nbcrusader said:
Only on the word of one in power with different motivations. Religion didn't cause these wars. A few people acted in ways to maintain power for themselves and discouraged, if not prohibited, individuals from understanding their faith for themselves.
with all due respect, i think we're all making distinctions between God and Religion. religion can and often is used as a tool by those in power to move the masses for political/economic/military gain.
you can say, "well that's not religion, that's people using religion."
to that i'd respond that religion is entirely unique in that it's bottom line authority is both absolute, unknowable, and literally wields the power to promise a soldier life after death in battle -- no country can give you that.
yes, leaders manipulating religion are the problem; but so is religion, due to it's absolutist nature.
here's what i think is an astounding quote from an equally astounding PBS Frontline documentary called "faith and doubt and ground zero":
"From the first moment I looked into that horror on Sept. 11, into that fireball, into that explosion of horror, I knew it. I knew it before anything was said about those who did it or why. I recognized an old companion. I recognized religion. Look, I am a priest for over 30 years. Religion is my life, it's my vocation, it's my existence. I'd give my life for it; I hope to have the courage. Therefore, I know it. And I know, and recognized that day, that the same force, energy, sense, instinct, whatever, passion -- because religion can be a passion -- the same passion that motivates religious people to do great things is the same one that that day brought all that destruction. When they said that the people who did it did it in the name of God, I wasn't the slightest bit surprised. It only confirmed what I knew. I recognized it.
I recognized this thirst, this demand for the absolute. Because if you don't hang on to the unchanging, to the absolute, to that which cannot disappear, you might disappear. I recognized that this thirst for the never-ending, the permanent, the wonders of all things, this intolerance or fear of diversity, that which is different -- these are characteristics of religion. And I knew that that force could take you to do great things. But I knew that there was no greater and more destructive force on the surface of this earth than the religious passion."
--- Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, catholic priest and professor of theology at St. Josephs Seminary in New York