Why does religion create so much war and terror when it is supposed to be doing the opposite?

Answer 1

After a lot of research into the various religious beliefs of the highly commercialized regions of the world, I have come to the rational conclusion that God was created in the image and likeness of the rulers of the respective geographical locations. These rulers, through their advisors, created religions that targeted the fears of the people at the particular time. These advisors were similar to the marketing consultants and advertising specialists of today. The wealthy people found creative (psychological) ways of keeping the commoners (slaves) obedient, to their whim and fancy. The commoners were threatened with eternal damnation for disobedience to the divine laws and instructions of an invisible authority called God. They were told that this God has created you in his image and likeness to obey and serve him with blind faith. This God choose special servants to be his messengers to his gullible and obedient subjects. This God also commands that his loyal slaves must kill all those who do not obey his commandments. When competing religions threatens the economic control of another, acts of terrorism, persecution, crucifixion and violence are used to annihilate the competition. Religious bigotry has more to do with wealth, power and greed, than it has to do with righteousness, spirituality and piety.

Answer 2

The fundamental supposition of the question, that religions are designed to promote peace and well-being, is simply not the case. Religions are designed to promote (1) moral conduct and (2) propitiation of the various divinities alleged by the religion to exist. In many cases, these questions of morality or divinity appeasement run directly contrary to the ideas of peace and well-being. The most obvious such case is human sacrifice. It is very clear both why some religions supported human sacrifices, the gods supposedly required them, and why such an act does not promote human well-being, killing people leaves them in a worse state health-wise.

When people believe in moral precepts from a religion and/or believe in requirements to propitiate the gods that do not align with peaceful conduct, we see them manifest in wars and terrorism. In the case of Jihadism (Islamic terrorism), for example, the Jihadist believes that secular governments and institutions are immoral entities and that their removal is an act of divine propitiation. As a result, they choose a violent approach to remove these entities and this violence is typically labelled as war or terrorism. (There are other Muslims called Islamists who do this peacefully and still many more Muslims who do not focus on this issue, but as concerns Jihadists, this underlines their activities.)