Religion is the opium of the masses.
Religion is ridiculous, if people fight based on their "faith", but understanding the Moslem faith provides great insight into this, as does knowing and understanding the Old Testament.
Understanding religion is largely the acknowledgement of a terrible headache.
Valuable idealism can be gleaned from the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Martin Luther Kin, George Fox, Hindu, Islam, Judaism, and other faiths, but faith based militarism is a bane of our existence. I suppose it can be said that Bolshevik Marxism is a faith based militarism.
There is nothing in the New Testament, Buddhism, or to my knowledge Hindu scriptures, that justifies war. The Old Testament and the Koran are rife with holy war. They are more realistic portrayals of the history of the species.
I think the teachings of Marx and Mohammed, and maybe David of Old Testament fame have similarities.
To say that there will always be war is a self-fulfilling prophecy. At this day and age where we can communicate better than ever before, it is incumbent upon us that love life to reject that prophecy. Yet, we must fully understand the historical context which makes it so compelling, if we want to work for peace with the slightest sliver of hope.
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