Nah, your thinking of nationalism. WWI and WWII had very little to do with religion but in terms of body count far exceed the likes of the crusades. If you ask your average soldier throughout history why they’re doing what they’re doing patriotism will come up more often than God. Naked self interest would probably be the actual top reason but people don’t usually say the quiet part aloud.
Nationalism has only been a thing for a few hundred years, though. We’ve been murdering each other over religion for millenia. I still think religion “wins”.
ask your average soldier throughout history why they’re doing what they’re doing patriotism will come up more often than God.
Country/Nation is a rather new concept - most people throughout history would say which village/area they were from. It didn’t have to be a Holy War for the leader to say “we have to fight (invaders) because they are an affront to (whatever god.)”
I don’t imagine the average peasant would care the nation of the person taking taxes from them, so long as those taxes were low and that’s all they took. (I mean obviously they didn’t love paying taxes.) And remember, one of the reasons used for the taking of taxes was that leaders were ordained by God.
World War 1 and 2 weren’t a walk in the park. There are plenty of non-religious sociopaths that somehow find themselves in control of millions of people.
Hitler and Stalin couldn’t give less than a shit about any particular god or religion. They used any excuse to fund/justify their tyranny. People like that in power are the bane of mankind’s existence throughout the ages. Religion is just another tool for people like this to use use whenever it’s convenient.
I’m not sure how much one can harp on the whole “master race” thing before people stop trying to blame it on some actual scholarly disagreement about religious doctrine, as if Hitler and Stalin were so fucking pious. None of theae psychopaths give a shit about gods and religion.
More like the biggest excuse for murdering others for your own benefit. If religion didn’t exist, demagogues would find something else as a tool to justify blind hatred.
Ask me and I would say almost all suffering and experience has a purpose and a potential lesson to be understood, vices, religion and spirituality etc. If you believe in drugs, Karma or a God, as a form of spirituality, etc, you would probably have imagined the possibility of group narcissism and misguided interventions being the reasons behind certain suffering, so religion would naturally be the next big step, to try to convince everyone to be of one mind.
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That and Malaria.
Malaria is just part of gods plan, so add that to their kill count as well.
But God isn’t real. Malaria is.
Malaria is just god in a physical form.
If the Christian god was real, he would certainly be at least as evil as malaria - if that’s what you mean.
God works in mysterious ways.
Nah, your thinking of nationalism. WWI and WWII had very little to do with religion but in terms of body count far exceed the likes of the crusades. If you ask your average soldier throughout history why they’re doing what they’re doing patriotism will come up more often than God. Naked self interest would probably be the actual top reason but people don’t usually say the quiet part aloud.
Nationalism has only been a thing for a few hundred years, though. We’ve been murdering each other over religion for millenia. I still think religion “wins”.
Country/Nation is a rather new concept - most people throughout history would say which village/area they were from. It didn’t have to be a Holy War for the leader to say “we have to fight (invaders) because they are an affront to (whatever god.)”
I don’t imagine the average peasant would care the nation of the person taking taxes from them, so long as those taxes were low and that’s all they took. (I mean obviously they didn’t love paying taxes.) And remember, one of the reasons used for the taking of taxes was that leaders were ordained by God.
World War 1 and 2 weren’t a walk in the park. There are plenty of non-religious sociopaths that somehow find themselves in control of millions of people.
Removed by mod
Hitler and Stalin couldn’t give less than a shit about any particular god or religion. They used any excuse to fund/justify their tyranny. People like that in power are the bane of mankind’s existence throughout the ages. Religion is just another tool for people like this to use use whenever it’s convenient.
“Gott mit uns”
need anyone say more?
I’d say he gave a pretty big shit about at least one religion.
I’m not sure how much one can harp on the whole “master race” thing before people stop trying to blame it on some actual scholarly disagreement about religious doctrine, as if Hitler and Stalin were so fucking pious. None of theae psychopaths give a shit about gods and religion.
More like the biggest excuse for murdering others for your own benefit. If religion didn’t exist, demagogues would find something else as a tool to justify blind hatred.
Ask me and I would say almost all suffering and experience has a purpose and a potential lesson to be understood, vices, religion and spirituality etc. If you believe in drugs, Karma or a God, as a form of spirituality, etc, you would probably have imagined the possibility of group narcissism and misguided interventions being the reasons behind certain suffering, so religion would naturally be the next big step, to try to convince everyone to be of one mind.