Faith has always been one of the strongest forces throughout history. Man’s need to hold onto realities and meaning outside of his world has always existed. It is in human nature, to find meaning; since not everything seems to have meaning or be fair, there must be some alternate reality (e.g. God’s judgment or reincarnation) which settles scores, or makes life worth living. Whether or not this ‘reality’ exists, hope and faith are enough to move mountains.
It is true that certain beliefs have done tremendous amounts of good for people’s psychological well-being, and have brought many people together. Why is it that an institution, created to maintain peace, unity, tolerance and morality has in many instances, done exactly the opposite? Religion seems to have caused further divide, created more grounds for prejudice and discrimination and fueled irrational judgment. Is it simply because man can turn anything into a tool to gain advantage over other men? From the beginning of time, man has always been competitive. “In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.” Richard M. Nixon quotes (American 37th US President (1969-74), 1913-1994)
It seems that religion has proved to be the ultimate weapon and alibi. It is difficult to tell, which conflicts linked to religion were based on genuine belief in something, or just used religion to gather support.
People view different Religious wars differently. What some people call ‘terrorism’, others may call ‘jihad’. While Israelis consider Palestine rightfully theirs, others might say it is just opportunistic behavior.
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