Premise 1 : The claims that faith and religion are the biggest source of violence in history is false
Atheists and secular humanists consistently make the claim that religion is the number-one cause of violence and war throughout the history of mankind. For example, Sam Harris says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.”
There’s no denying that campaigns such as the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ War rested on religious ideology. Such events are horrible and should have never occurred.
That said, it is simply incorrect to assert that religion has been the primary cause of war.
An interesting source of truth on the matter is Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Of those wars, the authors categorize 123 as being religious in nature, an astonishingly low 6.98 percent of all wars. When one subtracts wars waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage falls to 3.23 percent.
That means that all faiths combined – minus Islam – have caused less than 4% of all of humanity’s wars and violent conflicts
Discussion Question 1 : When one subtracts wars waged in the name of Islam (66), the percentage falls to 3.23 percent. Does it surprise you to see that 97% of history’s wars and conflicts have not involved religion ?
Premise 2 : Non-religious motivations and naturalistic philosophies bear the blame for nearly all of humankind’s wars
The number of lives lost during true religious conflicts does not compare to the number lost during atheistic regimes – a fact showcased in R. J. Rummel’s work Lethal Politics and Death by Government:
| Non-Religious Dictator | Lives Lost |
| Joseph Stalin | 42,672,000 (ca. 43 million) |
| Mao Zedong | 37,828,000 (ca. 38 million) |
| Adolf Hitler | 20,946,000 (ca. 21 million) |
| Chaing Kai-shek | 10,214,000 (ca. 10 million) |
| Vladimir Lenin | 4,017,000 (ca. 4 million) |
| Hideki Tojo | 3,990,000 (ca. 4 million) |
| Pol Pot | 2,397,000 (ca. 2.5 million) |
Most of the regimes listed above held to Marxist, neo-evolutionary philosophies and the Darwin’s doctrine of survival of the fittest was not only embraced scientifically but heavily influenced geo-political doctrine.
No one demonstrated the deadly character of this evolutionary idea better than Adolf Hitler. And he was followed up by Joseph Stalin and all of those who massacred masses of people, millions of people, and committed genocide. At the bottom, at the base of their belief system and philosophy, was evolution.
Mein Kampf, My Struggle, was basically Hitler’s evolutionary theory working its way out politically, and was the justification for the destruction of the masses who threatened the continued evolution of the super race.
Evolution is the survival of the fittest, for Hitler and the other listed leaders military, political, and social dominance is this theory being played out politically.
He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world where permanent struggle is the law of life has not the right to exist. I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature. Nature likes bastards only a little.
And finally he said, “All that is not of pure race in this world is trash”
Adolf Hitler: Mein Kamph
The religion of social Darwinism belongs to the most dangerous elements within the thoughts of the last century. It aids the propagation of ruthless national and racial egoism by establishing it as a moral norm. If Hitler believed in anything at all, then it was in the laws of evolution which justified and sanctified his actions and especially his cruelties
Erich Fromm : Sociologist, Psychoanlyst, Philosopher
Almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed or killed in any other of a myriad of ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.
R.J. Rummel: Lethal Politics and Death by Government
Discussion Question 2 : All seven of the political leaders in the chart were either atheist, secularist, and or believed in Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Doesn’t history show that atheism and secularism has played a dominant role in the world’s biggest conflicts?
Premise 3 : The sinful human condition is the number-one cause of war and violence
The historical evidence is quite clear: religion is not the primary cause of war.
If religion can’t be blamed for most wars and violence, then what is the cause?
Jesus said in Mark 7:21-23 that the principal trigger is the same thing that produces crime, cruelty, loss of life, and other such things:
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person”
Mark 7:21-23
The problem, according to Jesus, is the sinful human heart.
Most of the worl’ds most notorious conflicts were due to national or ethnic pride, envy or coveting another nation’s resources.
In the book of James greed and desire more often or not are the roots of that sin:
Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?
James 4:1
Jesus mentioned foolishness, wickedness… many wars have been started or waged for no other reason than the foolish, egotistical, wickedly bent personality of it’s leader.
Discussion Question 3 : When looking at the chart with the seven greatest contributors of violence and death in history, is it fair to say the acquistion of power, land, resources, or the hatred of nations, and nationalities has been the primary motive most of history’s violence and wars ?
What are your thoughts regarding the premises and questions presented above?
How has this information impacted your views?
ThinkCubed Truth Veracity Grid :
Have I considered the issue carefully, honestly, and with an open mind ?
Does what I think meet the basic standards of sound logic and avoid contradiction ?
Has what I believe been influenced by personal bias, presuppositions, or my own desires ?
