Is War All God's Fault?

Religion gets a bad rap when it comes to war and human conflict, which it partly deserves. But there's a tad more to this 'violence thing' than faith.

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[Flyborg]

Wait.. WHO, precisely, is claiming that ALL war is religion's fault? I don't think anyone is.

There are many wars (and other violence, atrocities, and ongoing civil problems) which are directly caused or motivated by religious beliefs, but not all. Other causes of war include nationalism, xenophobia and non-religious dogma. And non-belief doesn't guarantee peace, either, but at least it doesn't cause war. (Just like nationalism can cause war, but non-nationalism doesn't guarantee peace.)

[Anekantavad]

@Flyborg I rather suspect you may have heard people claiming that religion was the driving force between Nazi Germany and the USSR 1941-45 (the most devastating and bloody war in human history) when in fact it had absolutely nothing to do with it.

That's what the sort of thing I am referring to.

:-)

[Flyborg]

@Anekantavad Nope, never heard that. In fact I think I've heard more than one of the most prominent religion criticizers specifically mention that the cause of WWII was nationalism, racism, among other things. Often they mention that Germany/Hitler were Christian/theists, but this is usually in response to the claim that Hitler was "secretly atheist" or that the cause was "because of atheism". I've really never hear anyone say that ALL war is because of religion. (or God)

[Anekantavad]

@Flyborg Never heard it?

Well, there you are then, eh?

:-)

[Flyborg]

@Anekantavad well yeah lol, I heard it from you.. but I was wondering who exactly this video was supposed to be responding to. (It's a video response to a NSC video but I don't think he or any other prominent YouTube atheist has ever made the argument that all wars are the fault of religion)

[Anekantavad]

@Flyborg I have. I've heard religion get blamed (literally) for every evil humanity has ever faced. I have heard people blame religion for militant atheism!

Funny old world eh?

[Flyborg]

@Anekantavad Ah, I'm willing to accept that. I've heard random commentators write some pretty stupid things on YouTube. But if any of the main/prominent YouTube atheists had said this (NSC, AronRa, etc) or any of the prominent non-YouTube atheists (Hitchens, Harris, etc) I'd be quite surprised, which is why I asked.

[Anekantavad]

@sk8tafrnk Quite.