Originally Posted by
shaunaneto
Aye, it's not really fair to blame religion. Religion being used as a justification/motivation is symptomatic of a deeper problem within the human psychological make up, not the cause.
There are enough wars where we have found none-religious reasons for war to know it's not necessary. Religion might be thrown into the mix to help sway the mob, but there's often other reasons too. Did the British throw people into concentration to die by their 10s of thousands in South Africa because of religion, or gold and diamonds? Did the Romans invade Dacia for religion? The proxy conflicts of the Cold War? The list of pathetic justifications for taking someone's life for your own gains is seemingly endless.
For me, I'd suggest root causes are all tied into 'us and them' 'fear and greed' we don't need Religion to make state sanctioned and organised mass murder happen. It comes up a lot as an excuse, but we'd find another reason without it. In the Middle East it'd probably be oil, farm land and water, and spheres of influence.
If as a species we could get it into our thick skulls that there is no us and them, just us, then perhaps we would be a damn sight less violent/tolerant of violence on our (alleged) behalf. Not that I believe the human Ego is really capable of such a thing. We do love to have our own identities.
As for Israel and Gaza, neither side is right. But right now one side is a damn sight more wrong than the other. And it's the one with Fighter jets.
