Should Religious Leaders Be Allowed To Start Holy Wars

Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without religion.

INTRO - In 1095 Pope Urban II made a speech at Clermont in the South of France, to mount the first crusade to rescue the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims and to give it back to the Christians. Religious obligation and personal gain would be the most important benefits from the crusades.

War is a part of history, and sadly, most wars begin because of differences in religion. Religion can bring countries together, or it can tear them down. The most well - known example of this is the issues between Christianity and Islam. Violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims have lasted for roughly 1,400 years, and as far as most people can tell, there is no end in sight. It all began with the fall of Jerusalem in the year 636, when Muslim armies captured all of the major urban Christian cities. This was soon after the rise of Islam, and the creation of one of the largest religions in the world (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are the three most followed religions). The Crusades began as a “delayed” response to these violent actions.

War is a lot like love: it costs a lot of money, time, and energy; it distracts you from other areas of life; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but most importantly, in the end, it’s still worth fighting for. But unlike love, war cannot and should not be justified and disregarded, by gods or men. No matter what people try to do to resolve their disputes, sometimes they get so aggravated that they resort to killing each other, and the taking of a life is no light matter. It’s no coincidence that most people have post-traumatic stress coming back from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. It’s because sinners live on the same planet, sinning and accusing the other of sinning while covering their own sin. So wars come and wars go,

Religion has its shares of promoting violence. Many will argue that a cause of religion wars is for economic and political reasons, but others argue that those who start wars are, by definition, not religious. In reality, separating religion out of economic and political motives can be involved in such a way finding religious motives innocent of much. Excuses for Christianity responsibilities cannot be accepted whether the person has misappropriated the message of Christ. The primarily set of doctrines is not Christianity, but by living through past background it personified the visible actions of Christians. In other words, Christianity, Islam or any other religion has no intention of excusing from survey. Given certain conditions,

As Protestantism began to spread in Europe, tension arose between Catholics and Protestants. The tension caused war between monarchs, nobles, and common people over religion. However, the many wars evolved into being about much more than religion; they became about politics and specifically, a struggle for power. Many people throughout Europe saw religion as a perfect pretext for the real reason of war: power. Through the seemingly infinite wars of religion, politics and religion came hand in hand. As exemplified by the Dutch Revolt and the Thirty Years’ War, religion was the starting cause of both wars, but political power was the true justification in the end.

Jewish society, following the teaching of the Bible and the sixth commandment "thou shall not kill", had rejected centuries ago every theory on shortening the life of handicapped or disadvantaged people. Judaism considered life to be sacred and associated euthanasia with murder. In the Middle Ages in Europe, Christian teaching opposed euthanasia for the same reason as Judaism. Christianity brought more respect to human beings. Every individual has the right to live since God creates human beings and they belong to Him and not themselves. Like Judeo-Christian teaching, Islam also teaches that God is the only one who can take your life away, seeing that he did create it. (The Life Information Center

The most common religious argument is that human beings are the sacred creation of a higher being, so human life is sacred. This is known as the "sanctity of life". God has a plan for each individual and human beings have no right to obstruct that path. This belief is shared by many members of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths. Scholars from both faiths have argued that assisted death is ethically acceptable acts in some circumstances, but these views do not have universal support. Many religious arguments utilized for this debate are rejected on the grounds that their is not justified in a secular society and are not substantial in

A holy war is a war that is fought for a religious cause. Jonathan Phillips seems to define a holy war as a war that only is influenced by religion and no other reasons associated with the war. The problem with this definition is that every war, holy or not has many reasons for someone to want or need to join. Not everyone is going to join for the same reasons. Arthur Jones seem to define holy war as a conflict involving two or more religions and outside factors can play a part. To me a holy war is a war that begins because there is a conflict between to different religions whether outside factors plays a role or not.

Major religions, such as Christianity and Islam, condemn this practice, as they believe that life is precious and should be preserved (“Introduction”). Along the same lines, the Hippocratic Oath, an oath all physicians take, states, “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan,” (“Assisted”). There has been some speculation, however, that this line does not refer to assisted suicide. This is because, in Hippocrates’ time, assisted suicide was very common. These beliefs against this practice would sentence a terminally ill patient to a life of unbearable, agonizing pain. These patients would also be prescribed treatments to prolong their life, but that would only result in a longer period filled with pain. If not physical pain, then emotional pain as they wouldn’t be able to do the things they love. This could all be easily rectified with the legalization of assisted suicide. In the words of Michael Scott, “You’re not living, you’re surviving.” (Scott)

In Judaism, life is considered precious and the preservation of life is important. Jewish law permits one to break all 613 commandments if it means saving a life. To save one life it is considered as saving the whole of mankind and to destroy one life it is as if the whole of mankind has been destroyed since humankind started with one person (i.e. Adam). Therefore, suicide, euthanasia and assisted suicide is completely forbidden in Judaism. If, however, death is certain and the patient is suffering immensely then it is permitted to cease extraordinary measures of prolonging the patient’s life.

Many religions view death in a variety of ways but in the end they all have one goal, for our loved one to slip

Only very long ago was a war a new concept. Maybe a tribe often fought with a rival tribe over some hunting grounds or some fertile land. One of the tribes would back yield and another would claim their prize. But obviously, this is the best-case scenario for one tribe and worst case for another. As time went on and civilisation became more civilised multiple religions began to be practised and cultural values by different civilisations developed. But war, war never changes. The reasons to fight a war are still self-motivated by an entity or country needs or wants. This way of an argument between two groups has persisted and will likely continue to persist for many thousands of years. Religions fought to spread their religion to save people

Starting in the beginning looking at suicide itself, “Many faith groups within Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other religions sincerely believe that God gives life and therefore only God should take it away. Suicide would then be "considered as a rejection of God 's sovereignty and loving plan." They feel that individuals are all stewards of their own lives, but that suicide should never be an option. This is an important belief for members of these religious groups. They would probably be extremely reluctant to choose suicide (including physician assisted suicide) for themselves. Substantial numbers of adults who have liberal religious beliefs treat euthanasia as a morally desirable option in some cases. There are also many secularists, atheists, and agnostics who actively disagree with religiously based arguments. Many of these folks would like to retain suicide as an option in case they develop a terminal illness and life becomes unbearable” (Robinson,2010).

They believe that assisted suicide crosses the moral border into government-condoned killing. The Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions all seem to strictly discourage assisted suicide, as well as all types of suicide. They stress that life is God's alone to give, and God's alone to take (Van Biema 61). Traditional Christian beliefs against suicide were first affirmed by Thomas Aquinas, a writer in the early thirteenth century. He emphasized that suicide (and assisted suicide) violates one's natural desire to live, harms other people, and that life is God's gift to give and take (OCRT 2). Not all religions are against suicide, either. Hinduism promotes the taking of one's own life instead of living with dishonor (Flanders 49).