[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Chris

Could you cite some examples please, with an indication of the magnitude of suffering caused. If you do, I’ll return the favour with a list of conflicts with no religious motive, and which I’m grimly confident will be longer and bloodier.

I’m sorry but I’m an old lag when it comes to the “religion causes war” fallacy. The truth is, humans cause war, in pursuit of resources and power, using whatever philosophical justification is closest at hand at the time.

Incidentally, ISIS is a zit on the arse of humanity. The suffering they cause is magnified by the fact that it is contemporary. In comparison with almost any other coherent philosophy, past or present, they’re barely out of the nursery.

Bearing in mind that Judaism is 5,000 years old and Christianity is 2,000 years old and that there are different Christian sects, also Islam is younger than Christianity, examples are easy to cite.

The Crusades; the English Reformation; the Balkans ethnic cleansing, Shia vs Sunni, Northern Ireland. It's all politically driven - power.

Yes - humans cause war; but in the name of religion is well documented. Scrap religion and we can tackle other cause of war. Of course we're not going to be able to scrap religion and I predict that in 90 years, we'll all be facing east.