Posted on 09/20/2013 5:18:36 PM PDT by NYer
Atheists and secular humanists consistently make the claim that religion is the #1 cause of violence and war throughout the history of mankind. One of hatetheism's key cheerleaders, Sam Harris, says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.”1
While there’s no denying that campaigns such as the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ War foundationally rested on religious ideology, it is simply incorrect to assert that religion has been the primary cause of war. Moreover, although there’s also no disagreement that radical Islam was the spirit behind 9/11, it is a fallacy to say that all faiths contribute equally where religiously-motivated violence and warfare are concerned.
An interesting source of truth on the matter is Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as being religious in nature,2 which is an astonishingly low 6.98% of all wars. However, when one subtracts out those waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage is cut by more than half to 3.23%.
That means that all faiths combined – minus Islam – have caused less than 4% of all of humanity’s wars and violent conflicts. Further, they played no motivating role in the major wars that have resulted in the most loss of life.
Kind of puts a serious dent into Harris’ argument, doesn’t it?
The truth is, non-religious motivations and naturalistic philosophies bear the blame for nearly all of humankind’s wars. Lives lost during religious conflict pales in comparison to those experienced during the regimes who wanted nothing to do with the idea of God – something showcased in R. J. Rummel’s work Lethal Politics and Death by Government:
Rummel says: “Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.”4
The historical evidence is quite clear: Religion is not the #1 cause of war.
If religion can’t be blamed for most wars and violence, then what is the primary cause? The same thing that triggers all crime, cruelty, loss of life, and other such things. Jesus provides the answer very clearly: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23).
James (naturally) agrees with Christ when he says: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2).
In the end, the evidence shows that the atheists are quite wrong about the wars they claim to so desperately despise. Sin is the #1 cause of war and violence, not religion, and certainly not Christianity.
Ping!
But Islam is the Number 1 cause of Terrorism
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this useful and truthful piece.
Islamic wars are not discrete conflagrations including intra-Islamic wars. Wars between Mohammedans and Infidels are all part of one war that began with Mohammed himself and will continue until there are no Infidels or until there are no Mohammedans.
I'm ok with that outcome.
/johnny
Repeat a lie often enough and loud enough....
Interesting conclusion ... if true ... that non-islam religion-driven wars = islam religion-driven wars. I realize this doe snot include violent terrorism but I would have expected the percentage of islam-driven wars to be greater.
Joseph Stalin - 42,672,000
Mao Zedong - 37,828,000
Adolf Hitler - 20,946,000
Chiang Kai-shek - 10,214,000
Vladimir Lenin - 4,017,000
Hideki Tojo - 3,990,000
Pol Pot - 2,397,0003
Many atheists will vehemently deny atheism was to blame to such things as the atrocities of Stalin, while equally contending Hitler was a Christian.
Yet under atheism, there is no material transcendent standard for morality, as was the case for Stalin, Pol Pot, etc., but what seems reasonable to the atheism determines what is best.
And as it is evident that man with worship something or someone, the created (which will fail and mislead) or the Creator, the effect of atheism includes the "political religion" they blame for Stalins murders.
And "political religion" is much what we see here in post Christian America.
And thanks for the post (Prot source no less).
When a leader decides to take his nation to war, he has his own personal motives of pride, greed, hunger for power, etc. But he needs to sell both the men he expects to fight for him and the civilians he expects to pay for it.
So the leader appeals to whatever will motivate. That might be fear or religion or patriotism or whatever.
Iraq example.
Bush clearly had a different motivation than Cheney. But they needed to “sell it to congress”. So they replayed Clintons fear-mongering about Sadam’s WMDs. Most Dems have a fear of WMDs out of proportion to reality. Just as with guns they give morality to inanimate WMDs, rather than the people who possess them. So most Dems supported the war in Iraq for different reasons than Bush and Cheney.
Then when we can’t find Sadam’s WMDs they blame Bush for their own demons. The Left’s fear of inanimate objects is a religion that leads to war or at least is partially responsible.
Civil War example. Numerous Republican religious abolitionists supported the John Brown approach and helped push the North into the civil war and successfully pushed the buttons of the south so the south did what the abolitionists wanted...make war to save the union the viable option for many who were not abolitionists. Religion played a central role in starting the civil war.
There were Amish/Mennonites/Quakers who converted to Wesleyan Methodist or other denomination because they thought slavery was so evil violence was justified and the non-violence of their previous church was un-christian.
Freindly Persuasion was Reagan’s favorite movie because it defined the struggle between fighting injustice suffered by others and minding one’s own salvation and staying out of other’s.
Joseph Stalin - 42,672,000
Mao Zedong - 37,828,000
Adolf Hitler - 20,946,000
Chiang Kai-shek - 10,214,000
Vladimir Lenin - 4,017,000
Hideki Tojo - 3,990,000
Pol Pot - 2,397,0003
Isaiah 14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Nothing more than man in his own righteousness and greatness in his own eyes, he said he was going to get there but he never even got close.
Remind you of Hitler and Stalin and the others who did weaken the nations?
Just to piggyback on Ravenwolf’s post...
Atheists have a spiritual father whether they acknowledge him or not, the Father of Lies. He enjoys sowing strife and division to further his quest to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10, James 3:15-17)
And even Christians can be influenced to do horrible things if Jesus is truly not their Lord. Note the thousands of trials, tortures, burnings at the stake, witch-hunts, persecutions, thefts, and religious wars especially in Europe in the not so distant past.
Jesus rebuked the self-righteous religious leaders of his day by saying,
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:43-44)
That is a pretty strong rebuke for the supposedly pious religious leaders.
There is a time when Christians need to take up arms and be God’s arm of judgment. David writes, “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” (Psalm 144:1) The Spirit-filled Christian fights recognizing the spiritual forces behind the enemy. And when motivated by Truth, Justice, and Love, always prevails with God as their Covenant-keeping Heavenly Father.
In a sense, all wars ARE religious wars, if you acknowledge that in reality every war is a spiritual conflict between Light and darkness. Of course far too many people prefer the darkness, so we have plenty of conflict.
But one day soon, this will end. We have God’s Word on that.
bkmk
Just to piggyback on Ravenwolf’s post...
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