Argumentative Essay on Does Religion cause war?

 Does Religion Cause War?

The belief and faith of people differ from each other. Different ways of having faith in God differentiate into various religions. Every religion teaches us to adopt truth and serve humanity but the way they impart is different. In religious disputes, a minute conflict can take the form of war. People can compromise with small disputes over their territory, but people cannot compromise if their religion is being questioned. Hence, from prehistoric to present time we can see how the massive destruction is done in the name of religion.

Religion can cause violence by misinterpretation of the messages that the sacred texts are supposed to transmit. Undoubtedly, none of the religions in the world states violence as a solution to any problem. Religion is not the cause of war; people fight when their religious sentiment is hurt. In addition, the politicians who have taken God as business manipulate people using their sentiment as Great Britain did to India and Pakistan. They simply use it as a tool to bring and unite people of their religion so they can achieve their egoistic goals. The actual reasons violence ever happens are economic, political, and social disputes.

In 10,000 years of human civilization 1,763 wars have been fought among which 6.68% were caused by religion. For example, The Crusade wars resulted in bloodshed on both Christian and Muslim sides of the conflict fought for Palestine and save their territory. Furthermore, violence in religion even exceeds conflicts between different ethnic groups; it also happens within the same ethnic groups. Not only Hitler killed 6 million Jews but also in Burma, thousands of monks are being tortured and executed. All of the followers of these religions believed that they were doing the right thing by going to war to protect their religion. These wars are the result of the hatred that occurred between the people of various religions. Observing all this, it is easy to conclude that religion often causes wars.

Most of the religious wars are the results of misconceptions or any other factor like social, political, or economic factors in the face of religion. Likewise, the war is often termed as religious war if religion justifies that. If we observe the terrorist activities, it is also concerned with a particular religion but we cannot blame the whole religion because of the wrong deeds of few people belonging to that religion. Similarly, in secularism, where people are given the freedom to choose their religion there occurs an unhealthy competition where religious groups start attracting people to their religion for increasing followers.

Thus, it will be more appropriate to state that ideologies of people and selfish motives are responsible for the conflicts, not religion. Religion is often used as a tool for arising conflicts among the people of different religions. On the other hand, there are people of the same religion who want to live peacefully by choosing to act differently than what wrong is being done in the name of religion.