I have been reading Richard Dawkins book "The God Delusion" and not surprisingly he raised the issue of the influence of Religion on wars. Without getting deeply embroiled into the atheistic themes of his book, I was wondering how much difference religion has made to the number and depth of conflicts fought in world history. Is religion the cause of many wars or just an excuse to justify them?

There certainly seems to be a strong case for religion having a major influence on wars and conflict from the Middle Ages up to the enlightenment era, the Crusades being just one example. On the other hand, over most of history, war appears to have been fought between egoistic rulers or ruling parties for the sake of power, glory, land or resources.

It seems to me that there is a stronger motivation for conflict from primeval tribal culture than religious ideas. Here a tribal chief had a strong genetic similarly to his tribe, and the best way to spread his genes was by killing or subordinating the males or male leaders of other tribes so he could mate with its females. To be effective these chiefs needed loyalty from the other members of the original tribe to fight for him, and only those tribes with these loyalty genes were subsequently successful at spreading them. Ghengis Khan was very successful at this, and many of us carry genes that can be traced back to him personally.

Since humans still posses these genes, the urge for group loyalty, competition and conflict with other groups is still retained. This applies to any group such as military regiments, business co-operations, political groups or entire countries, as well as religious sects. Paradoxically this tendency has become irrespective of the ability of the group or the groups they convert to procreate or how much genetic similarity there is between its members. Such groups are characterised by justifying action by loyalty rather than analysing the morality or reasoning behind their actions. In other words Dawkins own theories tend to diminish the idea that religion has had a direct major impact on war, and to be fair he recognises that there are other influences as well.

So did religion have any effect at all? In ancient history most rulers were either Kings or Generals which ruled by birthright or conquest respectively, without much consent from the people, and had largely dictatorial control over them. Over the centuries this level of absolute rule was eroded, and to avoid assassination or revolution rulers had to justify their warlike actions to a wider populace by appealing to moralistic convictions. From around the start of the last millennium these were largely based on religious texts and beliefs. However, by the time of the enlightenment most educated people could see these beliefs for what they really were, and more reasoned utilitarian, or emotionally induced Kantian moralistic arguments started to replace them. However emotion itself is controlled via genes and morality is not an exact science, therefore such arguments could still be manipulated to justify genetically driven aims, which is what I believe what instigated most of the wars during the 20th century.

So in conclusion I think religion is sometimes used as an excuse for war rather than a direct cause. Genetic urges channelled through individuals and groups help to polarise whatever political or religious opinion happens to be out there. Modern leaders and ruling groups merely use these ideals to manipulate the population for their own ends.

think the crusades.....practicaly a war between islam and christianity...think bout the wars between catholic and protistant countries....all because of the belief in a god or another

Consider that Catholics, Protestants, and even Islam all believe in the same God. I think it'd be more accurate to state that people's intolerance of each other is what causes conflicts. Many conflicts throughout history could, perhaps just as easily be attributed to racism, territorial disputes, economic disputes, etc.. So I agree with perseus. Humanity can be quite creative when it comes to manufacturing reasons to fight one another.

Consider that Catholics, Protestants, and even Islam all believe in the same God

Certainly Christians, Jews and Islam along with many minor sects are all derived from an Abrahamic 'old testament' origin, and worship many of the same prophets. The sheer violence and unjustness of these texts need to be read to be believed, they must have got Abrahamic religion off to a bad start. However, many modern theological texts preach benevolence and the the sin of murder is reasonably unambiguous so I would expect it to frighten people into not killing one another due to the threat of punishment in the afterlife.

Of course the texts have been distorted by theologians and misread by people to suit there own needs. Surprisingly Hitler was brought up a Catholic and often used religious texts to justify his theories when it suited him. At other times he was deeply critical of religion. That is why I think religion is being used as an 'moral' excuse for the execution of a personal ideology based on a genetic propensity for dominance.

Correction

I have just remembered that 'thou shall not kill' is ambiguous since some religions regard it as only referring to not killing their own people! So there you are

If there was no religion in the world, we'd find something else to fight about. There is always something the human race will fight over. It has always been that will and will continue to be that way until the end of days.

How about predatorily, territorially, instinctual animal behavior; I mean we are all just animals...

But I do however feel religion has had a strong role in the majority of wars, which again relates to my above statement...

Does Religion Contribute to War?

Of course it does. Why? War is a matter of civilization or of human organization. Man vs. man is a duel or a contest. According to any crude definition, war or military conflict is group violence.

Since religion operates as an organizing principle, and incidentally one that intellectually divides the human race into groups of "us" and "them", it creates the primary conditions necessary for war.

War, of course, requires more than just group consciousness or definitions of otherness. And, religion steps in to provide all of them. Religion creates the notion of supra-human reality. In other words, the fact that something is greater than the individual (understood as god or gods) forces the individual to accept his own demise as a part of a higher order. Nationalism presents the organic state as that higher order. Religion presents "God" as the higher order. Nationalism is only a byproduct of religion.

In fact, it could be argued that religion is the primary intellectual component of war. It originally helped condition human consciousness to accept abstract transcendental notions as real. Even ancestor worship created the notion of an afterlife and of dying for honour, etc. Some cultures elevated death (self-sacrifice) to the highest of virtues. Even Christians do this.

But, then again, everything in life -- all of our thoughts and ideas -- are just occult, anyway. What is thought other than just abstraction? And all of this is only after one thing: THE SINGULAR WILL TO POWER!

Does belief in religion cause wars? Absolutely YES! I agree with Ollie in that religion is the primary intellectual component of war. Religion after all, is a belief system that transcends all other facets of a society. Fundamentalism in religion of any kind must, ultimately, lead to war with any other religion as it creates an "us", the true believers, the good, versus 'them', the infidels, the unbelievers, the evil, scenario. How many times has this scenario played out throughout history? One can argue that there is currently a war between fundamentalist christians and fundamentalist muslims in the Middle East.

Religion is a cornerstone of society, even when many people are unaware of its influence. After all, what is religion? Depending on how wide you set the goalposts religion can mean just about everything that defines a society. Religion perhaps is used as a way to absolve guilt and responsibility over morally questionable actions but the fact remains that the use of religion in war, rightly or wrongly, is held up as defending good over evil. And good versus evil is a cornerstone of why men fight each other.

Originally Posted by The Cooler King

If there was no religion in the world, we'd find something else to fight about. There is always something the human race will fight over. It has always been that will and will continue to be that way until the end of days.

How true CK - consider the US civil war. blood relations of the same religion fought against one another over a non-religious issue. Many other examples exist from other countries too.

There have been probably more wars over religion than any thing else. Some of the worlds largest mass migrations have been caused be religion.