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As I said read your history...If I'm wrong then history must also be wrong.
There are other options than those two things. Like you don't know everything there is to know about history. (Not that I do either, but still...)
In any event going by BBC's "war audit" the majority of wars they list don't seem to be religiously motivated. The majority in Christian times maybe, but WWII and the Franco-Prussian wars indicate secular nationalism works fine as a war vehicle. On that look at France's Third Republic and Kaiser's Germany, both of which were secular or motivated largely by nationalism. Both did a variety of horrible things in the name of imperialism. The Herero genocide, et alia. Or the War of the Triple Alliance that nearly destroyed Paraguay, all those nations were Catholics and I'm reasonably certain it was about political factions in Uruguay. Then there's the Robespierre, Plutarco Elias Calles, the Cultural Revolution of China, Pol Pot, Francisco Macias Nguema (unless you consider his personality cult a religion), Menghitsu of Ethiopia, and so on.
Or we go to earlier eras. How about the Mongol conquest, the destruction of the Gauls under the Caesars, or the Greco-Persian wars? Oh sure Alexander had himself declared a god by the Egyptian priesthood, and may have seen it as some kind of divine mission, but he wasn't about wiping out heathens in any normal sense. There's also the An-Lushan rebellion of China, which I'm pretty sure was a military upheaval and not a religious war. And if we can go to anything before revolutionary France there's the War of the Austrian Succession, Spanish Succession, Seven Years War, and so forth. Maybe one of those was religious, but I don't recall that as significant.
Sure there have been some horrible religious wars. The Sacred War of ancient Greece, the Yellow Turban rebellion of China, Muslim wars of conquest, the Crusades, the Albigensian Crusade, the Flower Wars of the Aztecs, The French Wars of Religion, Tudor-era uprisings, the Swiss Civil War, The Thirty Years War (Although that had a lot to do with power relations in Europe so Cardinal Richilieu at times supported Protestants), conquistadores in Latin America (to an extent), the Tai'Ping Rebellion, the Mahdist uprising in Sudan, the "Troubles" of Iran, the Sudanese Civil War, the Afghan Civil War, and probably some others.
You total up the death-tolls and tell me which outdoes which, because I admit I haven't looked at everyone in detail.
No, I don't dispute that. The reason the world is so screwed up is because of the influence of believers..That is an indisputable fact.
You don't get it? Geez, I don't know how to make it simpler for you.
Is that the best ya got...Pretty lame, old boy. Not to worry, understanding comes hard to some folks...As science progresses theism declines and atheism increases....There is an old saying "time heals all wounds", and time eventually will heal the wounds religion has inflicted on the world.
I stated OBJECTIVE FACT...you stated OPINION...and a weak one at that.
Oh, and it's not a matter of it being "the best" I got---TRUTH is TRUTH...and REALITY is what REALITY is. It's YOU that is having the hard time understanding.
Atheism, is not now, NEVER was, and NEVER will be, anything to speak of.
Want a FACT that is easy to understand?---Try THAT one!
Science has much better claims than "God did it" ... it is so funny how you describe God and Science as being complete enemies ... the basic belief that God exist follows the logic that God is responsible for everything we humans discover in science which is still infinitely limited relatively to this world's infinite secrets waiting to be unfolded. That claim is illogical and purely biased.
Just as you say that there is no scientific proof that God exists, you should know that there is no scientific proof that he doesn't ... In fact much sciences tend more to the fact of the existance of a creator. If you consider yourselves scientific you must be a little bit less biased emotional and subjective and a little more informed and objective.
@ Mercury Cougar :
Don't be so sure... You are the one behind the times ... update yourself. Wish true open minded scientists would get into these arguments sometimes.
@Asheville Native:
Oh and by saying that superstition and ignorance created God you are proving your ignorance when it comes to science. Regardless of whether truth does or does not lie within religion. Religion has been a basic ground for humanity since the beginning of time and Phylosophy and sciences evolved and rose in origin from religion (example Alchemy, medicine, physics, astrology ... etc) You are also totally ignoring the sociological historical cultural moral etc role of religion in our world. And that is PURRELY a scientific point of view for someone who arrogantly claims to know scientific truth. Nonesence.
Oh, I can answer that. Scientifically speaking, there is no reason to remove them, except in very rare instances. The Abrahamic religions, however, totally eschew science in favor of superstition and ignorance by mutilating their children.
Science has much better claims than "God did it" ... it is so funny how you describe God and Science as being complete enemies ... the basic belief that God exist follows the logic that God is responsible for everything we humans discover in science which is still infinitely limited relatively to this world's infinite secrets waiting to be unfolded. That claim is illogical and purely biased.
Just as you say that there is no scientific proof that God exists, you should know that there is no scientific proof that he doesn't ... In fact much sciences tend more to the fact of the existance of a creator. If you consider yourselves scientific you must be a little bit less biased emotional and subjective and a little more informed and objective.
@ Mercury Cougar :
Don't be so sure... You are the one behind the times ... update yourself. Wish true open minded scientists would get into these arguments sometimes.
@Asheville Native:
Oh and by saying that superstition and ignorance created God you are proving your ignorance when it comes to science. Regardless of whether truth does or does not lie within religion. Religion has been a basic ground for humanity since the beginning of time and Phylosophy and sciences evolved and rose in origin from religion (example Alchemy, medicine, physics, astrology ... etc) You are also totally ignoring the sociological historical cultural moral etc role of religion in our world. And that is PURRELY a scientific point of view for someone who arrogantly claims to know scientific truth. Nonesence.
Wow, what a load of crap; that's like saying oranges are the enemy of apples.
Science is not your god's "enemy". Science is only concerned with facts, reason, evidence, logic, etc, and thus your god doesn't even make a blip on the radar in terms of those things. Science is about the real world, what we know about it and what we're trying to learn about it. It's not about some woo-woo feel-good archaic superstitions thought up around the camel-dung campfire by nomadic desert savages. That sort of nonsense is left to religion.
Gahh, there is so much fail in that post that it's impossible to know where to begin unraveling it...it's like a totally gnarled and tangled ball of string, where you pick and pick at it, trying to find something of value to keep, and finally acknowledge that it's worthless and you toss it away in the trash. Well, that's where it's going, because that's where it belongs.
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