Drew Mingione. Ms. Speirs. English 10H A4. April 27, 2017.

Religion creates division between humans because of the historical values and stories that are pasted down throughout the centuries yet many of the stories have very similar backgrounds. This division begins with the teachings of the religion to its followers and the degree to which they implement the teachings into their own lives. Humans have a distinct internal drive to be on top and in the best groups.

War has been present throughout history and plays a major role in power, politics, and glory.

As long as mankind has existed there have been warfare. Nations or groups fight each other over religion, believes and interests, and billions of soldiers has let their life fighting for their country and culture values and believes.

Throughout much of the history of civilizations, states have declared war for land, valuables, and resources. In the course of the mid-20th century and the 21st century, ascendant super powers have invaded foreign lands for resources such as oil, and weapons companies have profited from the ongoing cycle of war these super powers promote. The populations of these states have been fed lies vis-à-vis the media; propagandizing these “rogue nations” and promoting an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality, to garner support for these armed conflicts. War is our primordial instinct, as humans are territorial and aggressive. That is our nature, and by looking at events in our history, one may see that war appears to be timeless and inevitable.

There are moments in our history where the citizens of the world stand up and for their beliefs, their honor, and themselves. They come together to reform the existing government that is holding them back from achieving their desired lifestyle. When this occurs, most likely, war is inevitable to follow. When war comes to a country, death and destruction is destined. Leaders and rules change, but the pride of its citizens prevails and becomes

War has played a huge role in numerous parts throughout history and it “is an invention of modern humans dating only as far back as ten thousand years.” (Morillo 58) There are many speculations as to what war actually includes and why it was created in the first place. War was instigated by the rise of agriculture and the creation of settlements during the axial age. Agriculture may seem like a reasonable and effective way to start a civilization, but it also introduced more issues as it created many cultural differences between neighboring settlements.

Often beliefs are wavered during conflicts to make what one group is doing seem right like the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment that was exempt from war. Leaders in religious wars often claim a higher being justifies the war like the altering of the commandments. War over religion peddles the image of doing good for a god or gods. Religious wars are often very irrational but hate toward another religion keeps fueling the war to drag on. Most civil wars in countries are spurred by religious or cultural diversities.Due to the benefits of war, wars fought for religious reasons are likely based solely on desire for power and control. Religion has helped fuel and motivate wars and history proves this. If one desires to stop religious wars and hate, god himself must come down and stop it or it will continue. History proves that religion has helped fuel wars in many ways and the crusades justify this fact (“War Is... 5, 28, 5, 45) (Jackson, 6, 7) (“Warfare” No

We have seen a lot of war through the years, and I can't help but notice that in almost every war, religion has to do with it.

Since the dawn of Homo sapiens war has been waging somewhere in the world almost non-stop till the present time. In the New York Times archive ‘What Every Person Should Know About War ' written by Chris Hedges it states, “Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.” There is no ‘war gene’ in humans, but in a way it has become almost second nature for us to use war when two or more opposing sides come to a disagreement. According to the dictionary war is defined as, “a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.” This definition comes nothing close to account for war in its practical form. In action, war really makes a massive impact and degradation on the human population and the environment around us. In many occasions throughout history there was no other option, but to use war. However, there have been several other instances were war was just used as a means to destroy or for governments to receive something that is unobtainable without the implication of war. Declaring war should not be at the disposal of governments in today’s day simply because with modern technology it has the possibility to end us all.

Throughout the history of mankind there has come to be two factors that are seen as inevitable. The first is progress, humans are naturally competitive creatures who not only want to insure their own safety but also get one up on their neighbours. Progress has led to huge leaps forward, not only technologically but also socially. However, aside from progress there is another factor, war. Time and time again throughout history humans have fought and killed each other for their own selfish reasons and security. And according to political theorists such as Hobbes this is simply the state of nature, a perpetual state of ‘war of all against all’, further surmising that it is due to this that mankind is fundamentally selfish. However, just because so far, mankind’s history has consisted of an endless cycle of wars, does that mean that it must continue to be this way? Political Philosopher Immanuel Kant outlines a number of articles that he hypothesises could lead towards a perpetual peace. There are many criticisms of Kant’s perpetual peace, many argue that it is to idealistic and utopian. However, Kant doesn’t deny these claims. Instead Kant argues that if this ‘perpetual peace’ is even a remote possibility then for the good of mankind, we have a duty to try make it a reality.

Even in its earliest stages, religion has been a major key in conflict. It has driven individuals, groups, and even entire nations apart. Many of the reasons for the disagreements, however, can differ greatly from one another. They can come from people of the same religion but with different views, it can be from a long history of hatred between two religions, it can originate through two countries that hate each other and then turns into a religion battle, and many other possibilities. Most of the results, though, are the same. Religion can strike fear in some, it can lead to distrust and miscommunication, and it can lead to assaults and killings of certain people.

Finally, we cannot talk about religion without talking about politics. Religion and politics go in hand in hand. So many conflicts arise from religion. Why is that? Because people have disparate opinions and notions and everyone believe their religion is the true religion. We can see an example of religion and politics on page 55 in Toolkit “In Europe’s pre-modern era, political power was legitimated through religious authority”. Even today, if you look at India and Nepal where Hinduism is a major religion, you would see that those in power are there through their religious beliefs and

Religion has been a driving force in many international conflicts. Hiding behind every religion is a political system and each has the desire of taking over lands, peoples, and valuable resources. This causes conflicts, especially when the political system causes harm to others in the name of said religion. It's a way of asserting their dominance by forcing people to the political system. Islam is an excellent example of this today, as Christianity was in the past when it invaded countries and peoples all around the world and either murdered them or forced them to convert - taking all their assets, land, and property in the process. In the Indian ocean territories, religion is not always just a belief system which provides a life moral code; religion also becomes a dividing force between two or more groups, promoting hate and intolerance in the process. Religious differences do not directly cause many global conflicts, in comparison to fights over money, political power, and natural resources. However, it promotes hate. While religion successfully provides a unifying factor among many groups, it can also serve as a justification for religious extremists to commit violent acts.

Many people believe that war is always caused from religious differences and if there was no religion, the violence in the world would be demolished. War may cause death tolls to rise in countries, and history has shown that religion has been a factor that causes countries to go to war. Europe has had many wars about religion for instance. According to World Encyclopedia, “religious grievances provided justification for widespread violence and aggressive domestic policies. Consequently, nearly all of Europe was, at one point or another, engaged in the wars of religion” (World Encyclopedia 725). Everyone here had the “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality and this resulted in a country filled with power hungry citizens who all wanted their religion to be the one and only. However, religion is not the only reason wars occur, there are many other factors that play into violence.

Each tribe knew with justification that if it was not armed and ready, its very existence was imperiled"(discover magazine). Through competition with each other, we as a species have been driven to adapt and evolve to overcome struggles that past generations have failed at. It’s also led to the growth of our cognitive skills, most inventions that we have created are either heal or war related. Once again group selection is pushing us to create something bigger and better than the last technology to overcome the obstacle in front of them. Others have also theorized that our lust for battle is also an unconscious urge to regulate the population. If we never had wars, by now our population would be in the trillion and we would never be force to evolve either.