Kill in the name of God

Hi Stevey M,
You're an aetheist. That's fine. But religion, as I define it does not have to be about God.(Religion comes from the Latin root of Ligum.. to bind) It is about 'belief systems'. By that logic, communism is a religion. Haven't we seen conflicts there? ( By the way communists, at least on paper, are aetheists too).
Now the questions:

Q 1.Is religion responsible for war?
A. Mainly, it has been about control of territory and in many instances, for power over others, ultimately for material gain (while externally couched in the double speak of morality). Religion has been the excuse to gather people, bind them together, for the 'cause'. One of the examples is the entire history of colonialism.

Q2.Is the (current)war on terrorism actually a war between differing religious Ideologies?
A. Mostly, it is about the politics of Oil and superpower policing in third countries, with repressive governments.


Q3.Is religion worth the suffering it causes in places such as Israil/palastine or ireland?
A. Organized religion is only about 'human organization' to meet human objectives. In Israel/Palestine/Ireland, it is not the spiritual aspects of religion that are causing the suffering.

Q4. is money the new religion, with the stock market as god and the banks as the church?
A. You could say that within the spirit of the definition in (1). Perhaps "capitalism" is a religion, just like "communism" is one.


...However, once it gets into the hands of structured religion, the teachings are twisted to suit the desires of whoever is attempting to control the peoples beliefs.

A. Exactly. Bull's eye.

.....for instance, God never actually told Irish catholics and protestants to kill each other. the men in charge were responsible for that, and used religion to recruit those people that politics couldn't.

A Bull's eye again.

.....it is interesting to note that, despite what Osama Bin Laden may want to think, Christanity and Islam aren't all that different anyway.
For instance, Jesus Christ is named as a Muslim Prophet in the Quran.

A. The semetic religions are from the same place in Asia, and grew out of each other for historical reasons. The Jewish Tora is the Old testament of Christianity. Abraham and Moses are Ibrahim and Musa in Islam. In Islam, Jesus is considered a 'prophet' and Muhammad is considered the "last and final' prophet within that tradition.