you've brought them all back together Al. Everyone thinks you're a liar and a fool.

Way to go! :clap2:

ok, so what's wrong with my statement? Do you even have anything intelligent to say about religious wars today? Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, 9/11...
 
Religion caused everyone to divide into little groups , who each called the other liar and fool, and is still a dividing force today. A lot of the friction and war in today's world are religion based.


As is political and economic theory the source of much contention

And much as people were brainwashed into fighting for their GOD, so too have we been brained-washed into defending democracy and capitalism from copeting political and economic systems.

Shall we resign all people who believed in those things into the idiot catagory just as we're putting all believers?

I mean given that we fought Maoist communism until we became China's best trade partner and all, I mean.
 
"brained-washed into defending democracy" LOL "and capitalism" LOL LOL
Like there's a feasable alternative.
 
The pursuit of power and wealth is the leading cause of war and bloodshed in human history

Very true. When someone says that money is the motivation, they're really saying the same thing, because isn't the power it brings with it the reason people like money? Didn't someone once say that war is the continuation of diplomacy by non-diplomatic means? That makes it political, and isn't politics all about power?
 
The biggest reason for bloodshed is Imperialism and precious stones; religion has only been a useful tool in that conquest, and that is an undeniable fact. How many millions of natives lost their lives "In the nme of god"? How many more were enslaved "in the name of god"? How many Christians and Muslims slaughtered each other "in the name of god"? The casualties are countless, and while it might not have been THE real reason, it was more often than not the justification, because it's easier to say that people must die to defend god than to defend those who "defend god" to maintain their power and wealth. And in the meantime, the representative of Christ on Earth sits in his golden palace reaping the benefits of fountains of red blood.

So if something is twisted out of all recognition in order to justify evil actions, it's the fault of the thing being twisted, rather than the person/people doing the twisting? I don't think so.

And I'm assuming by "representative of Christ on Earth", you're referring to the Pope, and I for one will thank you to contain the rampant anti-Catholic bigotry. The Catholic Church is no more perfect than any other organization of human beings, but it's also no more evil. It's just . . . human, and it has done a whole hell of a lot of good throughout its history, and continues to do so today.
 
The catholic church is full of homo pedophiles and is one of the, if not the richest business on the planet, yet they still demand money from you just to be a part of their religion. Just like the mob. They've killed more people over the years than any other organization, except the us army maybe, and continue to enslave women, discriminate against gays, and condone and promote overpopulation.
 
then what has been the leading cause of death in the world....it would have to be territorial rights....moving ethnic groups enslave or killed the group on the land they wanted....nothing has really changed about that now has it? pirates exist to this day. greed, lust are two of the 7 deadly sins

religion as a uniting factor..i just dont see that...seems most churches here will split over anything.



Actually, no.

Top 20 Causes of Mortality Throughout the World

Top 20 Causes of Mortality Throughout the World — Infoplease.com
 
The catholic church is full of homo pedophiles and is one of the, if not the richest business on the planet, yet they still demand money from you just to be a part of their religion. Just like the mob. They've killed more people over the years than any other organization, except the us army maybe, and continue to enslave women, discriminate against gays, and condone and promote overpopulation.

The Catholic Church is no more "full of" bad people than any other large organization made up of people, so spare me your media-driven anti-Catholic bigotry, all right? The Catholic Church is one of the foremost sponsors of charitable institutions in the entire world. When the vaunted US federal government, source of all charity and goodness in the eyes of leftists, cannot help someone, they refer them to the Catholic Church. Don't believe me? Go to your local welfare office and ask them for a list of charities to help the poor in your city. At least half of them will be operated under the auspices of the Catholic Church.

When YOUR compassion involves putting YOUR money where your fat mouth is the way theirs does, then maybe you can sit back and sanctimoniously dismiss the entire Catholic Church as a bunch of pedophiles and killers and mobsters. Until then, shut your juvenile, ignorant mouth.
 

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