Religion: force for peace

I will try to answer your points in the order you have put them. Firstly, Muslims and Christians had lived in peace before the time of these crusades. Christians would pilgrimage to the holy land and would be welcome by the Muslims as they where good for the economy. Before the time of the crusades, a tyrannical Muslim leader came to power and began killing pilgrims. He then banned Christians from pilgrimage to their holy land. This is what triggered the crusades. It was not necessarily the difference of religion, as this issue was present in the years before. Any historic scholar will acknowledge that religious differences were not the main, or not the only, factor in the crusades. Evidence from, Crash Course-World history. Terrorism, or specifically modern muslim terrorism, has in my opinion been the result of a rejection of the western world. They use their religion as an identity and a banner, it is difficult to determine to what extent the religion alone causes this behaviour. There are many Muslims who don't engage in terrorist actions which indicates there are other factors. For example, a lot of what the extremists hate about western culture is in my opinion valid. For example their grievances the way women are portrayed (though their version is worse). So, I would say that a bad way of living in the western world and grievances felt from war, are the main factors in this phenomena. Even though the extremists may not believe it themselves, for religious people have a habit of using their religion to justify any of their beliefs. Though I agree that perhaps if they weren't religious, they may not be so self righteous and bigoted. And may just protest, though protesters can be violent also. I do not argue that religion only brings peace and never plays a part in conflict, I just believe as a whole it is a peacemaker. Witch hunts where an example of religiously fuelled violence. Though I would not argue that all the witches where 'innocent' of being a witch, as many believed themselves to be so. But I don't recall ever hearing that a witch exists in the bible, nor does it condone killing them (to the best of my knowledge). 'Witches' go back a long time, they are the result of superstition, but are not a just theory to the people of that time. People created witches as a way of explaining the unexplained, it made perfect sense to them, it is not a religious belief it is a superstition and a paranoia. It is hard to make statements, as we both have done, speaking about religion as a seperate force acting upon humans. But we mustn't forget that, should religion be false, it is part of who we are. Not one society is non-religious until the 20th century, and these are societies that have already reached the modern world and evolved equality. Also the officially non-religious societies are some of the worst to have inhabited this earth. All with godlike dictators. It seems to me that religion is not just a choice or an idea, its an integral part of being human. It seems that although our religion can cause friction with other religions, without it our own society would destroy itself. It would do this by extreme dictatorship, as there is no power above him and no church to guide him morally. Now, I do not believe this would happen in a modern democratic society, but we are just the tip of the iceburg of the human story. So how does religion promote peace? Kings relationship with the pope was that of a boy with his father, other kings being his brothers. He could plead that he has been a victim of his brothers and thus be helped, he could claim that he was in trouble and he would be helped, and the pope would demand kings to stop atrocities and war with their brothers. In the medievil world, there was only power and death. Surfs could be disembowelled to keep the barons feet warm, and all peasant girls would have to sleep with the Lord before their wedding night (in alot of places). These are not times like now, where atheist argue that 'we don't need religion for morals!' The 'rights' that we know today, and take for granted, are the result of a long battle, and should we have had no overlord demanding love, nor a sacred text saying things like 'turn the other cheek' and 'love thy enemy', I do not believe that things would have got better. I don't think that its impossible that without religion, the world would be divided into two classes, the workers and the gods. In this world where power equals: do what you want. And life equals: whatever the closest more powerful person wants to do with you. There is no moral limit to the powerful people, religion reminds kings that they will go to hell if they are wicked. Imagine you are a peasant girl and you have been abused and had your baby killed for sport and fun by your 'landlord'. You have no power, no justice, nothing. you must simply continue to work and be abused when he felt like it. There is none telling that man off for everything he has done. Would you be opposed to that man having a fear of being sent to hell for his deeds? Without that would you feel even more helpless and forgotten? Could a modern, free world develop without the fear of god? Why would anyone give up their power freely? What point would their be in being good in such a cruel, dog-eat-dog world?