Comments regarding Of Human Behavior

Comments of Jordan Smirl, college student at College of the Ozarks:

I think there’s a flaw in your historical reasoning. You stated that “More people have died over religion than for money or power or anything else.” While I’m not going to defend the actions of many religious groups throughout history, that’s simply an untrue statement. Just look at the numbers. In World War II, 73 million civilians and soldiers lost their lives, plus another 11 million taken in the Holocaust. That’s a total of 84 million people dead because of political ideologies. That’s the equivalent of the First Crusade being fought 2,100 times over–and that’s with a high estimate of total deaths. Even though there have been numerous religious wars and uprisings in history, they have never come close to matching the scale of modern wars driven by power politics.

To be fair though, I think you’re making a good point. Human life is far too often devalued by extremists in different religious groups, and by governments that just see them as numbers on a page. I believe that the issues each human deals with are the same ones people have dealt with from the beginning of humanity. The only thing that has changed is our access to exponentially growing technology, and in regard to human aggression, that’s only brought more deaths to mankind. Whether or not humanity can change, I’m not sure. But it’s important for all of us to fight the daily battle of containing our aggression, pride and greed for the sake of those around us.

Comments of the author:

Thanks Jordan, for your insightful comments. These articles are meant to invoke thought and promote positive conversation regarding the challenges of the human condition, human behavior, and the benefits of good leadership, which we sadly seem to lack. You are probably correct about the number of lives lost due to religious conflicts, as well as for various other sad reasons, however, the numbers cannot be tallied from previous centuries when many of the crusades, wars, and battles were provoked and fought by religious organizations such as those of the Catholic popes who had their own armies.

As another consideration, WWII could be construed by some as religious rather than political, particularly that part of the war that occurred in Europe, since one of Hitler’s primary objectives and obsessions was the murder all Jewish people, and, of course, Judaism is not a nationality or a political organization, it is a religion.

Nevertheless, the numbers are pathetic from all causes, which is my primary point.

I am sure that religion has a very positive effect on human behavior when it comes to the Christian faith today, but not at all positive with some of the other religious beliefs, such as is overwhelmingly exemplified each and every day and has been a dominate source of massive, unnecessary pain, suffering, and death for the last decade and longer, with no apparent end in sight.

 

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