Is religion responsible for our wars?

[intaglio]

52. Balfour's declaration is fascinating

To a degree I think it may have drawn inspiration from the misguided attempt of the US to set up a state for free slaves in Liberia and I think it was a similarly wrong headed. Given Balfour's background as a philosopher and a member of the, comparatively, liberal minded Church of England this 1917 declaration was probably intended as a humanitarian solution to the "Jewish Problem" (as it was then perceived). Certainly it was far more humane than the pogroms and genocides that both preceded and followed 1917.

Anti-semitism was rife even in the states that tolerated Jewish inhabitants and resulted in considerable loses in property and production. That said the driving force behind those persecutions was the centuries of anti-Jewish propaganda, issued primarily by religious sources. Given that background allowing Jewish settlers to move en masse to the "empty" lands of Palestine, now outside Turkish control, must have seemed like "a good idea at the time".

Of course this is all begging the original question about religions causing wars but I can be flexible enough to say that from the 19th century, and in what is now the 1st World, religion has be abused by more cynical players to enhance wars - often with the compliance of religious leaders. If you like, I am saying we are both right but we apply different emphasis.