Why is there so much religion involved with war?

Answer 1

most if not all religion accept the reality of war as being nesessary against oppressing nations. in fact most religion promise instant access to heaven if you should die on the battlefield. the notion is that there is no greater love than the love of a person who gives their lives so others may live, as a reward they get guaranteed acceptance to heaven.

With the exception of a few religions, the majority of established religions endorsed war. In some religious scriptures war is sanctioned by their Gods. In some scriptures their Gods orders them to destroy the heathens, pagans and imbeciles which means that innocent men, women and children are slaughtered because they believe in another religion.

Answer 2

Throughout history religion has been one of the main causes of wars and conflicts. One of the reasons for this is that many religions have the belief that others who do not share your beliefs are inferior and these people must be converted. This started conflicts when christian people moved into a non christian area and they would try to convert the natives. This caused conflicts to break out. Another way that war is caused by religion is fighting over holy lands. Examples of this are the Crusades of the middle ages and the current conflicts in Gaza's Strip. In these situations people of different cultures and religions all believed the same areas were holy and given to them by god. Because of the belief that people of other faiths are inferior instead of sharing these lands peacefully they fought violently over them and as stated earlier conflicts of this manner are still occurring today. Another reason religion causes war is that there are certain sects of religious extremeists in all major religions and these people take their holy texts very literally and seriously and put religion above all else in their lives. These people are willing to do anything that they believe is the will of God. Some examples of this are extremeist Christians who kill doctors who perform abortions and Muslim extremeist groups like Al-Queida who use terrorism to wage a holy war "Jihad" against those of other religions who they believe to be inferior.

Other contributors have said:

Wars start because human beings start them. The argument that religions cause wars is nonsensical because:<br /><br />If any religion directly caused war then numerous religious wars would have been going on CONTINUOUSLY throughout history until, in each case, ALL of the believers on one side or theother were wiped out.<br /><br />Wars are started and maintained by human beings - some of whom choose to claim some religious belief or other as justification for what they are doing. If we look at the Iraq War, for example, although there have been claims that this was a struggle between Christianity and Islam, it is clear that those who triggered the whole thing were really interested in just two things:<br /><br />1. Holding the balance of power in the Middle East, because<br /><br />2. They wanted to grab and control some of the wealth held/generated by the oil exporting counties.<br /><br />Of course it could be argued that rampant capitalism is itself a "religion" for some people, but not in the sense that Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. are religions.

Answer 3

Although religion isn't the cause of war, it is most frequently used as an excuse. Reason being, the best way to get someone to fight for you or the country is to rattle the core of their being by convincing them that it is under threat. Since people hold their beliefs close to their heart, to say it is on the verge of extinction encourages people to protect the one freedom they treasure the most, their beliefs.

Other motivational tools include patriotism (nationalistic pride) but as the world moves along, this is losing steam because everyone is importing/exporting and communicating over the internet. Perhaps more poignant is telling people their families are in danger, which is true in war, but if you're in a larger country, the threat may not feel immanent. By far then, the greatest vice of control is to tell people that a foreign government will tell a person what to buy, what their job will be and most domineering, what to think. People like their minds and would do nearly anything to guard against losing their right as an individual to think.

Answer 4

That varies from war to war. But it has happened quite often that religion has been used either as a reason, or as an excuse, to start a war. On the other hand, there have been many cases where religion hasn't had a major role in a specific war.

Answer 5

i know that the christians in The Bible fought battles but only when god told them to. i will try to get an answer to who ever posted this though. I'll ask some one who will know.