Nick Rose I dont think so. For all our many achievements, humans still have a primal, violent, selfish nature which is easily aroused and can resut in the most horrific cruelties to others, with or without religion. Add to this the dynamics of group psychology, and I think war and violence are inevitable with society / human behaviour as it is. The two most destructive wars in history so far, WW1 and 2, had nothing to do with religion. Its true that a a great deal of violence and cruelty has been done in the name of religion, and its also true that religion has been co-opted many times to motivate and justify war, for instance the medieval crusades and the dynastic wars of Europe. Whether so many wars could have been so easily justified without religion, is anyones guess really. Trying to imagine a world that never had religion, is pure speculation. Religious must have evolved alongside the emergence of human groups and societies - if we believe in evolution then this must be true, we cant pick and choose - and if such a phenomenon had never emerged we might be living in a very different world. Who knows.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 08:41:09 +0000
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