Religion Is Not the Source of World Conflicts

It is a strong belief of mine that religion is not the source of the conflicts we see in the world; people are. And I really hope that more people will embrace this understanding so as to give to religion the consideration it deserves.

Although the representatives of all the major religions are involved in a war or two, none of these religions teaches violence as the solution to disagreement or death of innocents as an answer to injustice. Any use of force as a solution is not a precept of any major religion but an expression of a serious misunderstanding on the part of believers. This is true for all of these major religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

How many believers does each of these major religions have? What fraction of these believers promotes the unthinkable? How can it be concluded that religion rather than people is the source of world conflict when it is only the minority of believers that spread terror? Why are people so keen to sullying the reputation of religion? Who benefits when religion is demonized? Shouldn’t the majority of believers be conflict lovers if religion was the source of world conflicts? Think about it.