Religion is the Cause of War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Religion is the Cause of War - Essay Example Basic human nature has proven over the course of the past centuries that humans ultimately seek to be defined based upon what they are, what they are not, and how they view themselves as well is how others view them. Many times this level of distinction was defined on terms of geographical origin, ethnicity, race, gender, language, or another means of separating and defining people (Eberle, 2012). However, arguably one of the most important means by which individuals from a variety of different locations, races, languages, and/or ethnicities can be divided is with regards to the division that religion so often provides. More powerful than the determinants which have already been listed, religion divides people based upon a nebulous belief system. Due to the fact that personal belief is almost invariably tied to worldview in the way that the individual perceives their surroundings and the reality in which they live, the reader can come to a basic understanding and realization for why such a multitude of many different religions, schisms, and splinter groups exist within the current paradigm. Accordingly, rather than stating that religion is the root cause of all global conflict, it will be the understanding that this analysis will point towards and defined that religion is one of the primal motivators for both current and past conflict. Due to the powerful way in which religion unites a wide variety of individuals from different walks of life, races, ethnicities, languages, and geographical origin, it represents one of the more dangerous aspects of the means by which individuals to find themselves and â€Å"the other†. One does not need to look very hard in order to identify some of the ways in which religion of the past has helps to motivate individuals to commit heinous atrocities. For instance, even a cursory review of tissue of the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Islam, illustrates a number of instances recorded in their respective holy books in which t he followers of these religions were encouraged to commit unspeakable atrocities upon heathens/nonbelievers/infidels or any other such group that their supposed deity commanded that they destroy. Although opponents to such an understanding of religion would merely point to the fact that this occurred many thousands of years ago and cannot be understood as representative of current faith and the means by which war is waged, one need look no further than the situations around the globe represented within the following: the Bosnia conflict, the war in East Timor, the war ensued on, repression of minority religious groups in countries as diverse as Iran, Egypt, Mali, Burma, India, Armenia, as well as a host of others (Eberle, 2012). Ultimately, although religion can be a powerful force for good in the world, the fact of the matter is that it all too often is hijacked as a means of differentiating one people group from another, encouraging one form of strife directed at another, or merel y making one group or entity feel somehow superior to another (Henne, 2012). In such a way, religion can be seen as the ultimate division whereby elements of classism, racism, and a host of other judgments are included as a means of defining who is ultimately worthy of life and who is not. In such a way, it can easily be understood by the reader why religion has a powerful role in encouraging violence towards other groups and/or nations that can somehow be dehumanized by a given belief system. This has of course happened far to many times within the past as religion has been used, and still is used as a motivator to create something of a faceless enemy which can more readily be destroyed without questions of conscience.