Cause Of War In Religion

War in the Religions

Religion divides people into separate groups and tells them that they are incompatible with each other. It provides justification for the killing of others and the promise of reward for martyrs. It justifies hate and murder. Religions are responsible for numerous conflicts and violence. Along with nationalism religion is the major cause of war. Even many wars that were not directly caused by religion, they were used to justify it and motivate soldiers. For example, the fact that Protestant Germany invaded Catholic Belgium was a main part of the recruitment process in Ireland during World War One, even though it was not a purely religious war . In recent past the civil war between West Pakistan and East and Pakistan, which

They are Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. The principle idea behind non-violence is that the good in non-violence is permanent as opposed to violence where good is temporary and the evil is permanent. These three religions explain the idea as follows.

Hinduism: In this religion’s writings, ahimsa has been considered the highest duty. Jainism, which grew out of Hinduism, emphasizes that people should strive to become detached from the distractions of worldly existence; and that the practice of ahimsa is an essential step on the way to personal salvation. The followers of Jainism even believe that killing of lives is a sin. The Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, tells a different story of Arjuna, who learns that it’s his duty to fight as a member of the soldier caste. Arjuna is told by his chariot driver Krishna, who is really the god ‘Vishnu’ in human form that: ‘Even without you, all the soldiers standing armed for battle will not stay alive. Their death is foreordained.’ Bhagavad Gita

Many Buddhists promote the idea that it is better to be killed than to kill. Some Buddhists have been very active in promoting peace, particularly during the Vietnam War (1961- 1975). For example, many Buddhist monks burned themselves to death in self-sacrificing protest against the Vietnam War. Buddhism perhaps has the best record of all religions for non-violence. However, there are exceptions too. Buddhists in Sri Lanka have been criticised for oppressing the Tamil minority, who mostly belong to Hindu religion whose origins are in southern India.

It is worth noting that Confucianism and Taoism, which both developed in China, also share similar principles with Buddhism. For example, they seek to adjust human life to the inner harmony of nature (Confucianism) and emphasise mediation and non-violence as means to the higher life (Taoism). The founders of these religions, Confucius and Lao-Tsze, lived in the same period as Buddha, the 6th century