It's a Saturday night. People have lives.

To the topic, I think that the ideas of love thy neighbor and peace should be stressed, and try and stem violence. Since it appears to be a religious problem, I would think that the religious leaders could do more to promote anti-violence in these religious "hot-spots".

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Educators destroy your brain,
but you don't know, so why care?
Fagotto

Religion is also a dangerous thing because any lunatic can get hold of it and manipulate it into something quite twisted and dogmatic.

But there is no denying that some people truly need religion in order to cope with everyday life.  I myself need to feel spiritual now and then - so I chant and meditate.  Some people need to know that they can escape for a brief moment into a different world that is cut off from normality and reality.  Sometimes everyday life can get quite tedious and unfulfilling.  And if conventional religion provides that for people, then let them practice it - its good for them, so long as they don't preach to other people - I think thats very disrespectful.  And like somebody else said - it is the extremists that give religion a bad name.

(Edited by Flow Morphia Slow at 10:58 pm on Dec. 21, 2005)

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I'm a minger, you're a minger too.
So come on minger, I want to mingle with you

Your thread is a bit more then most people here are willing to chew on. Trying to assess the role of religion in warfare is a topic that spans thousands of years from aninistic tribal warfare to the modern extremists calls for religious combat.  

Perhaps you could narrow down your subject.

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Operation Terminus Apocalypse is a Go.
Winner of the Monthly Funny Award Goes to
prisoner of hss!!!!

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turtle girl, calm down.  

Your thread is a bit more then most people here are willing to chew on. Trying to assess the role of religion in warfare is a topic that spans thousands of years from aninistic tribal warfare to the modern extremists calls for religious combat.  

Perhaps you could narrow down your subject.

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um... this is about as narrow as it gets... and i am quite pleased that you know what honu is but i took this topic directly from my model united nations assignment (its a school thing) so obviously they dont really want it much narrower... what are you opinons on this though....?

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend... Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read....

While I realize that it is now for a high school model UN and thus not needing to be in depth, any superficial answer is going to be just that, superficial.

Crash Course:

Religion is rarely the cause of war. Economics, land, and basic greed often always are the fundamental causes of conflict. However, religion is the tool for justifying many of such conflicts and often becomes, after the war has proceeded, the cause of continuation.

Creating wealthy societies in the world isn't going to change warfare. The US alone in the past 50 years has engaged in conflicts that would, if listed, run down the page. Britain, one of the richest in the world has a history of almost endless war.

The tool for removing religion from war is obvious: education. If soldiers and citizens are educated enough to discern the causes of the war, just or unjust, as well as the potential gain or loss, such wars may be prevented in the future.

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Operation Terminus Apocalypse is a Go.
Winner of the Monthly Funny Award Goes to
prisoner of hss!!!!