Religion: A Sad Excuse for War

How many wars have occurred due to religion? I'd never realized it before when I was studying European history; but thinking back on the history of mankind I've discovered a pattern. Lots of wars come about because of slight disagreements over religion. I wouldn't say it's religion that's to blame, but rather it's the human tendency to take advantage of an opportunity. Religion, in unscrupulous hands, becomes a tool of manipulation. The better lessons of an ideology are overlooked, while a dictator twists phrases into something that he can use to conquer people with.

In Professor Dimendberg's class, we watched a film about Christianity in Germany during World War II. In this film, it talked about how Hitler and his National Socialists took control of the churches and claimed that it was part of God's plan that the Germans take over the world. Hitler wanted to take over the world, but he knew that no one would follow his commands unless he could suggest that there was a higher order watching. It seems reasonable to assume there were church ministers or church goers who disagreed with Hitler. In the cases of avid church-goers, couldn't they distinguish between what was said in the Bible and what was made up by Hitler?

Religion under the Nazis

The Germany around the time of the Second World War can be best described by one word: chaos. While there were church leaders such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer who saw the problems with Hitler's teaches, there were some who were too timid to call out Hitler and his soldiers. Furthermore, there were simply those wanted to choose the easy path and believe in Hitler and his extreme stances. The conditions of life were so destitute that Hitler's words of inspiration and promise for an invincible Germany worked and made the people of Germany listen to him.

The Wars of Religion, English Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War are among the wars that have in some way, religion as the root cause of them. Many wars in the world have been caused over a disagreement over religion. It's not that religion causes the wars, but rather the leaders who choose to use religion in order to further their own interests. Indeed, the threat of a higher order that is capable of evaluating people's actions is effective at controlling people and rallying up motivation. In my opinion, fights over religion should have concluded with the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the European Wars of Religion and declared that the ruler of each nation-state would make the final decision over the religion within their territory. With this treaty, religion should have already become separate from wars and other national disputes.

I believe that it would be quite possible to eliminate wars concerning religion if people become more acquitted with the teachings of various religions. It would be a good idea to implement programs that teach students about the world religions during history class. Religion has had such a huge impact on the history of humanity that ignoring the power of religion would lead to greater problems in the future.