Religion was a mistake.

Religon: the service and worship of God (Merriam-Webster) Mistake: to misunderstand the meaning or intention of (Merriam-Webster) As you can see, what I am going to be arguing is that the worship of god was misunderstood, and people used it to make what they are doing okay, no matter what it was. The first example: Religious Wars The Crusades are recognized as the first true ‘religious wars'. They were actually many wars in the crusades. The First Crusade (1095-1099) was officially started by Pope Urban II, in which he promised all those who fought automatic remission of their sins. No where in the bible does it state that if you fought you would be relieved of your sins. What it does teach is that to accept people of different religions, different cultures, and different backgrounds. The result of the first crusade was the deaths of thousands of people, mainly the civilians in the city of Jerusalem that were massacred. They were 17 more crusades, The Second Crusade,The Third Crusade, The Fourth Crusade, The Albigensian Crusade , The Children's Crusade, The Fifth Crusade, The Sixth Crusade, The Seventh Crusade, The Eighth Crusade, The Ninth Crusade, The Northern Crusades (against germany and the Baltic states), The Crusade Against the Tartars, The Crusade in the Balkans, Aragonese Crusade, Alexandrian Crusade, Hussite Crusade, and the Swedish Crusade. Another example of religious war is The French Wars of Religion, a series of wars that took place in the 16th century. The 30 Year War is also a good example of Christian Religious Warfare. In the Islam Religion, Jihad is often repeatedly misunderstood, which to clarify is defined by mujtahids to basically living a good muslim life and spreading the message of Islam, there are extremists who take this and they think they must destroy what the extremists call the ‘infidels' which basically means non believer. Judaism has been forced to repeatedly fight in religious wars by other religions that feel that their holy land belongs to them. Second Example: Religious Persecution Many people have thought throughout history that those who don't believe should be destroyed or converted. Many people not wanting to change from their religion have been then destroyed. A famous example was the Holocaust. Nazism, which was devoted to specifically one type of worship of god, imprisoned many other religions. Most known were the People of the Jewish Faith, over 6 million Jews were killed during the holocaust. Another less known example were the catholics that were arrested and sent to death camps, only a few thousand catholics were killed. The jews have been persecuted for thousands of years for not believing in what other people define as ‘God'. Starting back in ancient Egypt, when the jews were forced into slavery just because of their beliefs. Other famous persecutions of jews was the jewish persecution in the Russian Empire. Jews were repeatedly attacked, and anti-semitism was very strong in the Russian Empire. Many Jews had to immigrate to other countries because anti-jewish feeling was extremely strong. Third Example: Religious Intolerence The other day in teen court, another volunteer started to talk about god, his role on earth, and how non believers would all be sent to hell. The question I have for you is, If I don't believe in what you don't believe in, why do I have to burn in your hell? (Rhetorically) This girl ranted for about 10 minutes on how young kids in india were going to die and burn in hell because they didn't believe in her god. If you look at this, this point is what is the main reason for examples one and two, and is the biggest misunderstanding in religion. God, Allah, all of those preach acceptance and love, yet everyday we hear about all of these daily occurrences. That is why I believe that religion was a mistake, or rather a misunderstanding of religion.