It’s not hard to look back in history and find a violent war caused by religion. Skeptics like to bring these up to show that Christianity and all religions are dangerous. From the crusades to 9/11, how many countless people have died? Some will go as far as saying that religion is the cause of all wars. This is a bold statement, but is it true?
All Wars?
The claim that religion is the cause of ALL wars is frankly absurd. It is clearly and objectively false. There have been religious wars, but to claim that it’s the cause for all of them is an extreme exaggeration. Religion is not even the cause of a large percentage of the wars in history.
In the Encyclopedia of Wars by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod, they claim that only about 7% of wars were fought for religious reasons. If you take Islam out of that, it is closer to 3%. Similarly, The Encyclopedia of War, edited by Gordon Martel, concluded that only 6% of the wars could be labeled religious wars.
Violent Atheists
In the 20th century, multiple regimes led by atheist dictators like Mao and Stalin caused more death than any religious war ever fought. I hesitate to respond to this objection with a “whataboutism,” however it is relevant to get the full picture. Religion and religious people have caused wars, but they are neither alone nor the group with the most blood on their hands.
We should ask a different question. What do all of these violent wars and regimes have in common? They all involve broken, sinful humans. Christian, Muslim, or atheist, they all have the same nature and capacity for great evil and violence.
Truth and Worldview Matters
This objection says nothing about whether Christianity is true. Even if they are right, and religion is the cause of all wars, that tells us nothing about whether Jesus rose again. One could turn it into a question of whether Christianity is good. To that, I would turn to the teachings of Jesus himself. The people who commit violence in the name of Jesus have to blatantly ignore his teaching. Matthew 5:38-39, 26:52-54, Luke 6:27, just to name a few. On the flipside, with atheism, there is nothing to stop you or tell you that violence and murder are inherently wrong other than your fellow humans. Worldview matters, and ideas have consequences.
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1) How do you plan to prove something when historically we have little idea of numbers of people killed in wars ?
2) However, You claim that Only about 7% of all wars in history have been waged for religious causes – but your source is A&P Axelrod & Phillips. However A&P MAKE NO SUCH CLAIM ! Anyone who has read the introduction to A&P which REPEATEDLY EMPHAISES THE RELIGIOUS CAUSES OF WARS would immediately wonder how that can be reconciled with the 7% claim.
How is it “reconciled” ? You rely on a heading in the index “Religious Wars”. Correct – the wars under that heading are religious BUT IT DOES NOT LIST ALL THE RELIGIOUS WARS CITED !!
The index heading OMITS (JUST for example) :
·
Arab Israeli Wars
·
Sultanate Wars
·
Holy Roman Empire Wars
·
Jewish Revolts
·
Muslim Wars
·
Sikh Wars
And the body of the encyclopedia goes into great detail about the religious aspects of those wars. So how many wars are religious BASED ON THE CITED VOLUME ? 617 !! That is 35% !!
BASED ON THE VOLUME CITED BY YOURSELF – 35% of wars are religious.
3) So how many died in religious wars ? For a start, A&P list UNKNOWN CASUALTIES against 350 of the 617 religious wars. Of the KNOWN RELIGIOUS wars – the total is around 55 – 60 M. Apply “pro rata” gives around 130M.
4) Is the total number of deaths meaningful ? This method equates 1M dying when the population was 10M (10% of the planet) as being the “same” as 1M dying when the population was 1Bn (0.1%). So what PERCENTAGE of the planet died in religious wars ? Answer (applying pro rata for unknown deaths) AROUND 16.5%. IN TODAYS POPULATION TERMS RELIGIOUS WARS HAVE KILLED 1.3BILLION PEOPLE.
5) How do religious war deaths (from (4)) break down by religion ?
– Christianity 720 Million
– Jewish 150 Million
– Muslim 328 Million
ARE WE CLEAR NOW ? Remember – THIS IS BASED ON THE VOLUME THAT YOU CITED.
So please – if you are going to cite sources – I SUGGEST THAT YOU READ THEM FIRST – THEY MIGHT JUST CONTRADICT YOUR CLAIM !