Is Religion Worth All These Religious Wars?
Dear Isabel,
Religion causes so much war and destruction. It seems like every day the news is full of horrors from Gaza, the Islamic State makes war in hopes of establishing a caliphate, and of course then in history there have all those wars of religion: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the “settlement” of the Americas and Africa in the name of Christianity, the Catholics and the Protestants slaughtering each other, etc. etc. Don’t you think we’d be better off without religion?
Peace-Lover
Dear Peace-Lover,
Despite writing this column and being a minister, I don’t feel obligated to defend religion. It is true that it has caused a lot of destruction. If I thought getting rid of religion would mean the end (or even a significant diminishment) of war, I’d gladly embrace the peace, live without religion, and retire.
I don’t think it would, though, because most wars of religion aren’t just about religion. The people who “settled” the Americas and Africa were greedy for land, gold, diamonds, and people to enslave. The royals who sent armies to fight over every acre of Western Europe wanted power, money, and land. Would they really have all gotten along like best buddies if it weren’t for religion? It seems to me that religion intensified the fighting, yes, and threw a noble-seeming mantle over what were really battles for domination. But was it the “real,” or the only, or even the primary cause of these wars? What I know of history suggests otherwise.
Even the Crusades, the ultimate holy war between the Christians and the infidel Muslims--otherwise known as the holy war between the Muslims and the infidel Christians--were largely about land, geopolitics, and the jockeying for position of various leaders. Yes, the Popes were big funders and instigators of the Crusades--and the Popes were very much earthly princes, trying to protect their lands and expand their riches. Some barely made a pretence of being actual spiritual leaders.
I’m not a historian and wouldn’t dare to make a sweeping statement about the reasons human beings go to war. But I think blaming war mostly on religion is fundamentally a case of wishful thinking. We humans have always found plenty of other reasons to make war on each other.
Wishing you well,
Isabel
Next week: As the parent of young children, how much should I be trying to shape their religious views and how much should I let them discover them on their own?
