Although there is some sort of general loss of confidence in religion today, many people believe that religion instills love and brotherhood. Of course, on the individual level there have always been noble lives lived by all types of religious people. But what do facts reveal about this world’s religions in general? What, for example, is religion’s record in relation to war—the very opposite of love and brotherhood?
The record of suffering, cruelty and bloodshed caused or blessed by religion is frightful. Such wars involving various religious groups are often referred to as “holy wars”. In such wars, members of a particular religion rape, kill, and commit unbelievable atrocities on members of another religion (who are human beings like themselves).
Back in 1208 C.E., Pope Innocent III organized a special crusade against a religious sect called the Waldenses, followers of Peter Waldo, a French merchant. Waldo had denounced the luxury of the clergy.
According to historian Wells, the Pope’s crusade sanctified “the enlistment of every wandering scoundrel to carry fire and sword and rape and every conceivable outrage among the most peaceful subjects of the King of France. The accounts of the cruelties and abominations of this crusade are far more terrible to read than any account of Christian martyrdoms by the pagans.”
This is but a few brief accounts of the many wars caused or supported by religion in the past. What about today?
Make a jump to our sister country – Nigeria – where communal brutality is fixing Muslims against Christians, in spite of the fact that such people might as well be neighbors. From time past, there have been serious tensions between Christians and Muslims in the northern part of the country (Nigeria). Thousands, if not millions, of people have lost their lives in connection with this and many other religious riots.
Interestingly, all these religious bodies teach their members how to love one another, show kindness & compassion, and above them all, treat their fellow human beings like themselves.
Bitter animosity between Catholics and Protestants has plagued Ireland for centuries. The violence in Northern Ireland has caused great misery and loss of life on both sides. The churches have a direct responsibility for much of the suffering because of their involvement with nationalism and politics.
To this day, also, the Middle East remains a center of religion-based strife. For many years, “Christian” and anti-“Christian” forces have been slaughtering one another. It was the same story in India, when the British pulled out in 1947 and the various non-Christian factions in that country set upon one another in ghastly massacres.
The facts about these and other conflicts in which religion plays a major role are common knowledge. Not only are the great world religions involved so as the minor cults.
During World Wars I and II for instance, millions of Christians, along with Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and others, inflicted appalling loss of life and misery on one another.
What really astounds me is how the various religious leaders pray for God’s blessings in order to be able to kill as many as possible other human beings who do not share the same religious beliefs with them. Among other things, religion is one of the social institutions that is charged to promote unity. However, it is obvious that it is doing more harm than good, in that field.
There are many widows and orphans out there who get support from these religious bodies, nonetheless, it is the activities of the same religious bodies that have rendered millions widows and orphans.
It is clear that we can never hope to see a true, universal brotherhood established through religion—the hostilities will live on.
Honestly I sometimes wish there was no religion. There has been so many loss of life all b’cos of religion
Joseph Stalin was atheist and under atheistic communism he killed 20 million+, TWENTY MILLION PLUS! Atheistic communism in the 20th century alone killed between 100 million and 200 million people. much more than religion has in all history of human kind.
You must be more ignorant than i am to think the world would be peaceful without religion. That’s just insane!
I did not write this article but I think I should reply your misplaced comment. Stalin was no doubt an atheist, same as Hitler and others, but their killings and brutal crime against humanity were no way done because they were atheists. Stalin was influenced by Facism and I think you should read on this before making such an “ignorant” comment on the subject.
I can point you to where you can find out more about this; Christoper Hitchens in his book-God is not Great, Chapter 17 talks about this in detail. He mentions among other things that, “it is interesting that people of faith now seek defensively to say they are no worse than fascists or Nazis or Stalinists”.
“He goes on to analyze those examples of immorality, and shows that although the individual leaders may have been atheist or agnostic, that religion played a key role in these events, and religious people and religious leaders fully participated in the wars and crimes”. Also, ideas like Facism, racism and others were the wheels they drove on.
If you truly seek knowledge on this subject, then check the above out chapter out…But if you want to just make ignorant comments and be laughed at one day, somewhere, then
This article looks at wars being fought majorly on religious reasons, not because the leaders of the war are religious or non religious—such as the the Muslims attac on Christians in northern Nigeria, the Ireland case, the two Muslim sects killing each other in Iraq on a daily basis, the parties of God fighting in Israel and others…
These are holy wars and wars being perpetuated by nothing more than religion.
These videos may help you:
Ha Ha Chris, if you ever presented the views of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens somewhere among intellectuals, i’m afraid you will be laughed at. The worst you could do is post as justification of your argument on fascism against communism, a video of richard dawkins debating a catholic priest. Holy smokes! Obviously that,s where you get all your information from.
I find it despicable that you would try to discount the anti religious campains in the soviet union that left about 20 million christians dead as backed by non religious ideologies. But clearly your sources are Hitchens, the self declared Anti-theist, and Dawkins. Whether Stalin was influenced by fascism or not does not take away from the Atheistic state of mind that lead to the religious purge in the soviet union. i’m tempted to be appalled by the double standards you employ in judging wars. If he was christian he murdered for religious reasons, if he was atheist, he was under the influence of an alien ideology.
You dare ask anyone to seek knowledge from Hitchens or Dawkins? Two self proclaimed extreme religious haters? Can i then ask you to seek further knowledge on the origins of morality from the Holy Bible? Certainly not. Wouldn’t you agree with me that the best source of information would be a neutral one?
The point i am trying to make here is religion or no religion, humans are still likely to kill each other for other reasons (eg: for crude oil wars, or, perhaps, for political power, etc, etc) which turns out to have been happening thousands of years before Christ.
You say my comments are misplaced and ignorant but you know what is truly ignorant and misplaced? -Blaming religion for most of the worlds hostilities.
Ps* I am sure most people would want to believe you are as objective as journalists come and so please stop with the Dawkins and Hitchens quotes. Those won’t do much for you in intellectual circles.
I think some of your points have been answered below by someone and therefore I should not hit on those again.
Anyone who will read your comment about Hitchens and Dawkins will laugh at you rather. What do you actually know about these two people? Among many intellectuals I’ve seen, sat with and talked to, no one has laughed at the mention of Hitchens and Dawkings, probably, they will laugh when Jesus Christ is mentioned, a somewhat deluded rabbi who walked the earth sometimes back.
Even at postgraduate level, I have quoted Hitchens and Dawkins in many of writings, more recently, on a paper I did on Freedom of Expression.
Hitchens is one of the best journalists, authors and rational thinkers Britain has ever had—he is an indelible polemicist celebrated at every level. A best selling author and you just said mentioning of his name will attract lies? REALLY?
Dawkins on the other hand is a professor of biology—an educationalist and not just a biologist, but one that sits high among world scientists. I am confused as to where you get your info from.
If nothing at all, these two people are well educated, far better than the many religious zealots out there buying into myths as truth.
I sent you their work or videos because they have answered the same question you asked, thrown by people who shared the same ignorance like you do on Stalin and others.
You can independently read on Stalin and find out his influences and what drove him. Being an atheists or agnostic does not mean, everything I do is influenced by that—pretty unbelievable that anyone will think so.
And as someone pointed out, no where in the article or no one here stated that the world without religion will mean no wars, all the article is saying is, the world without religion will mean no religious war—and that is, wars fought solely on religious reasons which are PLENTY today.
I agree with you that human beings are naturally bad people, killer and all that—Thomas Hobbes talks about this a lot in his State of Nature theory. But then again, do not make it as if, religion has not worsen things—right from teachings to practice.
Not is only religion causing wars, it is impeding against development, creating poverty, being used as a tool for oppression, being used for deceit, it rides on myth, it is full of lies, it calls ancient myth books the truth, it rejects scientific findings in the face of all emerging evidence, it is irrelevant, it poisons everything, in fact, it does more harm than good.
“If nothing at all, these two people are well educated, far better than the many religious zealots out there buying into myths as truth.”
-Perhaps it may interest you to know that there are scientists who are far more accomplished than Dawkins and who also believe Christianity is true. An example is Francis Collins. This shows how hollow your so called knowledge is.
“Even at postgraduate level, I have quoted Hitchens and Dawkins in many of writings, more recently, on a paper I did on Freedom of Expression”
-What exactly does that mean? You quoting them does not make them anymore credible or knowledgeable than me quoting Shatta Wale in my Post graduate class would make him a legend.
The rest of your paragraphs just looked like a regurgitation of a Richard Dawkins/ Christopher Hitchens narrative which really tells me not to venture into reasoning with you because you’re not neutral or as a matter of fact looking for truth,
As for your claims of having sat among intellectuals who would laugh at Jesus, thats just laughable in itself. Like i said earlier, many more celebrated scientists are christians too. Are they ignorant folks too? A simple google search for notable christian scientists and philosophers will tear down your assertion that Richard Dawkins and Hitch are better than any one who believes in Jesus. That’s bullocks!
And i’m curious to know what scientific findings Christianity rejects in the face of all emerging evidence.And concerning relevance, is it not subjective? Christianity doesn’t ride on myth. Archaeological discoveries are saying otherwise. Not even once has a biblical story been disproven and i challenge you to name one. Just one.
Over all you’re not open to truth. you are just another pre-disposed anti-theist seeking to push your belief (or lack thereof) down the throats of others while allowing no room for conversation.
Perhaps your problem is with understanding: I said MANY religious zealots, not ALL religious zealots so of course some scientists will be believers too. And remember, Augustine even believed the sun moved around the earth and fabricated the absurd idea that souls of children lived in limbo. That should tell you about some of your intelligent God believing people…
Anyway, I hope you are aware that a century of research has shown that, highly intelligent people are LESS likely to believe in God.
If you’ve not aware, here is a summary of it for you:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390774/Those-higher-intelligence-likely-believe-God-claims-new-review-63-scientific-studies-stretching-decades.html
It is Monday and some of us have to write—so we will meet under another post if Jesus Christ does not come. I hope you are not waiting for his return too because millions waited for decades…LOL
The problem with you Chris is always coming off as condescending to people who do not have your viewpoint. You quote this daily mail article which says religious people are less intelligent fine. One could conduct any research in any way to prove their point. Well i have a degrees in mathematics, statistics,computer science and political science and political science. I guess being religious that makes me stupid.It is very disrespectful mocking people’s beliefs in Jesus . I could also quote an article which brings out the point that religious people are happier in their lives than non religious ones.
http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2012/04/12/religion-makes-people-happierbut-why
if that is the case, i will take happiness over so called “intelligence” any day.
@Chris Agyapong Febiri , how come some of these intellectuals are involved in bestiality and homosexual acts. u claim they are intelligent, is that what book knowledge does?. Moreover I am a proud christian, well educated with degrees in Physiology n Pharmacology. You are not intelligent than me because u are an atheist and i am a christian. “Augustine even believed the sun moved around the earth and fabricated the absurd idea that souls of children lived in limbo”. Science believed that the earth was flat at a certain point, so don’t be so sure about yourself. You need salvation. Our Jesus will always be the most prolific philopher, the most accurate prophet, the best healer, and the greatest intellectual of all time, your little blog only known to us Ghanaians and a handful black africans can never bring down christianity, u can twist the mind of ppl with ur “postgraduate this and postgraduate that” , human right this and human right that, very soon ppl of ur kind will advocate its ok to marry a goat. The bible calls ppl like that , men of Reprobate mind. I ‘v always wondered why you are so scared to write articles against the muslim faith. should i expect some bashing of the muslims from u soon?
Perhaps your problem is with English language!
You claim intellect but you do not even know that many in itself does not mean all but once you insert the definite article “the” before “many” like you did, you are referring to all?
For example, my phone is better than the many phones you have. That is to say that although you have many phones, my phone is better than all of them. Now go study English language because you are embarrassing your ignorant self.
your original statement was “If nothing at all, these two people are well educated, far better than the many religious zealots out there buying into myths as truth.”
like it was pointed out by ignoramus, it is true that numerous acts of wickedness has been committed in the name of religion, it is equally ignorant to say that without religion there will be peace on earth. Like it has been pointed out numerous acts of atrocities have been committed under the hands of godless societies like under Stalin, Mao Zedong , Lenin,Polpot. The fact is humans are capable of evil and can be inspired or motivated by anything to do evil. The fact is lately Chris has been using this platform as an attack on religion whether it is this piece or our views on homosexuality
It’s good that you believe numerous acts of wickedness have been committed all in the name of religion. After reading the article, I found it nowhere in it that the earth will be 100% without religion. The article partly blamed religion for the world’s hostilities, which I concur (since it didn’t push all the blame on religion). Logically, that would mean if there were no religious bodies, the world would have seen peace to some extent. I bet you, religion can never unite people.
The more religions that emerge, the more chaos humans are bound to face. If religion is teaching anything good, why should members of the same religious background even fight themselves when they belong to different political groups? Can religion not teach them to be one despite their differences? Why should priests pray for soldiers when going for war? In my little classroom (not even on national levels), Christians and Muslims are always picking up fights for some stupid reasons. Although a Christian, I sometimes sit down and ask myself what brought about all these?
@Chris: I am not of the opinion that religion itself is the blame for the worlds hostikities.
If you check out these religious wars one can see that there were many economical or cultural reasons which lead to these wars.
For example Al Qaeda was sponsored for a long time by the western nations.