Quote:
Originally Posted by Langrenus
He also overlooks the fact that religion is ultimately a convenient excuse for conflict rather than the actual reason in many cases. Who's to say how the Israel/Palestine question might have been resolved without the pressures of religion, but I personally find it likely that military, economic, social and ethno-cultural imbalances would somehow continue to cause enormous problems. Of course, suicide bombings would probably not occur - but perhaps higher-level conflict (and let's remember that Israel is a nuclear power) would.
|
Certainly there are cases where this is true, but not in all. Generalizing one way doesn't validate a generalization opposite.
However, this is essentially irrelevent; whether or not religion is the cause or merely an excuse, it still enables social disasters to a disturbing degree. Were the 'excuse' of religion stripped away, a lot of bad behaviour - both as a direct result of it and indirectly through cultural concessions - would cease to have a justified/rational basis.
It's speculation whether or not we'd be better off for it; I suspect we would, given the relative freedom enjoyed in secular countries. However, it's possible societies would find other ways to justify their shit, as we can see in our own.