Religion and Violence

I was reading a blog that had the following title: “Would Eliminating Religion Mean the End of Fundamentalist Violence?” It can be found at: http://anatheistdefendsreligion.com/blog/blog.html.

I liked the fact that Bruce Sheiman, the author of the abovementioned blog, responded to the question before delving into in the heart of the matter. The answer he provided was, “No.” And he also went as far as to say:

I am not going to deny that religion plays a role in fundamentalist violence. But I am going to argue that religion is just one of many factors contributing to group violence - and is rarely the primary factor. Thus, if we eliminated religion, the number and severity of group conflicts will not appreciably decline.

The question tackled by Bruce can also be paired with the following question: “Can religion really lead to the end of humanity?”

I don’t believe that religion has been the cause of violence in human history. Neither do I think that religion can lead to the end of humanity. It is rather people who abuse of religion who are the causes of violence and the ambassadors of destruction.

By the same token, can either science or technology be the cause of violence in today’s world? I don’t think so. I believe it is people who abuse of science and technology, those who use science and technology as means to satisfy their greed or create chaos, who are causes of violence in the world.

So in short, religion is not a problem. Neither is it a source of violence and conflict. Corrupt people are.