boholikeu said:
Am I the only one that's a little depressed by the number of people listing religion?
How is religion any more responsible than, say, government, the invention and development of weapons, the concept of land ownership, etc? I think when you actually go back and look at wars and disputes that were "caused" by religion you find that's it's not as simple as "you believe something different from me, so you must die". There are almost always underlying economic, historic or ethnic reasons as well.
Maybe it's just me, but anyone who views religion as either inherently good or evil is missing the whole picture. You simply have to ignore too many facts to have an opinion that polarized.
Na I'm with you here. The Crusades were largely political in the intent of its 'major players' simply because Jerusalem was a pretty important trade point, and the papacy greatly desired to extend its reach further east.
Al Qaeda and other terrorists? I actually live here in the Middle East and I can say, whole heartedly, that they are simply afraid of change and certain western ideals. Essentially, they are afraid that if their own people should pick up on these 'evil' western ideas such as democracy and freedom of religion, their own power will eventually fade away. That is why they attack and just generally cause a ruckus.
The wiping out of the Native Americans? Granted, religion did play a part here, but as always, it was more of an excuse as opposed to something else. Generally when you have new societies meet, the stronger and more advanced one takes advantage of the other one, and through greed and lust eventually strike at them maliciously.
The oddly named 'Wars of Religion' of the, I believe, 17th century? Pretty much almost solely political. German princes converted to Protestantism to try and become autonomous. There was actually a period here where, for decades, the French and Swedish went around pillaging and murdering the Germans for NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
The stopping of progress? Well, many ancient texts throughout the Dark Ages were preserved by clergymen. During the Renaissance, many philosophers and such (Petrarch comes to mind here) were actually intensely religious, though that may have been a cultural aspect more than anything.
Of course, now days it could be argued that religion, in the WEST, is actually stopping progress in certain areas, yes.
And really, the whole "the Church stopped progress for hundreds of years!!!" only applies to the West. Take pre-Islamic Arabia. Largely nomadic, splintered into small groups of tribes and cities, and, in the contemporary sense mind you, fairly barbaric in their practices. Once Islam starts to spread, and the Abbasid Empire is formed, Baghdad becomes a city of Enlightenment. Really, if it had not been destroyed the Mongols, the Middle East would be a -very- different place. They theorized evolution in plants, learned the circumference of the world, learned about the heliocentric cycle, made advances in medicine and math, and not to mention astronomy.. It was the Renaissance, well, BEFORE the Renaissance.
Then there is of course India, where most of the people are still largely spiritual and religious. Yes, mock the country if you must, but it is making strides in technology and education as well.
This is not all to say that religion is a universally good force..God no. It has been a very -bad- thing at times, and has certainly affected certain societies in a negative matter. I would certainly say that certain atheists have it right in that aspect. I would argue though, that if religion never started up, we would have an equal force that would cause many issues that we see today. Humanity is just a very war-hungry race, and no matter what we do, there will ALWAYS be people who view their answers as the only answers, and their way of life the CORRECT way of life.
