Is Religion Always About War and Conflict?

Cartoon by Don Addis

I met a man on the street today. He was a little confused, to say the least, but he posed a very good question. He said, and I paraphrase, "When it comes to religion I'm a 'virgin'; I don't know anything. Tell me, why are religions always fighting?"

What a wonderful question! Indeed, it seems that all too often people of one religion or another are spouting platitudes and shaking angry fists, if not accomplishing some greater violence. Is religion truly about hate and anger?

When hearing generalizations about religion I often turn to science. Probably not, however, in the
way you might be thinking just now. And here is what I mean. If we applied the same logic but substituted 'science' for 'religion,' would the argument still hold? In this case, why are the constituents of scientific advancement or scientists always fighting? Is science really about hate and anger?

Obviously, science isn't about hate or anger, but about discovery and learning what was unknown. Often scientific discovery happens through debate. And sometimes those debates are very heated when one has invested so much into an idea or theory which is being challenged. In some cases, science has indeed been used for the sake of war, the making of weapons, and great atrocities in human history. But I would wager most of us reading this blog on our computers would say that science is not to blame or bad, but rather to purpose it is used.

And so goes my argument for religion. Certainly many despots, villains, and warmongers have used religion to forward their terrible designs. And yet, religion has also been a source of all kinds of saints, holy ones, sages, prophets, and seers who are remarkable forces for good.

The comparison between evil villains and goodly saints will lead us to all sorts of other questions.  "Is good as powerful as evil?" "Are faith and religion the same thing?" "Where does spirituality fit in this conversation?" But these are questions for another post. Suffice it to say, science used for evil does not make science evil. Nor is religion evil for having likewise been abused.

St. James, the brother of Christ Jesus, says in Holy Scripture, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27) And I think this a wise place to begin.