Ma Cherie said:
But of course there have been wars started without any religious reasons. World War I and II come to mind.
The reasons for WWI were quite intricate. It was a result of growing tensions between European superpowers, dangerous alliance treaties, imperialism, nationalism, pride, and even inter-European racism. This was the final result of the agrarian and industrial revolution mixed with the "envy" central empires toward colonial powers like France and Britain.
But religion was still strong among the populations of Europe at the time. Religious fervour partly influenced the fanaticism with which people fought for their nation. The war was evitable and could have been stopped at almost anytime by signing a piece of paper. Russia did just that in 1917 when the Bolcheviks took command.
Many European lost faith in religion after WWI, as they thought that if the benevolent, omniscient and omnipotent Christian god they had believed in really existed, it could never have allowed such disastrous massacres among its most loyal subjects. As a result, WWII (aka "Revenge of the Sith", er sorry, of Germany) was much "quieter". Apart from the systematic destruction of the Jedi...er Jews, there were very little fighting in the first 2 years of the war. In fact, after France and Britain declared war on Germany for invading Poland in March 1939, nobody moved for over 1 year ! Germany "peacefully" invaded Denmark in April 1940 (i.e. there was no fighting), and Norway, which resisted for a few days. In May, Germany took the Netherlands also without resistance, and Belgium and France with just minor resistance for 18 days. Britain was lucky when its outnumbered airforced routed the Luftwaffe, and was able to save time to organise its defense. But Germany did not invade, preferring to concentrate on other regions (Eastern Europe, esp. Russia, and North Africa). Italy hardly did any fighting during the war, except maybe when they were invaded by Allied forces in 1943. Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland and Sweden were all out of the war (all helping Germany, except Portugal).
Why was there so much inertia, so little desire to fight the invador well-known for its intention to wipe out "undesirable" people (the old, the handicapped, the Jew and the Gipsy) ? They were fed up of war, and their loss of religious convictions meant that they also lost a motivation to die. Most of the people who died in Europe during WWII were German and Soviet soldiers, Jews, and to a much lesser extent US and British troops.
But that's not all. After WWII, the victorious and now almighty USA changed its most fundamental values. From a isolationist nation born on religious tolerance with the motto "e pluribus unum", it changed to an imperialistic and Christian-favoured nation with motto "In God We Trust" (motto changed in 1956). It had tasted to the dark side of the forced, which would eventually consume it in its quest for power in the struggle against communism, and its distorted values of Christian moral supremacy. Religious had once again made of a powerful nation the tool of evil. The results were disatrous : Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, support of dictatorial regimes in South America and Africa, invasion of Panama, Gulf War, Iraq War, rise of terrorism... Never had a Western country started so many wars in such remote places of the globe in such a short period of time...
I see your point, though Maciamo, and even if the world were to eliminate religion, (I think bossel pointed this out:? ) people will find other reasons to fight. I think that's just mankind. I mean there hasn't really been a peaceful time in human history.:?
Japan has never been very religious, apart from its crazy State-Shintoism period and its Divine Emperor from the late 19th century to 1945. Before that it had enjoyed an amazingly long period of peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867). It's all the more amazing that they had already tasted to firearms in the 16th century (the Warring States period), but were able to prevent any rebellion or threat to public order for over 250 years. Interestingly, religious fanaticism was a concept unknown to them. China managed to keep peace and unity for relatively long periods of its history thanks to its equal lack of religiousness. It was mostly corruption, poverty and especially foreign pressure (Mongols, Manchus, Westerners, Japanese...) that prompted changes in regimes... and wars.
Bossel said:
Anyway, there are numerous examples in history where a war is ascribed to religion when in fact other motives played a bigger role.
My argument is not just that wars are started because of religions, but also that people fight (ferociously) motivated by their beliefs in heaven. That was already the case of Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans, and later the Vikings, and fought to death because Germanic paganism preached that only warriors who died in combat would go to the
Valhalla (heaven). It's pretty similar to the Muslim belief that Muslims who die during Jihad will go directly to heaven and be more rewarded than other Muslims.
The Japanese may have lacked an excluisve religion and religious fanaticism or active proselytism, but the samurai were only so ready to die honourably in combat because the Buddhism they followed (Zen) preached the futility of our impermanent lives and the almost inescapable cycle of reincarnation.
