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Related: About this forumWhats the Main Source of Global Conflict? Survey Says: Religious Beliefs
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-01-23/tribal-divisions-created-by-religion-most-harmful-in-global-conflict-experts-sayhttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/25/whats-the-main-source-of-global-conflict-survey-says-religious-beliefs/
Whats the Main Source of Global Conflict? Survey Says: Religious Beliefs
January 25, 2018 by Hemant Mehta
Would eliminating religion from the world make it a better place? You could argue that one from every possible direction and never settle on a solid answer, but a new survey from U.S. News & World Report says that 30% of people believe religious beliefs are the primary source of global conflict, more than any other option.
The survey included responses from 21,000 people around the world.Spiritual beliefs create an inherent us vs. them scenario, experts say.
When societies shatter, they generally shatter along tribal lines. People are seeing themselves as irretrievably different from their neighbors, says Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and philosopher who has published books on Islam and the conflict between religion and science.
The divisions created by religion are deeper and potentially more harmful than those formed through other aspects of identity such as race, nationality or political affiliations because they confront individuals with differing opinions on the ultimate purpose of life, experts say. And more than 80 percent of those surveyed said that religious beliefs guide a persons behavior.
Religion often becomes the master variable, Harris says. It provides a unique reward structure. If you believe that the thoughts you harbor in this life and the doctrines you adhere to spell the difference between an eternity spent in fire or one spent on the right hand of God, that raises the stakes beyond any other reward structure on earth.
This is why so many atheists fight against religion. Its not because were unpatriotic. Its not because we want to single out religious minorities. Its not because we hate God. Its because religion is both wrong and powerful. It ruins lives. Because so many people take their religious beliefs so seriously, and because they can never be disproven, the only way to resolve certain conflicts is through violence, not reason.
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Whats the Main Source of Global Conflict? Survey Says: Religious Beliefs (Original Post)
NeoGreen
Jan 2018
OP
Voltaire2
(13,061 posts)1. The capitulation of the soviet union required the creation of a new
global threat to the world order. Religious zealots were more than willing to step into the vacuum, and the New Fascists were happy to see them do it.
And now, here we are.
thbobby
(1,474 posts)2. My dog is better than your dog
was a commercial when I was young. Crusades, Protestant Reformation, Hatred of Jewish People, Fear and Hatred of Muslim People, etc. Uncountable combatants and innocents have died over belief MY GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR GOD.
Just my own sense of doom, but we may be living in a Gilded Age. Climate change, overpopulation. Global conflict may soon be about water. Or food. Or disease. Any population that grows without limits will destroy its environment and have a mass die off due to overpopulation.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)3. I am shocked.
Shocked, I tell ya.