Religion Responsible for the Majority of the Worlds Problems

You have yet to come up with a reason, other than religion, as to why people in Northern Ireland would divide themselves.

As I've already mentioned, accent is not dependent on religion.

Nor does economic class depend on religion. There are wealthy protestants and poor protestants, wealthy catholics and poor catholics.

What cultural habits?

Most people don't know who their ancestors were, much beyond their grand-parents.

Like it or not, religion IS how people in Northern Ireland divide themselves. The two sides ARE catholic and protestant.

No matter how many things you think the conflict could be about, such as people with different accents fighting each other on account of their accents, or the wealthy and the poor fighting each other, or whatever, none of that actually happens. The reality is that protestants fight catholics because they are catholics, and catholics fight protestants because they are protestants.

Yes, we have already established that not all suicide bombers have been Muslims. That is why I specifically mentioned the middle east. There are Muslim and Christian Palestinian resistance fighters who have been designated as ''terrorists'' by Israel, yet it would seem that every single suicide bombing that's been carried out by a Palestinian, has been carried out by a Muslim.

Do you really think it's a coincidence that the Quran encourages Muslims to fight those who oppress them, and claim they will be divinely rewarded for doing so, while the Bible teaches people to love thy enemy?

But the ''justification'' IS religious. Religious Jewish settlers really do believe that their God gave the land to them.

The reason they believe that is because that's what the Torah says. It doesn't matter to them what ''most religions'' say. They believe the land belongs to them because that's what their religion says.

If the Torah didn't say anything about God giving Israel to the Jews, for what other reason do you think that Jews all over the world might think that Israel collectively belongs to them?

You are basically arguing that all the religious conflicts that are currently taking place, could conceivably be taking place for some reason other than religion, if there was no religion.

But the reality is that religion is the reason that they are taking place.

That the ''Holy Land'' is the most fought over piece of land in the entire world, is no coincidence.

 

The US's political motivation in acting like a playground bully in the middle east is largely related to supporting Israel.
What drives Israel's "playground bully" behavior? Animosity with its neighbors stemming from theological differences.

 

As a fan of logic, you must acknowledge that the qualification "...the vast majority of the conflict..." is not the same as "...for all the world's problems...". If you agree that "...Religion is responsible for SOME of the world's problems...", then the only point of contention is whether the "some" is greater or less than 50%.

 

I suppose it is a quibble about quantification.

But in my view, religion plays a part, but not the wholesale part the op is asserting.

 

Irish nationalism versus British nationalism. It's not as if the IRA were poster-boy Catholics fighting for religious causes. Get real. I grew up in a Catholic/Protestant boderland between two German countries and I never feared impending war between the two.

The Qu'ran is no more aggressive than the Bible is. What people make of these scriptures to justify their very own ends is another matter.

Benjamin Netanyahu is not a pious Jew, but a cunning power-politician and - if you ask for my humble opinion - an (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*). The Jewish population was traumatized by the holocaust and often acts accordigly. The holocaust was not religiously motivated. Edith Stein was murdered in a concentration camp long after she had converted to catholicism.

For centuries nobody gave a (*)(*)(*)(*) about the Holy Land and people of all Abrahammic religions lived rather peacefully side by side there. Before even the crusades were politically motivated at their core.

I'm saying there is exactly one cause for the conflicts in this world and that cause is us. "Homo homini lupus est" and that sad truth goes for religious people as well as secular ones.

 

See my answer to dusty: The Jewish population that flooded Palestine during and after WWII was traumatized by the holocaust and often acted accordigly. Before that the original Jewish and Muslim population lived peacefully side by side in Palestine.

 

So your viewpoint is that a culture (based on religion) does not get along with another culture (based on a different religion), as a result of persecution experienced (that was based on religion)....

This hardly illustrates that religion is not a factor.

 

The Holocaust was not based on religion. As I said before: Edith Stein (and with her many others) was murdered as a Jew long after she converted to Catholicism. And being a secular Muslim won't help you at all when you are at an Israeli checkpoint. Get a grip on history.

 

If I understand correctly, your implication is that people of the jewish race who were not members of the Judaic religion were targeted; indicating that the holocaust targetted individuals on the basis of race rather than their belief systems of lifestyle... Is that correct?

If so, please explain why homosexuals and people of different races who practiced Judaism were also targetted.

The term "secular Muslim" is self-contradictory. A person can be of Arabic heritage without being a muslim.
That being said, the reason such a person might be stopped at an Israeli checkpoint would be because of the religion he/she is presumed to belong to.

Get a grip on reality.

 

Neither Irish nor British nationalism are religious causes. Why do you think that all the Irish nationalist organisations are catholic, and all the British nationalist organisations are protestant? Coincidence?

Over 30% of the population of Scotland are Scottish nationalists, while the rest are British nationalists, yet we do not fight each other because of it. The difference is that in Scotland, nationalism has nothing to do with religion.

The Quran is nowhere near as aggressive as the Old Testament, but it is more aggressive than the New Testament. Any notions to the contrary can be easily disproved.

There is no reason why Israeli Jews would be more traumatized by the holocaust than Jews who are not Israelis, yet it is only in Israel that Jews think they have a right to live on land that other people live on, and so act accordingly.

And you really don't see how this is caused by religion? You really think that if the Torah didn't say anything about Israel belonging to Jews, that Jews would still believe that Israel belongs to them, and act accordingly, because they were traumatized by the holocaust?

You're ignoring reality.

 

Are you sure about that?
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F3061EFD385F157A93CBA9178CD85F438185F9

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D10FE3A5C1B7A93CAAB178CD85F4C8385F9

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50F16FF385A157A93C1A9178BD95F438385F9

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D12F93C59167B93C4A81783D85F428385F9

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C16F73F5D117A93C6A81789D95F4D8285F9

 

Not religions , people is .

 

That IRA-members are mostly Catholic does not make the IRA a Catholic organization. If you think it is, you should change these Wikipedia articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Republican_Army_(1922–1969)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisations_known_as_the_Irish_Republican_Army
Have you ever been to Ireland? I have, years back, in the Republic of Ireland to be precise. After spending a couple of holidays in a Church-led Youth-Camp in Sligo that also organized mixed holidays for Catholic and Protestant youngsters from Northern Ireland, I lived in Dublin for a year as an Au Pair in a Catholic Family. Nobody there ever bothered me for being a Protestant and the Protestant Church I went to did not have the slightest need for security-personnel.
And as I said: I grew up in a Catholic/Protestant borderland in Germany. I still live in one and even though I’m Protestant I still live in a mainly Catholic area. No Catholic discriminates against me for being Protestant and there’s not the slightest threat of German Catholics and Protestants starting a war with each other any time soon.

Different history. 19% of Scottish people are Catholics. Any sectarian violence going on? No? Thought so.

I’m sure the Wyrd of Gawd can provide you with some very violent quotes from the NT (loads of slave beating going on etc.) It's his favourite hobby.

So why then do you think Jews and Muslims got on fine for so long?

"The land of Palestine has been populated by the nation known as Palestinians since historical times. These people are known to have been religiously diverse always with Muslim as its majority, living peacefully with fellow Jews, Christians and Druze people. However, with the Zionist movement of 20th century, a large number of Jews immigrated to Palestine from many parts of the Europe which increased the Jewish population drastically, leading to conflicts between Arabs and Jews." http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_early.php



And Zionism is not a religious but a nationalist movement. Theodor Herzl was an atheist.

I just don't tend to see it in black and white. I'm surprised you do in this question. I remember you as quite a balanced and intelligent poster.

 

Yes. http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17157

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That is correct. Better: perceived race.

This may come as a surprise to you, but homophobia cannot only be found among the religious. I can think of one poster in particular here who is not at all religious but very homophobic. Incidentally he’s also an Anti-Semite. A rather common combination among Neo-Nazis.
And - the fact aside that Jews are about as much of a real race as ‘Aryans’ – somebody who practised Judaism but wasn’t Jewish certainly would not have fallen under the Nuremberg Laws. All in all it’s not as if the Nazis forced people to go to church. Quite the contrary.

Sorry if you find the term self-contradictory, but it’s common nonetheless. If you prefer “secular Palestinian Arab”, so be it. And no, such a person would not be stopped because of his presumed religion, but because of his ethnicity. When Israel defines itself as a Jewish state it refers to Jewish ethnicity, not to Jewish religion. Under the “Law of Return” atheist Jews get the same right to Israeli citizenship as highly religious ones. Accordingly this law is viewed as ethnic discrimination by Palestinian Arabs and not as religious discrimination.

I’m extremely realistic. So much so that I know that this world would not become an iota better if you got out your magic wand and got rid of religion. The wish alone bears witness to that. It shows that some atheists have an intolerance towards people holding different beliefs that’s not an iota better than the intolerance of the most intolerant Islamists/ultra-orthodox Jews/fundamentalist Christians.

 

I think we're deviating a bit here, but it must be pointed out that those religions who do not have a history of aggressive conversion tend to be limited to the ethnicity of those who developed that religious belief. As such, there is a highly blurred line between ethnicity and religion in these cases.

How individuals interact is a function of their culture, which in many cases (eg: Israel and Palestine) is directly linked to their religion.

 

The author seems to be Jewish http://www.jewishlives.org/content/2011-national-jewish-book-awards so she may have an agenda to revise history. Therefore I will go with the New York Times articles as they tell the daily history of conflict in Palestine as it actually happened.

 

No idea whether an author has to be Jewish to be considered for National Jewish Book Awards. But if Campos is Jewish, why do you think she’d want to ‘revise history’ in such a way? Aren’t you trying to tell me that religious people always want to saw hatred and intolerance against each other? There doesn’t seem to be a lot of hatred and intolerance in that book.
As for your articles: they all date after the beginning of Zionist immigration. And as I pointed out before: Zionism is a nationalist movement, not a religious one. Herzl was an atheist.

 

Not even the latter is completely true. Not that I would not agree that religion influences culture and vice versa. But the young Jews dancing in Tel Aviv’s discothèques have probably more culture in common with their Muslim counterparts in Beiruts discothèques than with their Ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbours.