Michael Rock is a Deist, a secular humanist, and an undergraduate student of history at Brandeis University with a focus on the social, cultural, and religious history of China, India, and the Middle East. He is also a comedian, musician, and an activist for autism awareness, gay rights, and an end to the War on Drugs
Many secularists oppose or do not practice any organized religion because of the common belief that "religion is the cause of all wars." If one looks at basic global religious history, we can see the horrors of the Christian-rooted inquisitions and global imperialism, Islamic jihads and terrorist attacks, counterproductive Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, Buddhists and Taoists killing each other in ancient China, the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, the torture of Chinese nationals by the Shinto Japanese during World War Two, and the atrocities of the Hindu Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. These examples are just a few of many instances of religiously-motivated violence. There are countless others that seem to further prove that case.
There is, however, a hole in the claim that religion causes war. If religion really is the cause of all wars, why is it that some of the Twentieth Century's greatest monsters, such as Hitler; Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot to name a few, were atheists and/or secular-minded? Similarly, why do some religions, such as Jainism, the Rastafari Movement, the Baha'i Faith, Druze, and the neo-pagan religions, have little-to-no blood on their hands? One theory is that religion in and of itself does not cause violence, but rather the fusion of religion and politics does. A look at the backgrounds of several religious traditions demonstrates this theory in action.
Many individuals have observed that Jesus preached ideas that were much more peaceful than Moses or Mohammad did. Unlike the latter two figures, Jesus's influence was purely spiritual and not political. His message of peace in many ways reflected the general nonviolence of Christians when they lived as a minority in the Roman Empire. It wasn't until the Roman Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the empire's state religion and became a Christian himself that Christianity became a political as well as a religious force. From that point onward, it is easy to find historical accounts of Christians committing acts of violence.
Looking at the Meccan and Medinan verses of the Qur'an also demonstrates the nonviolence of apolitical religion against the violence of theocracy. The fairly non-controversial revelations of the Meccan verses were made when Mohammad was merely a religious rebel in a similar vein to Jesus. The Medinan verses, revealed after the Prophet gained political power, are extremely violent and are used by such figures today as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Ayman al-Zawahiri to justify the need for the whole world to be ruled by draconian sharia law and to subject non-Muslims to the status of second-class citizens at best.
Numerous other faiths have been shown to be very nonviolent when they have been without notions of statehood. From the Second Diaspora until the Zionist dream began to become a clear reality, there are few instances of Jewish violence. Zoroastrians have not been perceived as violent since Islam replaced it as the dominant religion of Persia/Iran, and many people have perceived that the neo-pagan religions, such as Wicca; Santeria; the Goddess Movement; and Voodoo, may have less blood on their hands combined than any other religion. Few adherents of those faiths seem to have a strong desire to let their faith represent a state.
Having spent most of my life in the culturally diverse metropolis of New York City, I have been exposed to more religious traditions and ideas than most people do in a lifetime, and I have found that being around apolitical yet religious men and women, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, or any other such faith, is very comforting, provided they do not impose their views on me or others. However, it always pains me to know that the faiths that the wonderful people that I encounter adhere to also have political adherents that use these faiths to justify violence and hatred of nonbelievers.
(The views expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views of postdogma.com)