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Originally Posted by Chief
True, but that statement is so overused and exaggerated it is not even funny. For one, even religion has been a tool for convincing the masses to go to war at times, it often has not been the "primary cause". Secondly a HELL of a lot more wars and death have occurred at the hands of atheists, or the non-religious than the religious. WWII come to mind? WWI? The USSR, Vietnam? Korea? Just about any number of the thousands upon thousands of wars between tribes and empires throughout human history. Religion has been just a tiny catalyst in it all.
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Maybe take a trek through history again and see how many conflicts were spurred from or spurned on by religious fervor. Hell, even the terrorist acts of today are "religiously motivated". Have you forgotten the crusades, the inquisition, many of the mass genocides in various countries were performed by people of conflicting religions. Ireland is an ongoing religious war.... even the US of A is happy to admit that "God told them to do it". And you can't tell me that in EVERY war, each side wasn't praying to their god that they would win. Religion was hardly a tiny catalyst in any way, and if you do your background research you will find that religious upheavals and religio-political jockeying have been at the roots of many conflicts that were claimed to have started for other reasons.