Wars are started by religion.

Hello there,Thanks for starting this debate on the question of whether or not wars are started by religions. I assume that you're not speaking about a war in particular but perhaps all wars in general, as you appeal to several modern wars here.In response to your points I will demonstrate how the following wars were not started by religion.1. Cold War2. World War 23. Yom Kippur War and Six-Day War (the wars between Israel, Egypt and Syria)4. Revolutionary WarArgument 1: The "Cold War"The "Cold War" was not actually a war per say, or at least not in the same manner as these other conflicts you mentioned. The term "Cold War" comes from George Orwell's essay titled, "You and the Atomic Bomb."[1] After the end of WW2, there was the Tehran[2] and Yalta Conference[3], where Allied leaders met to among other things decide what to do with the territories in northern Europe in the aftermath of the war. There then arose differences from Stalin and his Democratic counterparts as to how to distribute the nations.You see it was their political ideologies of Communism and Democracy, both wishing to spread their ideologies to these countries that led to their eventual and sustained disagreement. This then spawned a world wide conflict in places such as China, Korea, Guatemala, Vietnam, Indonesia,[4] etc. where democratic and communist regimes battled each other often with direct support of the Soviet Union and United State.The involvement of religion in starting this war cannot be substantiated.Argument 2: World War 2World War 2 is rather clear in regards to how and why war broke out. Hitler had in 1938 annexed Austria in what as called the Anschluss Österreichs, this was part of Hitler's ambition to create a "greater German Reich."[5] This continued in the annexation of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslavakia in 1938, which allied leaders were compliant with only to avoid war.[6] However, when Germany invaded Poland, this violated the Anglo-Polish military argreement which guaranteed the independence of Poland by Britain and thus compelled the British to declare war on Germany on September 3rd, only three days after the invasion of Poland.[7]This war was started by Hitler's grand scheme for German superiority in the world, and the response of democratic powers to his totalitarian expansionism. Not religion.Argument 3: Yom Kippur War and Six-Day WarThere was much tension since 1948 when Britain grainted the Jewish people a new state of Israel with it's historic borders. However, this created much tension between Israel and it's surrounding Arab nations. These tensions mounted when a series of border clashes caused the Six-Day War of June 1967, which resulted in Israel's capturing Sinai Pennisula.[8] This of course led to the conflict known as the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 when Egypt attacked Israeli-occupied territory.[9] These wars were also like the others before it, fought primarily for land and power, not religious reasons.Argument 4: The Revolutionary WarAfter the end of what we know as being the French and Indian War, Great Britain had been in economic turmoil as it was just barely able to afford the war.[10] With a national debt that had been doubled, they attempted to assert their dominance over the colonies by instating several acts that instituted taxes on the colonies to pay off Britian's debt. This eventually rallied the colonies to create a rebellion militia and after a series of small clashes and incidents, declared independence from it's once sovereign nation.This war had nothing to do with religion as the colonies were not mandated to be apart of the Anglican Church, but rather the war was the result of American colonial opposition to Brittish tyranny via their crushing taxes.Concluding Statements:There is a strong anti-theistic movement in Western cultures at the moment, and often in an attempt to lodge a critique of religion they over step the truth. This is one of those instances, as it is clear from a proper historical outlook (not family guy) that these modern wars are not the result of religious conflicts. Without the presence of religion wars would happen regardless, it just so happens that religious rhetoric has been used as the justification for wars in the past, but this kind of rhetoric is often only used to rally support to their cause and not the actual cause for war.Personally, I believe the culprit is the "us versus them" mentality, that stems from our ancient tribalism. The demonizing of one group, so as to assert their own personal political and social ambitions by removing another group. This kind of anti-theistic rhetoric is ironically just about equivalent to religious rhetoric of the past as a means to justify a conflict. We should as a society do away with polarizing ideologies such as this that inhibit collaboration and compassion, and learn to practice tolerance and honesty with one another.As I fear it may one day be the case, that rhetoric like this could be used to insight a war.Kind Regards,TrueScotsman[1] http://tmh.floonet.net...[2] http://en.wikipedia.org...[3] http://en.wikipedia.org...; [4] http://en.wikipedia.org...;[5] http://en.wikipedia.org...[6] http://en.wikipedia.org...[7] http://en.wikipedia.org...[8] http://en.wikipedia.org...[9] http://en.wikipedia.org...[10] http://en.wikipedia.org...;