Does Religion Cause War - Essay Example

Religion is a sensitive issue because it is a matter of the heart to many people, (Burleigh 111-120). It arouses intense emotions. In many part of the world, religion is incorporated into people’s culture, (Gieling 190-201). If a religion causes war, it must be viewed in terms of what religion means to those who are passionate about it, (Burleigh 111). In other words, religion affects many things about people and becomes part and parcel of the personal life of those people. In that sense, people are bound to defend religion as part of their heritage, culture and essence of existence.

Religion has proved to be stronger than life itself, (Gieling 190-201). People are willing to die for religious reasons. The fact is most religions come with a promise of greater and better life than life on earth. This is something that people are strongly attached to, (Burleigh 111-120). The attachment to deity makes life on earth seem to be of little or no significance. According to the religious, this can seem to justify war to take care of these religious interests. Simply put, people can rise up to fight in the name of religion.

Loyalty to a being higher than a human can cause people to go to the extremes, (Pearse 147). This has been proved over time. People feel that the reward they want from the unseen deity is more beneficial than respecting the rights of their fellow brothers and sisters. Sometimes the zeal tends to go overboard. For every act of adversity meted to fellow humans through a conflict of a religious nature, people feel there is a reward for it, (Gieling 190-201). This reward does not have to be physical.

Religion and War are not strange bed fellows. In fact, they have gone together for a long time. Some of the reasons why people go to war in the name of religion include; spreading their faith. It has been argued that involving God in a war does not necessarily make it holy. One thing is clear, whether war is being done to spread faith or not, it is bound to have casualties. The results are always devastating. It has also been said that people fight with an aim of recovering consecrated places, (Pearse 147).

These are places referred to as alters which could be profaned and polluted by a group that does not understand the proper use of such places. Such a belief causes the religious to feel duty bound to act on behalf of their god. In the process of recovery of such places, resistance arises, and that can become a beginning of a chain of wars. This includes war to avenge for acts of killings or past time cruelties which were done with a religious intention. Some Christians, Muslims or other groups feel that they may also want to recover countries that were once controlled by their faith.

Many countries especially in Middle East and Asia have gone to the extent of incorporating their religion into their constitutions, (Gieling 190-201). This means that religion became part of the culture of those countries. A violation of faith in such a setting is viewed as blasphemy. In such cases, it becomes hard for people with other religious affiliations to exercise their religious freedom. In a large or small way, religion in such a context becomes a source of conflict. The paradox of religion is that it was meant to instill freedom and peace into a world full of conflict, (Cavanaugh 51-62).

However, more often than not, religion tends to bring chaos. We have had long and protracted conflicts in the Middle East, (Burleigh 111-120). All because of religious reasons, we have had militias formed to defend certain religious convictions in remote societies. To a certain extent, there