Do you think Religion is the root of all Evil?

to be fair people will fight even if they have the same religion or if they don't have any religion at all.. i don't think that believing in god will cause any problems .. all religions came from the same god to tell humans gradually about god to avoid resistance and to tell them how to be better humans.. i think too many not religious people did that .. these people may be even religious in their IDs but not for real people who have hatred, selfishness, and all negative feelings

i hope i could help.. feel free to contact me i'll be glad to

No, selfishness is the root of all evil. Many evils have been commited without any religious involvement. Politics, land ownership, racial prejudice and other conditions are often used as excuses for violence or other forms of evil. When religion or any other idea is used to make people believe they are better than someone else, it becomes an excuse for evil. If a organized crime gang kills members of other gangs who are competing for their drug trade, what does that have to do with religion?

I understand the implications of your question. It does seem like most conflicts are over religion.

However, one thing we need to agree upon is how we define a religious war. IS merely the fact that 2 countries are at war AND are different religions means the war is mostly about religion? IS the fact that throughout much of history, many rulers were religious make most of the wars they fought in, religious wars?

How exactly do we separate wars which happen to be between 2 different religions and wars fought ONLY about religion? Anotherwards, some wars would have happened regardless...how do we separate these thousands of years later.

What do we do about wars that expressly seem to go against the religious beliefs of both sides? Is it STILL a religious war if the war is in violation to their beliefs?

Example... if Christianity teachs that war is an abomination and horrible, and that one can only defend themselves if they are attacked, unprovoked....then what do we do with wars started by Christian nations? Can they truly be RELIGIOUS if they violate the precepts of that religion? So it seems like we have a direct violation here...what do we do with some that seems impossible based on the teachings of that religion?

We have to come to an agreance on these issues before we can truly answer that question.

Personally, I believe that MOST wars are about Politics, about land and economy, about meglomaniacs who want POWER, and not about religion. Religion may be PART of it..or might even be the reason which is told to the people of that time..BUT, I think a deeper investigation by Historians AND using our common sense, we can realize that many wars are NOT in fact entirely religious.

Lastly, is bickering ALL that religion has given us? What about ART, Architecture, Laws, and yes, even Science.

Recall that BOTH the theory of Genetics and the Big Bang were FIRST suggested by Catholic Priests. Mendel and Lematre

Hello. I think that people who use religion to back their personal interests can be evil.

I just read a piece on the "Spanish Armada" It was a naval war to restore a certain religious system in Europe.

War is not the answer to help people become religious. In the Bible there are many wars. However for a Christian our warfare is spiritual.

2nd Corinthians 10:4 says this "For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things"

There are many strongly entrenched things in today's religions. However for a Christian killing in warfare is not one of them.

Trees have roots. The bible uses trees to symbolize governments. Many governments are influenced by those who manipulate religious beliefs.

So I do not believe religion is the root of all evil. I believe practicing religion that does have Jehovah's holy spirit can and does lead to evil things like war, starving innocent children, etc.

God's Kingdom will eliminate war and famine Psalms 46:9 and Psalms 72. Religion with Jehovah's backing is and can be a force for good.

I do not believe that it is the root of all evil, but I think that people use religion as an excuse to justify their lazy lifestyles or terrible actions or lack of empathy for other people.

It causes 'evil' just as much as any other thing can, just like a hammer can be used to build a home for the homeless or to harm another person. It has just permeated human society to a greater degree, therefore you see more ill effects than less rampant habits.

I think that people, in their endeavors to try to right all of the things they see as wrong in the world, will use whatever tool they can - including religion - to try to rape people's minds, dissolve the nature of individuality which each person possesses.

When such people aspire then to political seats and take their baggage with them - their religion, their hates, their goals - and when such people succeed in gaining control over any country's government, finances and military forces, then this is a recipe for big trouble.

The specific religion doesn't matter as much - it's the fact that people, when so driven, will use religion or anything else to do the conquer-and-divide tactic, to turn men against one another for some stupid reason or another.

I would say that removing the tool (which religion becomes) from the power of such people, well it might be a good idea because it would give such people less of a grasp over the minds, the fears, the little psychoses which we each carry in our own mental suitcases.

Just looking at Yahoo R&S its certainly the root of a lot of staggering willful ignorance and stupidity. As far as what you are driving at I think it can both bring people together so long as they are on the same page or it can cause even more problems between people if they don't share the same ideology. Some religions are more prone to out-group versus in-group hostility, pressure, and persecution and have less tolerance for differences and diversity then others.

NO, just the opposite. The proliferation of religions is because of the decreasing rationality applied to God and spiritual matters.

For example, what possible value does it have for someone to say an angel appeared to me and gave me a new revelation. SO what. Suppose it was an angel, with gold tablets, special glasses and a nice haircut. Isn't that far more likely to be demonic, to be in error !! You bet your grey matter it is.

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I came back. Aristotle discusses your reasoning under "Sophistical Refutations' -- it is illogical to make anything the cause of anything else when its also the cause of its opposite. Take a shower and go to Logic class.

Religion does and has always caused alot of the issues around the world. I do not think it is the root of all Evil, I think that is caused by sin and Man.

Time=Money

and

Religion=Time X Money

and

Money=Root of all evil

Therefore

Religion=Money^2

and

Religion=(Root of all evil)^2

Thus

Religion=Everything that is Evil!!!

No , I think that morality without the author of Morality Jesus the Christ is no morality at all. It is His Authority and His Commandments which give us the basis and while we would never think of plagiarizing the work of some Author say for example James Joyce we do this with the

God and Creator of the earth all the time! It is better that we do not teach morality with out His Authority than to take His Work and ascribe it to some other and false source or pretend that it has no source! This is to blaspheme His Holy Name!