Found on the Cheezburger Network

I found this comment randomly on the Internet. It was in a reply to someone stating that most major wars in civilized history were started by religion. I don't agree with everything he/she/it has to say, but I found it worthy enough of reflection that I will post it here for further inspection.

You need to clarify that statement. Wars, yes, I could actually buy that as a legitimate argument. An actual declarations between sovereign nations over economic disputes…yeah, I can see that. I tend to disagree because the exploitation of religion is easy to use as a means to an end of economic gain (such as the claim that slavery was condoned in the Bible -which it is- making the cession from the Union a necessary act to preserve the institution of slave labor, ensuring continued economic prosperity at the expense of human life.)Mass conflicts resulting in violence and bloodshed? Not even close. The Israelis and Palestinians aren’t just “fighting” and “killing” one another because they can’t decide in taxation issues. In Ireland, Catholics and Protestants are bombing one another because they are upset over a new tariff. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the European abuse of natives (multiple continents), the war on terror, slavery, the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, and on and on and on.Maybe it is still for economic gain, and religion is being exploited by those in control for profit, and undermining the true efforts of whatever faith is actually being discussed, but it can not be denied or ignored that the bulk of human suffering and misery, now and throughout history, can be traced to, at the very least, the perversion of some religion, somewhere, in order to justify rather abhorrent and evil acts of atrocity.Find me someone, somewhere, willing to fight, kill and die for something they don’t believe to be right. Then ask that person if their determination of what’s “right” or “wrong,” their own personal morality, doesn’t stem from their faith and their religion. Then put the two together and see just how culpable religion is when it comes to war and fighting.