Debate: True or false. Religion never caused any wars, it was only people
Side: True

A religion is a collection of people with the same ideals, a people that follow a set of rules and as I've pointed out rules that have commanded war.The Oxford Dictionary, The Merriam and Collins Dictionary in addition to a plethora of lesser known dictionaries contradict your definition of the word "religion" Perhaps you should look into that because an effective debate cannot be conducted in the absence of consensus on the definition of key terms in the subject matter.noun[mass noun]the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods:ideas about the relationship between science and religion[count noun] a particular system of faith and worship:the world’s great religions[count noun] a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion:consumerism is the new religion Like I said a religion is nothing more than a body of dogmas and beliefs.I have simply pointed out that the bible shows that war was called for.Conceivably neither God nor Joshua would have had cause to wipe out those myriad kings and their armies if those "people,' "individuals" as a group had not sought to wage war against them in the fist place. Therefore it was not for religious purposes that Israel retaliated but for survival purposes. By the same token when a man, who happens to religious, shoots someone who invades his home to protect his wife and child religion is to blame. The idiot invading the man's home is to blame, if you ask me.I have read the bible, and I do know of the context of the verses, the issue is that these situations happened at all, God is all-everything, and his thirst for blood is basically infinite as well, he has called for slaying of first born, genocide, holy war, and a global flood that mindlessly slaughtered millions if not billions of living entities, including again children.Again all out of context. First born i assume refers to the Plagues in Egypt. The only reason that happened is in the defense of an oppressed people. What are you implying that The Israelite should have been left to suffer for another four hundred years. That their God should not have fought for them given that they were unable to do so for themselves. Or have you forgotten that Pharaoh also killed the first born of Israel and not religious purposed but out fear that one day they would be able to rise up against Egypt and defend themselves; all tyrants fear that day. Pharaoh and his people are responsible for what happened; they actively and passively took part in the enslavement and maltreatment of an entire nation. At least where the Bible is concerned I know of no holy war. If you are going to debate this issue you have t at least be able to entertain and not necessarily accept the idea that there is a "GOD." So upon the assumption that God is all knowing and all seeing he knew why he decided to flood the earth. And he knew why he decided to save Noah, his sons and his sons' wives. Now shortly after the flood Noah's son defiled him while he was in a drunken state which we can, i think, agree is a despicable thing to do for which his father cursed him. Again entertaining our hypothesis that there is a God and he is all knowing he must have known that Noah's son would have done what he did yet he saved him. Does that not make you wonder what exactly the other people on the earth were doing. It had to be pretty evil in my opinion. I suppose that is something only somebody with a lot of faith in the God could truly accept; that God is all knowing and all seeing. But if you had the gift or curse of seeing the future would you have Hitler live, or Osama Bin Laden or A man who has raped countless children. Or your child. It's always easier to give the self-righteous answer if no one you care about is in danger.The very fact they are in danger is God's doing and the fact that there is a chosen people is ridiculous. People have free will. They choose to harm others. Ergo they, people are responsible for the raping and murdering and enslavement of multitudes of people not a God that most of them don't believe in but we chose to blame for their actions. Let's let all criminals in the world go on account of the fact that they only hurt or endangered others because God somehow made them do it. I can tell you religion had nothing to do with any of those wars. Hitler was a psych who felt that all men should be of a particular race, Napoleon believed in earning one's place in society versus being allotted one niche in it based on one's lineage, Alexander the Great wanted nothing more than to conquer the world, Iraq supposedly had weapons of mass destruction, People in the U.S wanted independence from Britain, The Civil war was due to the enslavement, rape, and murder of thousands, millions of Africans who were just fed up of being treated as thought they were less than human. Find religion in any of that and you'll be my new hero.P.S. sorry I did't have the time to highlight your points. You did that and it made reading the argument easier for me to read. I need to get my Granddad lunch. :)