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Mazer · 21-07-06, 07:15 PM

I still think religion's purpose is to unite people, not to throw them into wars against each other. You can liken a religion to a loaded gun, but it still takes an individual to aim and fire that weapon. The people who abuse religion to foment wars are manipulative bastards, and the ones who get caught doing it should be tried for crimes against humanity. But you can't put a whole religion on trial, you can't tell all the members of a religion to stop practcing their faith. In the end all you can rightfully do is to try to convert members of volatile religions over to peaceful ones and try to teach people not to be so gullible.

Here's a fourth question to consider: are wars such bad things? My answer would usually be yes, but some might disagree. I guess you have to look at the circumstances surrounding each war individually and make a judgement because you can't just say that all wars are always bad. And even if you conclude that a given war is bad, sometimes the fastest way to end that war is to give one side the advantage. That must have been what the directors of the Manhattan Project decided when WWII was raging in the Pacific. They gave us the bomb, we used it to put an early end to the fighting. Then we helped rebuild Japan and we haven't nuked anybody since.

Resources aren't the problem, using them efficiently is. Overpopulation isn't the problem, localized high population density is. To solve those problems border lines need to be erased so people can move freely to areas of low population density where resources are less in demand. Religion isn't the problem, fear of strangers is. But when you have no idea how to solve the real problems, it's easier to attack people's beliefs and their lifestyles and make blanket statements like "Religion and overpopulation and lack of resources are the causes of war." People are the only cause of war and it would be better to treat people like the fallible, fearful, sometimes stupid human beings they are than to point the finger at vague concepts that few people actually understand.

21-07-06, 07:15 PM	#6
Mazer Earthbound misfit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Moses Lake, Washington Posts: 2,563	I still think religion's purpose is to unite people, not to throw them into wars against each other. You can liken a religion to a loaded gun, but it still takes an individual to aim and fire that weapon. The people who abuse religion to foment wars are manipulative bastards, and the ones who get caught doing it should be tried for crimes against humanity. But you can't put a whole religion on trial, you can't tell all the members of a religion to stop practcing their faith. In the end all you can rightfully do is to try to convert members of volatile religions over to peaceful ones and try to teach people not to be so gullible. Here's a fourth question to consider: are wars such bad things? My answer would usually be yes, but some might disagree. I guess you have to look at the circumstances surrounding each war individually and make a judgement because you can't just say that all wars are always bad. And even if you conclude that a given war is bad, sometimes the fastest way to end that war is to give one side the advantage. That must have been what the directors of the Manhattan Project decided when WWII was raging in the Pacific. They gave us the bomb, we used it to put an early end to the fighting. Then we helped rebuild Japan and we haven't nuked anybody since. Resources aren't the problem, using them efficiently is. Overpopulation isn't the problem, localized high population density is. To solve those problems border lines need to be erased so people can move freely to areas of low population density where resources are less in demand. Religion isn't the problem, fear of strangers is. But when you have no idea how to solve the real problems, it's easier to attack people's beliefs and their lifestyles and make blanket statements like "Religion and overpopulation and lack of resources are the causes of war." People are the only cause of war and it would be better to treat people like the fallible, fearful, sometimes stupid human beings they are than to point the finger at vague concepts that few people actually understand.