Religion and war religious beliefs has been and

Faith And Theology, Religion And Society, Community Religions, Nazism

Excerpt from Essay:

Religion and War

Religious beliefs has been, and definitely will continue to be, a reason of war. It is the reason for this paper to demonstrate how religion, although more specifically faith-based thinking, has been utilized to foment violence and cause war.

To know the part that religious beliefs has played in sparking violence and causing nations, tribes, and so forth To go to battle, one must first determine what exactly war is. Among the best approaches to understanding war, and the components of war, was articulated by Carl Von Clausewitz in his seminal work On Battle.

In his publication, Clausewitz defines his trinity model of battle, also known as the “remarkable trinity. ” That is, Clausewitz argues that warfare consists of 3 distinct forces (1) decisivo violence, hatred, and enmity; (2) the play of chance and probability; and (3) war’s element of corrélation to realistic policy” (Bassford, 2011). In this article one will notice the Hegelian dialectical formatting in play, we have a thesis, conflict is a combination of irrational pushes such as enmity, hatred, physical violence, we have opposite, war is a rational activity as it falls into accordance with coherent, logical policy, and a activity, war is non-rational (ofcourse not irrational or rational), which is a product of chance and probability.

A result of this rather complicated analysis is an accurate rendering of war. Warfare is a combination of tri-lateral pushes – the rational, illogical, and nonrational, – which create the chaotic and unpredictable actuality of war. The key to understanding battle is, or to developing a sensible theory of war, is always to, as Clausewitz says, “maintain a balance between these three inclinations, like an thing suspended among three magnets” (Clausewitz, In War).

In looking at religious beliefs and how it fits within the Clausewitzian framework, one can believe religion is an irrational, catalytic force along with primordial assault, hatred, and enmity. The reason why religion can be categorized as an reasonless, catalytic power is because religion is, in its essence, illogical. Biologist and Author from the God Misconception, Richard Dawkins has said, “religion is about turning untested idea into unshakable truth through the power of organizations and the verse of time” (2006). He also procedes say that, “Faith is the superb cop-out, the fantastic excuse to evade the requirement to think and evaluate data. Faith is definitely belief despite, even perhaps because of, deficiency of evidence” (2006). The Dawkins’ quotes underscore that for one to believe in religious proposición, i. at the. transubstantiation, papal infallibility, etc ., one has to reject scientific evidence to the contrary. In other words, one has to reject actuality.

If the first is capable of rejecting reality, he/she turns into all the more happy to accept the horrors of war. Since Steven Weinberg once explained, “Religion can be an offend to individual dignity. With or without it you would have very good people doing quite well things and evil persons doing wicked things. But for good people to do wicked things, that takes religion” (1999). In other words, those who can be otherwise moral may be convinced to devote atrocities as a result of or in the name of religion or faith. For example , the notion it is socially acceptable to natural stone a woman to death mainly because she betrayed her hubby is a great act of violence that is certainly unthinkable generally in most modern societies. However , it is